The Permanent Forum confirms its commitment to making indigenous children and youth an ongoing part of its work. In so doing, it acknowledges the efforts made by organizations representing indigenous peoples, United Nations bodies and States to address the urgent needs of indigenous children and youth, including in the areas of education, health, culture, extreme poverty, mortality, sexual exploitation, militarization, displacement, removal by missionaries, incarceration and labour, among others.
The Permanent Forum notes the organization of preparatory meetings for indigenous youth for its sixteenth session, including the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus meeting hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The Forum recommends that this practice be scaled up in 2018, with representative participation of indigenous youth through indigenous peoples’ organizations from all regions, and invites FAO to report on progress achieved to the Forum at its seventeenth session.
The Permanent Forum also recommends that WIPO organize a second indigenous expert workshop on intellectual property and genetic resources, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions before 2021
The Permanent Forum decides to appoint Myrna Cunningham and Alvaro Pop to prepare jointly with UNICEF a report on the situation of indigenous children in Latin America and the Caribbean and to present it to the Forum at its eleventh session.
Special emphasis should be placed by States on the involvement of city and local government authorities in engaging and supporting young indigenous people to achieve the Millennium Development Goals at the local level. Priorities for local authorities should include the creation of local youth councils with the participation of indigenous youth in decision-making, the provision of meeting spaces for young people to gather and coordinate projects, develop youth leadership, support for youth artistic and cultural expression, promotion of sport for development and peace and access to information and communication technologies
The Permanent Forum also requests that States and United Nations agencies engaging in those events [see rec.31] ensure strong linkages with the outcome document of the World Conference, with particular consideration of paragraph 33, and indigenous participation.
Calling attention to the high rates of suicide among indigenous youth in some countries, the Permanent Forum reiterates its call for States and relevant national aboriginal health bodies to convene a meeting to assess the root causes of indigenous youth suicide and to formulate preventive strategies. The Forum reiterates its call on UNICEF and WHO to convene a meeting on youth suicide.
Recognizing the progress made, and building on the recommendations made in
its report on its first session, the Forum provides the following advice and recommendations:
(a) Encourages United Nations bodies whose activities have an impact on indigenous children and youth, including, but not limited to, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), and the Department of Public Information of the United Nations Secretariat, to report regularly to the Forum. The reports should contain detailed information on and assess the progress made within programmes directed at, affecting and relating to indigenous adolescents.
(b) Reiterates its recommendation that the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF), as the United Nations nodal agency on children:
Present a comprehensive report to the Forum on an annual basis, including budgetary allocations and an assessment of their impact, including details of all its initiatives undertaken in collaboration with other specialized bodies of the United Nations system relating to indigenous children and those undertaken at the international or regional levels, as well as country initiatives, where applicable; Provide information from the multi-indicator cluster survey being globally undertaken by UNICEF, disaggregating data on the antenatal health, birth, registration, immunization and early childhood development of indigenous children.
The Permanent Forum requests that UNICEF and UNESCO support intercultural and bilingual education programmes in conjunction with the indigenous peoples concerned, paying special attention to the right of girls to primary and secondary education.
Recalling articles 3–4, 8, 18, 25–26 and 32 of the Declaration, the Permanent Forum urges African States to promote, recognize and protect the collective rights of indigenous peoples to their lands, territories and resources through the development of mechanisms to ensure the legal recognition of land and resource rights, the resolution of land disputes, fair and equitable redress, and the creation of permanent dialogue frameworks to facilitate political participation and representation of indigenous peoples in decision-making.
The Permanent Forum reiterates the call, made at its fifth and eleventh sessions, upon United Nations agencies and funds to conduct and support regional and international human rights training programmes aimed at building the capacity and advocacy skills of indigenous youth. The Forum further recommends the use of youth forums, social media and other popular cultural forms of communication to disseminate information and training material on the rights of indigenous youth and to facilitate consultation processes at the national and international levels.
The Forum recommends that the Inter-Agency Support Group discuss how to promote the cross-cutting issue of children and youth.