The Permanent Forum recognizes development of renewable energy sources but remains alarmed that irresponsible development related to green technology and the green transition, has led, at times, to violations of Indigenous Peoples’ rights, including mineral extraction and the building of hydroelectric dams and other large-scale infrastructure without the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples. The Permanent Forum recommends that Member States provide the resources necessary to develop and implement Indigenous Peoples’ own free, prior and informed consent protocols in such contexts.
Recalling the special theme of its second session, "Indigenous children and youth", the Permanent Forum confirms its commitment to make indigenous children and youth an ongoing part of its work. In so doing, it acknowledges the efforts made by organizations representing indigenous peoples, United Nations bodies, especially the Committee on the Rights of the Child and States, to address the urgent needs of indigenous children and youth, and encourages partners of the Forum towards further collaboration regarding this crucial cross-cutting issue.
Considering the family separations caused by migration, and the psychological impact on men, children and women left behind, the Permanent Forum recommends that UNICEF:(a)Conduct a comprehensive study on the effects of remittances and the psychosocial and cultural impact of migrations;(b)Promote programmes to ensure continuity between countries of origin and destination in order to ensure continuity in indigenous children’s relationships with their migrant parents and the protection of migrant children;(c)Support programmes for the protection of the rights of men, children and women left behind.
The Permanent Forum encourages UNFPA to organize, in full cooperation with indigenous peoples, a global symposium on indigenous young people and women during the summit to be held Nairobi in November 2019 to advance the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development so that their key concerns are incorporated into the review and appraisal of the Programme of Action
The Permanent Forum urges States to generate statistics disaggregated by ethnicity, gender, indigenous identity, language, language skills and self-identification, and to provide sources of data to allow for a more accurate assessment of whether indigenous children and youth are actually benefiting from the expenditure earmarked for them. The Forum also urges United Nations agencies, funds and programmes to support member States in generating statistics and the United Nations agencies, funds and programmes and academic centres to produce a toolkit that provides a comprehensive and an accurate overview of human development indicators concerning indigenous children and youth.
The Permanent Forum also welcomes the interest of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children in joining the Inter-Agency Support Group and calls upon the Special Representative to work closely with the members of the Forum in preparing a section on the situation of indigenous children in the Special Representative’s annual reports to the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council.
The Forum urges the members of the advisory council for the Voluntary Fund for the Second International Decade of the World's Indigenous People to allocate funds to indigenous youth-initiated projects and activities
The dialogue highlighted the challenges Indigenous Peoples from Africa face in participating in United Nations meetings, including logistical obstacles in obtaining visas and a lack of financial resources. The Permanent Forum invites African States to contribute to the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples and called for common efforts to facilitate visa processes in order to ensure the participation of African Indigenous Peoples, including women and youth.
The Permanent Forum acknowledges the entry into force on 14 April 2014 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure. In this regard, it recommends that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Children’s Fund, other United Nations agencies and States support the dissemination of the guide to this Optional Protocol, including its translation into different languages and the building of capacity among indigenous organizations and institutions to make effective use of the Optional Protocol in promoting and protecting the rights of indigenous children and youth.
The Forum recommends that in staffing the secretariat of the Forum, due consideration be given to qualified indigenous youth applicants.
The Permanent Forum recommends that all States apply the principles of general comment No. 11 (2009) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, entitled “Indigenous children and their rights under the Convention”.
The Permanent Forum recalls that, to ensure effective implementation, the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights must be aligned with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), of ILO, the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean, known as the Escazú Agreement, and the jurisprudence of the human rights treaty bodies. Furthermore, the Permanent Forum recognizes the work of the Human Rights Council to develop an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises. In that respect, the Permanent Forum stresses the need to ensure that the new instrument affirms indigenous peoples’ rights, including with regard to free, prior and informed consent. The Permanent Forum recommends that this instrument explicitly define due diligence processes and their specific methods of implementation. Therefore, the Permanent Forum underlines the importance of full and effective participation by indigenous peoples throughout the development of the instrument.