The Permanent Forum calls upon Canada to re-examine its support for the Enbridge Line 5 oil pipeline, which jeopardizes the Great Lakes in the United States. The pipeline presents a real and credible threat to the treaty-protected fishing rights of Indigenous Peoples in the United States and Canada. The Permanent Forum recommends that Canada and the United States decommission Line 5.
The Forum recommends that all human rights treaty bodies and other human rights mechanisms of the United Nations and the treaty monitoring mechanisms of ILO pay special attention to the human rights of indigenous peoples, in particular indigenous women, in the discharge of their mandates. The Forum also encourages indigenous women’s organizations and other organizations working in this area to enhance their cooperation and contacts with these mechanisms.
Recalling the study on decolonization of the Pacific region (see E/C.19/2013/12), the Permanent Forum invites the relevant States to provide information on the status of the situation of the indigenous peoples concerned to the Permanent Forum at its sixteenth session.
The Permanent Forum urges States that have not yet done so to ratify the Convention of the Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
The Permanent Forum calls upon States to ensure that racial non discrimination is guaranteed in their constitutions. The term “racial discrimination” means any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin that has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life. The Forum calls upon States to adhere to the peremptory norm and the absolute prohibition against racial discrimination as well as all other forms of discrimination, including gender and age.
The Permanent Forum is concerned about legislative and regulatory processes that criminalize the establishment and management of community radio stations. The Forum encourages States to expressly recognize community media in their domestic law and to adopt effective actions to enforce the right of indigenous peoples and communities to have their own media.
The Permanent Forum recommends that an appropriate form of coordination should be explored between the Committee of Experts and the Forum regarding the implementation of ILO Convention No. 169. The Permanent Forum reiterates the need for a mechanism of coordination to also be established between the ILO supervisory mechanisms and indigenous peoples, which may include the establishment of an ad hoc committee consisting of indigenous representatives or experts.
The Permanent Forum reminds States that the implementation of the United Nations Declaration provides a common framework for reconciliation, justice, healing and peace. Each State has a prime responsibility and duty to protect, promote and implement all human rights, consistent with the Charter of the United Nations and international human rights law. Furthermore, all forms of discrimination must be avoided.
The Permanent Forum appoints Edward John and Dalee Sambo Dorough to conduct a study on how States exploit weak procedural rules in international organizations to devalue the United Nations Declaration and other international human rights law.
The Forum invites the Commission on Human Rights to recommend that the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants and their families incorporate in her report the situation of indigenous migrants, especially indigenous women and children
The Permanent Forum encourages Member States, in particular those in Africa and Asia, to invite the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples to undertake country studies and promote best practices in realizing the rights of indigenous peoples.
Indigenous peoples lack recognition, and face poor implementation of their rights and flagrant violations of their rights and their lands, while the need for their free, prior and informed consent and the right to autonomy of self-government is disregarded by local businesses and transnational corporations in mining, logging, and oil and gas extraction, among other sectors. The territories and resources of indigenous peoples are seized and livelihoods are destroyed to the detriment of their knowledge, cultures and languages. In that respect, it is important to remind Member States of their duty to protect.