The Permanent Forum reiterates the recommendations made in paragraphs 80 and 81 of the report on its eleventh session (E/2012/43-E.C19/2012/13) and invites the indigenous peoples’ caucus and the Indigenous Global Coordinating Group to ensure the equal and inclusive participation of indigenous women, older persons, young people and persons with disabilities in the World Conference and its preparatory processes.
States should recognize indigenous peoples’ rights to forests and should review and amend laws that are not consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other international standards on indigenous peoples’ land and natural resource rights, including over forests. This includes indigenous peoples’ customary law on land and resource rights and the right to be fully involved in decision-making processes.
Indigenous peoples have a profound relationship with their environment. This includes their distinct rights to water. The Permanent Forum urges States to guarantee those rights, including the right to access to safe, clean, accessible and affordable water for personal, domestic and community use. Water should be treated as a social and cultural good, and not primarily as an economic good. The manner in which the right to water is realized must be sustainable for present and future generations. Moreover, indigenous peoples’ access to water resources on their ancestral lands must be protected from encroachment and pollution. Indigenous peoples must have the resources to design, deliver and control their access to water.
The Permanent Forum calls on the European Commission, United Nations agencies, the World Bank Group, the Asian Development Bank, bilateral development agencies, export credit agencies and international and regional financial institutions, such as the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, to review, strengthen and implement their policies with regard to indigenous peoples in general, and indigenous peoples in Asia in particular, and to use the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,1 as a framework for reference.
The Forum recommends that all United Nations environmental bodies, in particular the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, UNEP, GEF, the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme, make the necessary efforts to mobilize resources for projects by indigenous peoples, and provide financial support to strengthen the international indigenous peoples Forum on biodiversity and the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
With regard to paragraph 139 of the report of the Permanent Forum on its sixth session, the Forum calls upon Governments, indigenous peoples organizations, regional administrations and local self-governance organs of the countries of the Arctic region to take an active part in the discussion on the Arctic region at the eighth session of the Forum. The Forum urges the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations to give special consideration to applications from indigenous participants from the Arctic region.
The United Nations system and other intergovernmental organizations and donor agencies should implement, at the country level, existing policies on indigenous peoples or develop such policies if they do not exist, and should strengthen the capacity of institutions to implement such policies and programs in an effective and sustainable manner
The Permanent Forum urges the Human Rights Council expert mechanism on indigenous peoples to evaluate whether existing and proposed climate change policies and projects adhere to the standards set by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. These bodies, together with the members of the Inter-Agency Support Group for Indigenous Issues, should collaborate with States, multilateral bodies, donors and indigenous peoples to effectively ensure that the implementation of the Declaration is central to the design and implementation of climate change policies and programmes.
The Forum takes note with satisfaction of the enhanced contributions of the United Nations system in its work, and recommends that the United Nations system, Governments, indigenous and other organizations further assist in the implementation and monitoring of the Forum’s recommendations and report to the Forum at its annual sessions. The Forum notes with appreciation the database of recommendations and their implementation status, as well as indicative time frames prepared by its secretariat, and recommends that the secretariat further develop this as a useful tool.
The Permanent Forum recalls the request it made at its fifteenth session (E/2016/43, para. 47) for UNESCO to host a joint seminar with the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other relevant United Nations mechanisms for the purpose of exploring the development of a new international mechanism on the repatriation of ceremonial objects and human remains. In this regard, the Permanent Forum deeply regrets the absence of UNESCO from the expert group meeting organized by the Expert Mechanism in March 2020 in Vancouver, Canada, to discuss steps for the implementation of such a mechanism. The Permanent Forum recommends the leadership, involvement and cooperation of UNESCO in efforts to implement the recommendations arising from that meeting, as well as the previous recommendation of the Permanent Forum related to the repatriation of ceremonial objects and human remains, including through the creation of an international database and inventory of such items accessible to indigenous peoples as a basis for initiating dialogue. The Permanent Forum wishes to remind UNESCO and other United Nations entities that the repatriation of ceremonial objects and human remains is enshrined in articles 11 and 12 of the Declaration.
The principles of common but differentiated responsibilities, equity, social justice and sustainable development and development with identity should remain the key principles underpinning the negotiations, policies and programmes on climate change. The human rights-based approach to development and the ecosystem approach should guide the design and implementation of local, national, regional and global climate policies and projects. The crucial role of indigenous women and indigenous youth in developing mitigation and adaptation measures should also be ensured.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the President of the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth session convene a two-day interactive thematic event immediately prior to the World Conference, with the participation of Member States and representatives of indigenous peoples, the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, to allocate more time for an interactive dialogue and build commitment from Member States, the United Nations system and other stakeholders, and the Permanent Forum.