Noting the widespread malnutrition among indigenous peoples, the Permanent Forum urges the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) to ensure that all interventions by those organizations aimed at reducing this problem in indigenous communities are based on assessments of the structural causes of the problem, including access to land and availability of natural resources. Moreover, methods of interventions should be sensitive to the social fabric and respectful of indigenous peoples’ models of development.
The Forum recommends that WHO, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and the United Nations Population Fund convene a workshop on indigenous health, with the goal of addressing a system-wide strategy to address the health needs of indigenous peoples and setting out the terms of reference for a study on the health needs of indigenous peoples, with particular emphasis on indigenous children and women including infant mortality, reproductive rights, sterilization, domestic abuse and addiction and the collection of data relating to these issues. The Forum recommends that its focal point and a representative of the Indigenous Peoples’ Caucus on Health be invited to attend and be provided the means to participate.
Considering the increasing impact of climate change on the health of indigenous peoples, particularly in terms of increased vulnerability to water-borne and vector-borne disease, the World Health Organization is encouraged to actively engage the Permanent Forum and its secretariat and establish a dialogue with a view to organizing a meeting on this issue in 2009.
The Permanent Forum requests that UNICEF, when completing its strategic policy framework on indigenous peoples, include indigenous youth in the design of the policy. In addition, particular attention is needed to reflect the diversity among indigenous children and to focus on vulnerable groups, such as victims of human trafficking and child pornography, as well as groups facing manifold discrimination based on gender, disability or sexual orientation.
Furthermore, States should strengthen measures, systems and resources to effectively address all forms of violence against indigenous women, such as female genital mutilation; child marriage; sexual abuse; forced labour; modern slavery; domestic, institutional and political violence, including in the context of forced displacement; sexual exploitation; trafficking; armed conflict; and the militarization of indigenous lands and territories.