The Permanent Forum commends States for recognizing the collective rights of indigenous peoples to lands, territories and resources and at the same time urges them to take immediate steps for the implementation of those rights through programmes for mapping, titling or other actions and legislative reforms. The Forum urges States to report to it by its twentieth session on steps taken in that regard.
The Permanent Forum urges States that have not yet done so to ratify Convention No. 169 of the International Labour Organization and to take concrete measures to fully implement the Declaration.
The Permanent Forum expresses thanks to the Government of Canada for hosting its pre-sessional meeting for 2016 and to the Governments of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Canada, China, the Congo, Denmark, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Norway, the Russian Federation, Spain and the United States of America, as well as the Government of Greenland, for having hosted previous
pre-sessional and intersessional meetings of the Forum. The Forum recommends that States that have not yet done so consider hosting such meetings in the future. It also requests that the secretariat of the Forum organize pre-sessional meetings for future sessions of the Forum.
The Permanent Forum appreciates the organization of a seminar on advances and challenges in the implementation of the Declaration, which was held in Mexico City and attended by Indigenous experts from Latin America, and which resulted in a series of recommendations included in the document “Mexico-Tenochtitlán Agreements on the Implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples”. The Forum calls upon the organizers of that seminar to report on progress made with regard to those recommendations in the outcome document of the seminar.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the initiative of Mexico to hold an expert seminar in August 2025 to explore best practices for implementing the Declaration.
A majority of States have yet to grant official recognition to indigenous peoples, let alone their collective rights to lands, territories and resources. The Permanent Forum expresses its grave concern about the non-recognition of indigenous peoples, in particular in Africa and Asia, and recommends that States incorporate the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into national legislation, policies and programmes.
States should operationalize the Declaration by reviewing and reforming internal administrative boundaries that divide Indigenous Peoples’ territories, ensuring respect for their territorial integrity. United Nations entities should integrate Indigenous Peoples’ territorial realities into data systems, peacebuilding, development and humanitarian efforts to avoid reliance on State-centric boundaries that overlook Indigenous geographies.
The Permanent Forum urges the European Union to include the standards of the Declaration within its corporate sustainability due diligence regulations and rules, in particular in the context of implementing the Critical Raw Materials Act on the territories of Indigenous Peoples, both inside and outside the European Union.
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women must guarantee equal access and non-discrimination of Indigenous women in respect of its communications procedure under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. States are encouraged to report annually on their progress in implementing general recommendation No. 39.
Positive developments have been achieved in setting international human rights standards for the rights of indigenous peoples to lands, territories and resources, including by regional human rights mechanisms in Africa and the Americas. The Permanent Forum welcomes those developments, including the recent decision of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in the case of the Ogiek community in Kenya. The Forum encourages indigenous peoples and States to engage further with regional mechanisms and to implement their decisions effectively.
The Permanent Forum urges the United States to fully implement the Declaration by strengthening commitments to Indigenous leadership, including by seating the delegate of the Cherokee Nation in the House of Representatives. It welcomes the adoption of the Declaration by the Pawnee, Ho-Chunk, Yurok and Muscogee (Creek) Nations.
The Permanent Forum invites the Development Coordination Office to include Forum members in its future meetings with resident coordinators for Indigenous Peoples’ issues to be heard and to share experiences on the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples at the national level.
