The Permanent Forum, in accordance with article 26 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (the right to the lands, territories and resources that the indigenous peoples have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired), requests States, United Nations agencies, churches, non-governmental organizations and the private sector to fully respect the property rights of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact in the Amazon and the Paraguayan and Bolivian Chaco.
The Forum recommends that Member States, United Nations bodies and mechanisms, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and other parts of the United Nations system strengthen the machinery to address the urgent, gross and ongoing human rights violations, militarization of indigenous lands and systemic violence committed by Member States against indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum has learned from indigenous peoples’ communications, which have been corroborated by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, that in the Chaco region there are Guaraní communities in a practical state of slavery. According to the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, as well as the articles 17, 26 and 28 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Forum strongly supports the efforts of the current Government of Bolivia and the commitment of the incoming Government of Paraguay to discontinue this enslaving practice and return indigenous lands to their lawful owners, the Guaraní themselves.
The Forum recommends that the United Nations system, particularly the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and UNEP, taking note of the World Bank's extractive industries review, organize a workshop on resource extraction and indigenous peoples to further discuss such issues as corporate accountability and the rehabilitation of mined out areas, polluted water bodies and compensation of adversely affected communities, sustainable development and land rights, with a view to developing a mechanism to address the issues.
The Forum reiterates the recommendations contained in paragraphs 18 and 19 of the report on its first session:
(a) The Forum calls upon States to adopt the draft United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples before the end of the Decade;
(b) The Forum encourages States to include representatives of indigenous peoples’ organizations in their delegations to the informal intersessional meeting on the draft United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples.
In order to protect the human rights of indigenous peoples, the Forum recommends that States create indigenous ombudsmen offices, especially for indigenous women, ensuring the full and effective participation of indigenous women
The Permanent Forum welcomes the study entitled “Free, prior and informed consent: a human rights-based approach” (A/HRC/39/62), prepared by the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It encourages Member States, United Nations entities, including the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Bank, regional development banks, the private sector, civil society organizations and other stakeholders, to use the study as guidance for understanding the principle of free, prior and informed consent when working on issues of concern to indigenous peoples. The Forum also encourages indigenous peoples to use the study to guide the development of their own community protocols on free, prior and informed consent for engaging with these stakeholders.
The Permanent Forum appoints Brian Keane and Elifuraha Laltaika, members of the Forum, to undertake a study to examine conservation and indigenous peoples’ human rights, to be submitted to the Forum at its seventeenth session.
The Permanent Forum urges States to review their policies on biofuel industries, which, in the name of remedying the impacts of climate change, are resulting in the deforestation of large forest areas and the displacement of indigenous peoples. That increases the vulnerability of indigenous communities and in particular of those living in voluntary isolation.
The Permanent Forum recommends that intergovernmental organizations such as the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Secretariat of the Ibero-American Summit, in cooperation with indigenous peoples, establish a working group to promote the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Plan of Action of the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People.
The Permanent Forum strongly urges Member States to uphold the linguistic rights of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the annual report of OHCHR to the Permanent Forum provide a summary of relevant reports, decisions and recommendations of the Human Rights Council, its subsidiary bodies and special procedures, as well as the universal periodic review working group, United Nations treaty bodies and other relevant United Nations reports and conferences.