The Permanent Forum invites United Nations bodies with expertise on human rights, cultural rights and the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples to provide legal and technical comments on the revised draft protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity on access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilization for transmission to parties to the Convention for consideration in their final negotiations.
The Permanent Forum notes that 2010 is the review year for the Beijing Platform for Action and for the Millennium Development Goals. Fifteen years after Beijing and 10 years after the Millennium Summit, the situations of poverty faced by indigenous peoples, and their lack of access to basic services like health and education, especially among women, remain pervasive. The Forum reiterates and reaffirms the Beijing Declaration of Indigenous Women as a key tool for achieving the Millennium Development Goals with respect to indigenous women and their communities while advancing commitments to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Forum calls on Governments and United Nations agencies to provide space for indigenous peoples, especially indigenous women, in the different processes leading to the review of the Beijing Platform for Action and the review of the Millennium Development Goals to be undertaken at the High-level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly in September 2010.
The Permanent Forum recommends that States, relevant United Nations agencies and other intergovernmental organizations and bilateral donors support strategies for intercultural prevention and eradication of violence against women that are designed and driven by indigenous women’s organizations and that consider indigenous approaches to address gender-based violence.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the decision of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people to monitor violence against indigenous women and girls in Canada, including missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, in accordance with his mandate. Furthermore, the Permanent Forum requests that the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, as well as the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, address the situation of violence against indigenous women in the United States as well.
The Permanent Forum recommends that States, United Nations agencies and other intergovernmental organizations and bilateral donors support the promotion and full and effective participation of indigenous women in decision-making spheres at all levels, including in administration and civil service, government action, government bodies, political parties, the judiciary and trade unions and that leadership and training processes be considered as pillars for such participation.
Given the fact that the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women, as well as other forms of violence, including trafficking and domestic violence, has gained increasing public attention in Canada, the Permanent Forum urges the Government of Canada to provide more emergency shelters serving indigenous women, as well as better victim services, and specific programmes to assist indigenous women who have been trafficked.
The Permanent Forum recommends that States, United Nations agencies, financial institutions and donors promote and support development processes led and carried out by indigenous women’s organizations, in accordance with articles 3 and 32 of the Declaration, for instance, leadership and capacity-building schools and the creation of funds managed by indigenous women.
The Permanent Forum recommends that forests that have been taken by States from indigenous peoples without their free, prior and informed consent in the name of conservation policies be restored immediately.
The Permanent Forum notes with concern the slow progress made in the negotiations on the final protocol on access and benefit-sharing. The Permanent Forum reiterates its requests to the parties to the Convention to take into account the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the negotiation, adoption and implementation of the access and benefit-sharing protocol.
The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues has analysed and discussed indigenous fishing rights in the seas on the basis of a report submitted by the Special Rapporteurs. As a result of those discussions, the Forum considers the protection of the material basis of the culture of indigenous peoples to be a part of international law that should be applied also to fishing rights in the seas, and recommends that States in which indigenous peoples live in coastal areas recognize indigenous peoples’ right to fish in the seas on the basis of historical use and international law. In that context, the Forum notes the ongoing consultations between the Government of Norway and the Sami Parliament and recommends that the Government recognize the right of the coastal Sami to fish in the seas on the basis of historical use and international law.
The Permanent Forum encourages the Government of Paraguay to continue to accept assistance from United Nations agencies and programmes and national cooperation agencies in order to develop policies aimed at the elimination of forced labour and other forms of servitude, especially in matters relating to the most urgent challenges: food, health, housing and education.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Government of Paraguay should remain firm in its commitment to cooperating with indigenous peoples’ organizations in order to find emergency solutions to the extremely serious situation of the indigenous communities that have been wholly dispossessed of their land, and to implement policies to ensure the reconstitution of their territory.