On the basis of the Permanent Forum’s continued concern about the impact of environmental toxins and the export and import of banned pesticides on the reproductive health of indigenous women and girls, the Forum reaffirms its call, contained in its report on its thirteenth session, for a legal review of the United Nations chemical conventions, in particular the Rotterdam Convention, to ensure that they are in conformity with international human rights standards, including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (E/2014/43-E/C.19/2014/11, para. 16; see also E/C.19/2014/8, para. 62). The Forum recommends that the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in particular article 24, and its recognition of environmental health as a right protected under the Convention also be considered in the legal review. The Forum invites the Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes to carry out a review within his mandated area of expertise and to present his conclusions to the Forum at its seventeenth session.
The Permanent Forum emphasizes that achieving the Sustainable Development Goals is not possible without fulfilling the rights of indigenous peoples to lands, territories and resources. The Forum thus calls upon States to include the recognition of customary rights or tenure of indigenous peoples to their lands and resources under target 3 of Sustainable Development Goal 2, which calls for secure and equal access to land.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the study to examine challenges in the African region to protecting traditional knowledge, genetic resources and folklore prepared by Paul Kanyinke Sena (E/C.19/2014/2), acknowledges the support provided by the WIPO secretariat towards the completion of that study and, in this regard, calls upon the WIPO secretariat to extend its outreach and awareness-raising activities in respect of indigenous peoples, with a particular focus on African indigenous peoples so as to increase their awareness of WIPO processes, and to further develop culturally appropriate training and capacity-building materials for indigenous peoples consistent with article 41 of the Declaration.
The Forum recommends that the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences pay special attention to the impact of violence against indigenous women, including war-related violence and domestic violence.
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 recommends that relevant States, in cooperation with the indigenous peoples concerned, establish indigenous peoples’ centres in urban areas to address their medical needs and provide legal and other forms of assistance.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the importance that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees attaches to the use of indigenous languages when working with indigenous peoples in emergency situations. The Permanent Forum encourages other United Nations agencies, funds and programmes to follow that positive practice. For instance, the Permanent Forum recommends that the World Health Organization (WHO) prioritize indigenous languages as a determinant of health.
The Permanent Forum emphasizes that the recognition, protection and promotion of indigenous peoples’ rights to lands, territories and resources will make a significant contribution to achieving not only Goals 1 and 2, but also all the Sustainable Development Goals. In this regard, the Forum urges Governments to take all measures necessary to protect indigenous peoples’ rights to their territories and resources in the framework of the 2030 Agenda.
The Permanent Forum urges States to address the stark inequality between indigenous and non-indigenous people in all aspects of life, which has been heightened as a result of COVID-19, by implementing in full the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in all their legal norms and public policies related to indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum recommends that Member States, owing to the threat of biopiracy and the pharmaceutical industry, develop legislative measures, with the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples, to protect traditional medicine and knowledge, and to secure the rights of indigenous peoples to intellectual property.
The Permanent Forum recognizes the efforts made by UNFPA, the United Nations Children’s Fund and UN-Women and recommends that they continue to make efforts to implement the recommendation made by the Forum at its fifteenth session to develop a fact sheet on maternal and child health in indigenous communities (E/2016/43-E/C.19/2016/11, para. 38) and present the fact sheet to the Forum by 2018, so as to provide support for target 3.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Permanent Forum is concerned by the killings, violence and harassment targeted at indigenous human rights defenders, which are also frequently committed with impunity. The Permanent Forum is concerned that, despite international condemnation, these criminal acts of violence persist, especially in a small number of countries in South and Central America, Africa and Asia.