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Addressee: Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples
Paragraph Number: 26
Session: 20 (2021)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum recalls its invitation to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to initiate a general comment on the collective rights of indigenous peoples to lands, territories and natural resources. The Forum welcomes the decision of the Committee to draft a general comment on land and economic, social and cultural rights. However, the Forum expresses its concern about the limited participation of indigenous peoples in the drafting of the general comment and invites the Committee to consider facilitating the participation of indigenous peoples. The Forum also invites the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples to provide support in this regard.
Area of Work: Human rights, Economic and Social Development
Paragraph Number: 24
Session: 20 (2021)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum is concerned by the high number of indigenous children being removed from their families and placed into public social care, in particular in developed countries. In this regard, the Forum noted with satisfaction the Expert Mechanism’s engagement on the rights of the indigenous children. The report of the Expert Mechanism on the indigenous child will be discussed at its forthcoming session, in July 2021.
Area of Work: Methods of Work
Addressee: Member States, UN entities
Paragraph Number: 12
Session: 20 (2021)
Full Text:
The global engagement of indigenous peoples at the international level has led to some positive institutional developments, including the establishment of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples can play an important role in the fight against climate change. Member States and United Nations entities should ensure that any activities related to the use of the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples respect indigenous peoples’ own protocols and consent agreements for managing access to their traditional knowledge. Strengthening and ensuring the full participation of indigenous peoples at all levels is also critical for the design and implementation of climate policies, plans, programmes and projects at the local, national and global levels.
Area of Work: Environment, Culture, Methods of Work
Paragraph Number: 70
Session: 20 (2021)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum welcomes the endorsement by the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination in November 2020 of a call to action to revitalize the system-wide action plan on the rights of indigenous peoples, as set out in the report entitled “Building an inclusive, sustainable and resilient future with indigenous peoples: a call to action”. In the report, the Chief Executives Board called for ensuring the more systematic participation of indigenous peoples in United Nations country processes, such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks, and in the implementation of socioeconomic response and recovery plans and the Goals.
Area of Work: Methods of Work
Addressee: Government of Kenya
Paragraph Number: 62
Session: 20 (2021)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum is concerned that the ruling of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Ogiek community in the Mau forest in Kenya has still not been implemented and calls on the Government of Kenya to urgently implement a sustainable system of equitable land tenure to prevent any further forced evictions; publish without delay the recommendations of the task force to advise the Government on the implementation of the decision of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in respect of the rights of the Ogiek community of Mau; enhance the participation of indigenous communities in the sustainable management of forests; and comply with the decision of the Court.
Area of Work: Human rights
Addressee: UNDP
Paragraph Number: 84
Session: 20 (2021)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum is concerned about reports of UNDP entering into a strategic partnership with the oil company GeoPark, a private entity that has been accused by indigenous communities of disregarding their rights, to carry out economic development activities in Colombia without the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous communities that will be affected. This partnership contradicts standard 6 (indigenous peoples) of the UNDP social and environmental standards, and the Forum urges UNDP to suspend all related partnership activities until a proper free, prior and informed consent process can be carried out.
Area of Work: Methods of Work, Environment
Paragraph Number: 81
Session: 20 (2021)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum recommends that the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) conduct a study on violence against indigenous women and access to justice, especially in cross-border situations, in cooperation with indigenous women.
Area of Work: Indigenous Women, Human Rights
Paragraph Number: 41
Session: 20 (2021)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum calls on Member States and international institutions to engage in full cooperation with indigenous peoples in their COVID-19 recovery efforts. The Forum further recommends that all available means of assistance, including financial support by international and national donor agencies and private philanthropic institutions, be allocated to initiatives led by indigenous peoples towards the achievement of the Goals.
Area of Work: Methods of Work
Addressee: Private sector stakeholders
Paragraph Number: 16
Session: 20 (2021)
Full Text:
Private sector stakeholders should, in the application of their guidelines and safeguard policies, ensure the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples, as enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Respect for free, prior and informed consent is essential for enabling indigenous peoples to participate in and engage with private sector activities, including in forestry, agriculture, fishing and extractive industries.
Area of Work: Human rights
Paragraph Number: 83
Session: 20 (2021)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum welcomes the establishment of the steering committee on indigenous peoples of Africa that consists of the working group on indigenous populations/communities and minorities in Africa as well as interested members of the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Peoples’ Issues. The Forum invites the steering committee to work with the members of the Forum to support the implementation of the system-wide action plan on the rights of indigenous peoples as well as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on the African continent. The Forum also encourages United Nations agencies, funds and programmes to establish a similar inter-agency group in Asia.
Area of Work: Methods of Work
Addressee: Member States
Paragraph Number: 101
Session: 20 (2021)
Full Text:
During the pandemic, indigenous peoples have been seriously affected by a lack of access to energy, health-care establishments, education centres, infrastructure that supplies clean water, and communication services and information technologies. Governments have made a range of efforts to support economic activity in their responses to the economic impacts of the pandemic. The relaxation of environmental and human rights standards in order to support activities that will promote economic growth, such as logging, mining, large-scale agriculture and various infrastructure and energy projects, threaten indigenous peoples’ territories. The Permanent Forum requests Member States to include indigenous peoples in the preparatory process and the outcome of the high-level dialogue on energy to be held by the General Assembly in September 2021, in order to accelerate action on achieving Goal 7 and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement.
Area of Work: Methods of Work, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Addressee: Member states
Paragraph Number: 18
Session: 20 (2021)
Full Text:
Effective access to justice for indigenous peoples implies access to both the State legal system and their own systems of justice. Without accessible State courts or other legal mechanisms through which they can protect their rights, indigenous peoples become vulnerable to actions that threaten their lands, natural resources, cultures, sacred sites and livelihoods. Concurrently, the recognition of indigenous peoples’ own justice systems is pivotal in ensuring their rights to maintain their autonomy, culture and traditions.
Area of Work: Human rights, Culture
