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 appoints Mr. Michael Dodson, a member of the Forum, as a special rapporteur to prepare a draft guide, based on the relevant principles contained in the Declaration on the Rights of INdigenous Peoples, taking into account the provisions of ILO Convention 169 that relate to indigenous land tenure and management arrangements, to assist indigenous peoples, States and United Nations agencies in negotiating indigenous land tenure and management arrangements.
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 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 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 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 recommends that States, in consultation with the indigenous peoples concerned, provide financial and technical assistance for indigenous peoples to map the boundaries of their communal lands, finalize legal and policy frameworks for the registration of collective titles, as a matter of urgency, and support indigenous peoples in preparing their claims for collective title.
The Permanent Forum recommends that States take effective measures to halt land alienation in indigenous territories, for example, through a moratorium on the sale and registration of land, including the granting of land and other concessions in areas occupied by indigenous peoples, and also to assist indigenous communities, where appropriate, to register as legal entities.
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.