The Permanent Forum reiterates its previous recommendations that address the alarming number of suicides among indigenous youth. The Forum encourages community organization for safe spaces and low-threshold health services, respecting non-discrimination, in particular where discrimination based on ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation is concerned. The United Nations system, in particular the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), should emphasize the provision of mental health services, with particular efforts to address suicide among indigenous youth.
The Permanent Forum recommends that adequate and sustained funding and other support be provided to the aforementioned projects of UNDP and ILO and that they be replicated in different regions of the world.
Businesses, in their human rights due diligence processes, should meaningfully engage with indigenous peoples as rights holders in business decisions and outcomes affecting them. In that regard, free, prior and informed consent should be understood as their right to give or withhold consent.
Furthermore, the Permanent Forum will promote a constructive dialogue with Governments on the achievements, challenges and future action required in relation to indigenous peoples’ issues in each country under the Declaration. Such dialogue will take place periodically and enlist the participation of indigenous organizations and the United Nations system. The discussion will create an enabling environment of cooperation at the national and international levels, aiming at practical results on the ground.
During its tenth session, the Permanent Forum emphasized that redefining the relationship between indigenous peoples and the State as an important way to understand the doctrine of discovery and a way to develop a vision of the future for reconciliation, peace and justice. To that end, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples provides a strong human rights framework and standards for the redress of such false doctrines, notably in articles 3, 28 and 37. The Permanent Forum encourages the conduct of the processes of reconciliation “in accordance with the principles of justice, democracy, and respect for human rights, equality, non-discrimination, good governance and good faith”.
Given the anniversary of such an important milestone for Member States and indigenous peoples, the Permanent Forum encourages those States that have not yet ratified or acceded to the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169) to consider doing so.
The Permanent Forum strongly urges the General Assembly to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.