The Permanent Forum recognizes the urgent need to increase commitment to the health of Indigenous women globally, as their health needs are often underserved and they lack culturally appropriate care, including as a result of the criminalization of traditional childbirth practices. The Forum urges Member States and United Nations entities to collaborate in developing programmes and allocating funds that prioritize the health of, and midwifery services for, Indigenous Women; and in increasing the visibility of the situation with regard to the health of Indigenous women through more disaggregated data. The Forum calls for the revision of discriminatory laws affecting Indigenous women. The Forum invites the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Children’s Fund to partner in identifying and documenting good practices of culturally appropriate health interventions from their work at the country level, including supporting Indigenous women and girls in exercising their sexual and reproductive rights. The Forum requests that the entities compile a comprehensive progress report, to be submitted at the 2025 session of the Forum.
The Permanent Forum recalls the many recommendations that call for statistics on indigenous health. Data collection and disaggregation remain a challenge. In particular, the delivery of health care in rural and remote areas remains a major obstacle to the right to health. In addition, there remains an urgent need for more indigenous health professionals, mental health services and programmes addressing non-communicable diseases and reproductive health. In particular, the Forum reaffirms the recommendation of the eighth session that an expert group meeting on sexual health and reproductive rights be held.
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.
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 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.
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 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 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 reiterates the recommendations on HIV/AIDS made at its second, third and fourth sessions regarding data disaggregation and culturally appropriate HIV/AIDS programmes, and urges Governments, the United Nations system and intergovernmental organizations to ensure the full and effective participation, and free, prior and informed consent, of indigenous peoples in all programmes related to the prevention and treatments of HIV/AIDS in indigenous communities.
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.
The Permanent Forum calls upon Member States to put in place specific plans for improving the health of Indigenous Peoples, including the sexual and reproductive health of Indigenous women, with particular attention to the health of Indigenous two-spirit persons, children and nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples, as well as Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation, in initial contact, in remote areas and in other vulnerable situations. The Permanent Forum also recommends that States provide adequate funding to Indigenous Peoples to support and ensure access to Indigenous health care, education and mental health and well-being resources.