Redefining the Millennium Development Goals provides an opportunity to incorporate into the Goals the concerns of indigenous peoples, particularly indigenous women. The Goals offer a strategic framework within which to fully integrate the goals of the Platform for Action, which provides an important human rights-based approach to the development agenda for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women, including indigenous women.
In the context of the implementation of the Policy on Ethnicity and Health, adopted by the executive committee of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in 2017 (CE160.R11), the Permanent Forum invites PAHO and the World Health Organization (WHO) to collaborate with health institutions and policymakers to address issues related to indigenous maternal health, including the practice of indigenous midwifery. It recommends that PAHO prepare a study on the advancements in indigenous maternal health, including best practices used by indigenous midwives and supportive organizations. The Forum invites PAHO to submit the report by 2020.
The special rapporteurs, as well as other mechanisms relevant to the Commission on Human Rights, are encouraged to study the effects of armed conflict on the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples, especially on women and children.
The Permanent Forum appoints Edward John and Dalee Sambo Dorough to conduct a study on how States exploit weak procedural rules in international organizations to devalue the United Nations Declaration and other international human rights law.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the United States of America grant clemency to Leonard Peltier, who has been imprisoned since 1977 and is now an elderly person.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the collaboration with indigenous parliamentarians during the tenth session of the Forum. It encourages the parliamentarians and other elected indigenous representatives from national, regional and local decision-making bodies to establish an international network or organization in order to share common experiences, including those related to the implementation of the Declaration in legislative and other democratic bodies. It further encourages the Inter-Parliamentary Union to install a liaising body with the indigenous parliamentarians to strengthen awareness of the Declaration. The Forum calls upon indigenous parliamentarians to promote the necessary legislative reforms for implementation of the Declaration.
The Permanent Forum requests Member States to establish specific mechanisms at the national level in order to open and sustain dialogue between indigenous peoples and Governments to review the implementation of the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, the work of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the recommendations of the Forum. The Forum requests United Nations agencies at the national level to facilitate such dialogue and that corresponding national mechanisms be established.
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 urges the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to require States parties to take into account, in their reports to each body, the first article of both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which must be understood pursuant to article 3 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which sets out the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination
The Permanent Forum recommends that, during its June 2010 session, the Committee on the Application of Standards of the International Labour Conference follow up on the serious situations of violations of ILO Convention C169 mentioned in the relevant previous observations of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, as well as its own 2009 conclusions regarding the implementation of the Convention.
Despite this critical role, community-regulated indigenous midwifery is often undermined and actively criminalized, to the detriment of the health of indigenous peoples. To close the gap between indigenous and non -indigenous health outcomes, the practice of indigenous midwifery must be supported by state health policy and integration. The right of indigenous peoples to self-determination extends to their reproductive health, and States should put an end to the criminalization of indigenous midwifery and make the necessary legislative and regu latory amendments to legitimize indigenous midwives who are recognized by their communities as health-care providers. States should also support the education of new traditional indigenous midwives via multiple routes of education, including apprenticeship s and the oral transmission of knowledge.
The Permanent Forum reiterates the importance of the legal recognition of
indigenous peoples within national constitutions. The Permanent Forum takes note of
the position expressed by the Government of Chile on the recognition of indigenous
peoples. The Permanent Forum invites Chile to provide an update on progress at the
twenty-second session of the Permanent Forum, to be held in 2023. Furthermore, the
Permanent Forum supports the call from indigenous peoples of Australia at the
meeting held in Uluru in 2017 for a process on the three core components of the Uluru
Statement from the Heart – “Voice, Treaty and Truth” – and constitutional recognition
of indigenous rights consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples.