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 appoints Darío José Mejía Montalvo, a member of the Forum, to conduct a study on the rights of indigenous peoples facing the global energy mix and to present that study to the Forum at its twenty-first session.
The Permanent Forum appoints Brian Keane and Elifuraha Laltaika, members of the Forum, to undertake a study to examine conservation and indigenous peoples’ human rights, to be submitted to the Forum at its seventeenth session.
The Permanent Forum invites Member States to participate in informal discussions on the effective and efficient impacts of the Permanent Forum on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, including in the contexts of biodiversity, climate change, desertification and the enjoyment of human rights by indigenous peoples, in particular efforts to combat violence against indigenous women and children. The Permanent Forum also invites Member States to enhance the effective participation of indigenous peoples in the design and implementation of efforts in the context the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development; the International Decade for Action, “Water for Sustainable Development”, 2018–2028; the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration; and the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.
The Permanent Forum takes note of the study by Elisa Canqui on forced labour and indigenous peoples (E/C.19/2011/CRP.4) and urges Member States, in collaboration with United Nations agencies and regional intergovernmental organizations, to increase their efforts to combat forced labour and human trafficking and to put in place adequate instruments to protect victims, paying particular attention to indigenous peoples and the restoration of victims’ rights.
The Forum recognizes and applauds other indigenous fellowship programmes, in particular the fellowship programme established and funded by the regular budget of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the newly established fellowship programme of the ILO. Furthermore, the Forum particularly recognizes the capacity-building efforts of the indigenous fellowship programme of the Office and requests that, in order to complement their Geneva based training, the indigenous fellows at the Office should participate, on an annual basis, in the sessions of the Forum. Further consideration should also be given to provide some time for training at the secretariat of the Forum, during non-sessional periods.
The Permanent Forum urges UNDP to further strengthen the right to self-determination of indigenous peoples by choosing indigenous peoples’ organizations as their implementing partners and responsible parties in their projects involving indigenous peoples, especially those with established track records in project implementation. As a corollary to the foregoing, government agencies created to promote and protect the rights and interests of indigenous peoples should be preferred as implementing partners in UNDP programming on indigenous peoples’ issues so that they can effectively perform their mandate