The Permanent Forum recommends that States include ethnic identification in vital statistics and health records, allocate more funding for intercultural services that ensure indigenous women’s access to quality health care, including emergency obstetric care, voluntary family planning and skilled attendants at delivery, and that the role of traditional midwives be strengthened and extended.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of Saramaka People vs. Suriname (28 November 2007), which aptly applies the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Permanent Forum urges the Working Group of the Organization of American States, which is elaborating the draft American declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, to consider the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as the minimum standard.