The Permanent Forum welcomes the study on Indigenous determinants of health in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (E/C.19/2023/5), presented at its twenty-second session. The Permanent Forum calls upon Member States and United Nations entities, particularly WHO, to adopt indigeneity as an overarching determinant of health, including in relation to the relevant Sustainable Development Goals and in policies and practices across the United Nations system.
The Forum requests Governments to prepare reports on their experience and case studies as to how they are addressing indigenous people’s health and the Millennium Development Goals, and to submit their reports to the Forum at its fourth session.
Considering the bloody wars and grave conflicts that have afflicted a range of States in Africa during the last decade, the Permanent Forum recommends that United Nations agencies (IOM, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UNICEF, UNFPA, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), UNDP and WHO) and African States urgently convene a general meeting on health in order to evaluate the negative effects of these conflicts on the health of indigenous peoples and to find appropriate solutions to address the issue.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the World Health Organization, the United Nations Population Fund and other relevant entities coordinate in the formulation of key intercultural standards and indicators of quality of care to be considered in the definition of a future post-2015 goal on universal health coverage that includes the sexual and reproductive health of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum urges Canada and the United States to fund, expand and improve initiatives to end the epidemics that affect Indigenous Peoples, including the alarming rates of HIV, hepatitis C and sexually transmitted infections, especially among women, youth, persons with disabilities, and gender-diverse and two-spirited persons.
To draw more attention to diabetes and other non communicable diseases, the Permanent Forum recommends that WHO, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and Governments develop action plans to improve access by indigenous peoples living with diabetes to health prevention and care of diabetes and
non-communicable diseases. The Forum urges States to establish or reinforce community-based health programmes that empower and educate indigenous women and children to prevent and overcome diabetes and non communicable diseases.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the United Nations Population Fund organize, in coordination with the secretariat of the Forum an international expert workshop on the theme “Indigenous peoples and health, with special emphasis on sexual and reproductive health”, and that a report of the expert workshop be submitted to the Forum at its ninth session, in 2010.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the study presented by UNFPA, in collaboration with CHIRAPAQ (Centro de Culturas Indígenas del Perú), entitled “Progress and challenges regarding the recommendations of the Forum on sexual and reproductive health and rights and gender-based violence”. The Permanent Forum invites UNFPA to make efforts to disseminate the findings of the study at the global, regional and country levels among Member States, United Nations mechanisms and indigenous organizations. The Forum also invites UNFPA to engage in concerted dialogue wit h the nine Member States that were part of the study on next steps to put into action the recommendations of the study, and to report to the Forum at its eighteenth session on progress made.
The Permanent Forum therefore urges the World Health Organization to develop a strategy and programme to tackle self-harm and suicide among indigenous children and young people at the global level. The Forum recommends taking into account the initiatives that are being conducted at the regional level, in particular by the Pan American Health Organization, and using them as a basis for further expansion. As a first step, the Forum suggests that the World Health Organization gather evidence and initiate research on the prevalence of self-harm and suicide among indigenous children and young people at the global level and prepare a compilation of good practices on prevention of self-harm and suicide among indigenous young people, publishing its findings by 1 January 2017.
"The Permanent Forum expresses considerable concern with the disparity
between indigenous and national maternal mortality rates in many countries and encourages Member States to incorporate an intercultural approach to sexual and reproductive health services and promoting the inclusion of indigenous health workers. The Permanent Forum invites Member States to seek the support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and other relevant agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations system in taking forward this recommendation and in strengthening the disaggregation of data by ethnicity, in the area of sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, in the 2020 census round to strengthen the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development."
The Permanent Forum also urges States to fund and deliver training in suicide prevention and mental health awareness to all teaching and non-teaching staff in all schools attended by indigenous children. The development of localized training programmes adapted to each culture consistent with articles 11, 14, 15 and 31 should be encouraged.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) advance data and research on the challenges that indigenous women and girls face in realizing their right to bodily autonomy and the right to be free from violence, including reproductive coercion and in birthing practices. Furthermore, the Permanent Forum invites UNFPA to prepare a study on indigenous women’s bodily autonomy, with the participation of indigenous women, and to present its findings at the twenty-third session of the Permanent Forum, to be held in 2024.