Climate change and environmental issues are a major threat to indigenous peoples. The Permanent Forum recommends that Member States recognize indigenous peoples’ rights to use, maintain and control their lands, territories and resources, and develop mechanisms for their inclusion in relevant decision-making processes. The Forum calls upon States to cooperate with indigenous peoples and consider their traditional knowledge in environmental impact assessment procedures and in local, regional and national development plans. The Forum also recommends that States implement inclusive environmental and land management policies, in line with the Declaration.
The Permanent Forum recommends that national human rights institutions and commissions address indigenous peoples’ issues and include indigenous experts as members of such bodies.
To meet the major challenges facing indigenous peoples in Africa, the Permanent Forum recommends that the United Nations system and other entities with expertise on indigenous peoples’ issues in the African region support the Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities in Africa to promote and protect the rights of indigenous peoples.
The Forum recommends that the United Nations and Member States recognize the cultural rights of indigenous peoples which include the rights to organize oneself freely and to administer one’s own cultural, sports, social and religious institutions. For this purpose, the Forum encourages the United Nations and the relevant specialized agencies to consider establishing an international centre for multicultural and multiracial studies.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of Saramaka People vs. Suriname (28 November 2007), which aptly applies the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Permanent Forum urges the Working Group of the Organization of American States, which is elaborating the draft American declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, to consider the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as the minimum standard.