According to articles 25 to 36 of the Declaration, States shall uphold the right to the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples and avoid, minimize and adjudicate disputes concerning land, territory or resources arising from extractive industries, large-scale water, energy and infrastructure projects, and agricultural investments.
The Forum calls on all relevant United Nations system and other intergovernmental entities to pay special attention to the human rights and concerns of indigenous peoples, in particular indigenous women, when designing, implementing and evaluating their policies and programmes, and to promote the meaningful participation of indigenous women. In particular, the relation of indigenous women’s issues to the design, implementation and evaluation of programmes, in the context of the 10-year review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action on Human Rights and the United Nations Millennium Declaration, needs to be addressed.
The Permanent Forum recognizes that it is important that the Human Rights Council continues to effectively address indigenous peoples’ issues as human rights issues. The Permanent Forum decides to appoint Ms. Ida Nicolaisen and Mr. Wilton Littlechild to undertake a study on the structures, procedures and mechanisms that presently exist and that might be established to effectively address the human rights situation of indigenous peoples, to arrange for indigenous representation and inclusion in such structures, procedures and mechanisms and to submit a report on the subject to the Permanent Forum by 31 December 2007.
Furthermore, States should strengthen measures, systems and resources to effectively address all forms of violence against indigenous women, such as female genital mutilation; child marriage; sexual abuse; forced labour; modern slavery; domestic, institutional and political violence, including in the context of forced displacement; sexual exploitation; trafficking; armed conflict; and the militarization of indigenous lands and territories.
The Forum recommends that all States install gender-sensitive action plans and independent self-reporting mechanisms that give particular attention to indigenous peoples, with the aim of protecting victims, prosecuting perpetrators and preventing human trafficking and related serious exploitation in all its forms, in accordance with the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime; the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, both supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime; and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The Permanent Forum recommends that corporations, regulating bodies and certification bodies incorporate the rights of indigenous peoples in their quality standards, operating plans, business plans and investment plans.
In order to fully address the fact that indigenous peoples lag behind in terms of the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals, it will be necessary for UNDP to strengthen its policies to integrate human rights and indigenous peoples’ issues into all projects that affect indigenous peoples, in particular with regard to strategies and tools aimed at achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
In reference to the study by Mr. John and Ms. Dorough 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 all funds, programmes and specialized agencies of the United Nations system and other intergovernmental forums begin to reform their respective procedural rules, with the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples, with the aim of ensuring compliance and consistency with the human rights affirmed in the Declaration.
As a result of the dialogue between the expert members of the Permanent Forum and Member States, the Forum recommends that all Member States:
(a) Prepare, for the Forum at its sixteenth session, reports on the implementation of the United Nations Declaration in their countries, with a focus on progress and outstanding issues, in particular in relation to legislative measures;
(b) In recognition of the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Declaration, organize activities to commemorate the adoption at various levels, from local to national, including to raise public awareness of the Declaration and the progress achieved.
The Permanent Forum recommends that adequate and sustained funding and other support be provided to the aforementioned projects of UNDP and ILO and that they be replicated in different regions of the world.
The Permanent Forum recommends to Member States that the development agenda beyond 2015 adopt a human rights-based approach to development that takes into account issues of equity and sustainability and that incorporates an indigenous holistic concept of development with culture and identity. The Forum also recommends that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples constitute the normative framework of this work.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Organization of American States establish a consultation mechanism, composed of experts from indigenous peoples, as part of the effort to ensure national implementation of the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169).