The Permanent Forum calls on the chairs of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals to address inequalities through the sustainable development goals, with a special focus on indigenous peoples, in order to uphold human rights for all, eliminate discrimination, reduce inequalities and ensure that no one is left behind.
The Permanent Forum further urges States to improve their collection of data on self-harm and suicide among indigenous children and youth, as well as on violence against indigenous women, boys and girls, to facilitate better understanding of the extent of the problem. States should commit to reducing the incidence of self-harm, violence and suicide among indigenous children and youth through the allocation of adequate resources to holistic prevention and support services, in partnership with indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination elaborate a general comment on discrimination in housing, taking into account the situation of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Working Group on Access and Benefit Sharing of the Convention on Biological Diversity recognize the rights of indigenous peoples over the biological and genetic resources of their own territories.
Those violations also take place in countries that have ratified the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169). The Permanent Forum recommends that countries that have ratified that Convention update their legislation and legal systems to conform with the Convention and its provisions. The Permanent Forum welcomes the landmark ruling in October 2021 by the Supreme Court of Norway protecting Indigenous Peoples from the establishment of a windmill park that would interfere with their traditional reindeer grazing areas. The Permanent Forum urges the Government of Norway to implement the decision of the Supreme Court without delay. It also recommends that Norway urgently address the allegations of increased incidents of hate speech online and offline against the Saami peoples following the Supreme Court ruling.
The Permanent Forum encourages FAO to continue supporting indigenous peoples’ organizations in the field of communication for development. In particular, the Permanent Forum recommends that FAO continue to provide support for indigenous peoples’ communication platforms and their activities in the field of participatory territorial development and community-based adaptation to climate change. The Permanent Forum recommends that other United Nations agencies and donors join FAO in that important task and strengthen the reporting and monitoring mechanisms about indigenous peoples’ right to communication as a condition towards free and informed prior consent and self-determined development.
Building upon the study prepared by members of the Permanent Forum on the situation of indigenous persons with disabilities, with a particular focus on challenges faced with respect to the full enjoyment of human rights and inclusion in development (see E/C.19/2013/6), and in the light of the call in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to “leave no one behind”, the Forum is concerned that the experiences and rights of indigenous persons with disabilities require further study and examination. In that regard, the Forum calls upon the secretariat of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as the focal point within the United Nations system on matters relating to disability, to conduct a qualitative study with regard to indigenous persons with disabilities, in all seven regions of the world.
The Permanent Forum takes note of the upcoming World Congress of Protected Areas, to be held in Barcelona in October 2008. The Forum reiterates its recommendation to the 2003 World Congress of Protected Areas. The Forum requests that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples be duly considered in the deliberations and results of the World Congress on Protected Areas, and that its participating organizations address the issues of restitution and free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples for conservation activities affecting indigenous lands and territories, sacred sites and indigenous peoples’ conservation activities.
The Permanent Forum reiterates the need for States to address the impact of militarization, including suppressing constitutional guarantees, appropriation of land, forcible occupation and displacement, on the land, territorial and other collective rights of indigenous peoples, perpetrated by security forces, including the military, militias and other armed groups.
The Permanent Forum calls upon United Nations agencies, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, other multilateral financial institutions and bilateral donors to establish clear policy commitments to protect the ancestral lands of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum notes that the Greenland-Danish Self-Government Commission submitted its report on self-government on 6 May 2008. The main task of the Commission has been to submit draft legislation regarding a self-government arrangement for Greenland. A referendum was held in Greenland on 25 November 2008 concerning the act and the process leading up to its entry into force. The Permanent Forum welcomes the successful passage of the act through the Danish Parliament on 19 May 2009.
The Permanent Forum expresses its solidarity with the families of 43 trainee teachers of Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, Mexico, who have been missing since 26 September 2014, and supports their efforts to seek justice. The Forum also welcomes and acknowledges the steps taken thus far by the Government of Mexico to resolve this disappearance, and encourages the Government to continue its efforts in collaboration with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and in close consultation with the relevant indigenous peoples and families.