The Permanent Forum notes the progress made by the UNDP Regional Initiative on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Development and the ILO Programme to Promote ILO Convention No. 169 (PRO-169) projects in the promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples. The Forum welcomes the decision by UNDP to establish a similar programme in Latin America and calls on UNDP to expand its activities in this manner in Africa.
The Permanent Forum affirms that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will be its legal framework. The Permanent Forum will therefore ensure that the Declaration is integrated in its own recommendations on the seven substantive mandated areas — economic and social development, environment, health, education, culture, human rights and the implementation of the Declaration — as well as in the Forum’s work under the special theme for each session and in its ongoing themes and priorities.
The Permanent Forum highlights that unprincipled positions and actions of States undermine indigenous peoples’ human rights and the United Nations Declaration and that such conduct prejudices indigenous peoples globally and serves to weaken the international human rights system. States must therefore take steps, in conjunction with indigenous peoples, to ensure that their commitments and obligations are not violated in other international forums, especially following the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples. In accordance with both the outcome document of the World Conference and the United Nations Declaration, States, in conjunction with indigenous peoples, should develop legislation and mechanisms at the national level to ensure that laws are consistent with the United Nations Declaration