Calling attention to the high rates of suicide among indigenous youth in some countries, the Permanent Forum reiterates its call for States and relevant national aboriginal health bodies to convene a meeting to assess the root causes of indigenous youth suicide and to formulate preventive strategies. The Forum reiterates its call on UNICEF and WHO to convene a meeting on youth suicide.
Given the rapid increase in diabetes among indigenous peoples, the Permanent Forum calls upon WHO to undertake a pilot study to assess its prevalence among selected indigenous peoples worldwide in the seven indigenous geo-cultural regions.
The Permanent Forum notes with concern that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased sexual and reproductive health challenges worldwide and stresses that there is a need for Governments to implement the commitments they made during the summit held in Nairobi in 2019 to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of on the International Conference on Population and Development.
The Forum reiterates the recommendations made in its report on its first session and:
(a) Urges the World Health Organization (WHO), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and all United Nations bodies and agencies involved in programmes relating to health to incorporate indigenous healers and cultural perspectives on health and illness into their policies, guidelines and programmes, and to undertake regional consultations with indigenous peoples on these issues, in order to mainstream indigenous health issues into the United Nations system;
(b) Urges the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to undertake a study on the relationship between food security, subsistence agricultural practices and indigenous health and illness.