Member States must urgently address violence against indigenous peoples, including State violence, gender-based violence, forced assimilation and forced child removals, discrimination in the justice system and other forms of discrimination, including discrimination based on gender, religion, disability, age and LGBTIQ identity. The Forum encourages the Expert Mechanism, at its earliest convenience, to engage with the Governments of Australia and New Zealand, and with the participation of indigenous peoples, regarding the removal of indigenous children.
Mauna Kea, the sacred mountain for native Hawaiians, is currently targeted for the placement of an international observatory featuring a 30-metre telescope. Such an activity inhibits and is contrary to the rights articulated in articles 11 and 12 of the United Nations Declaration. In addition, the Permanent Forum strongly recommends that the free, prior and informed consent of native Hawaiians be recognized.
The Permanent Forum calls upon States to ensure that national policies regarding indigenous pastoralism and hunter-gatherers comply with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the decision of the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Issues to hold, on an exceptional basis, a meeting to consider appropriate ways of promoting, disseminating and implementing the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, once it is adopted by the General Assembly.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Working Group on Access and Benefit Sharing of the Convention on Biological Diversity recognize the rights of indigenous peoples over the biological and genetic resources of their own territories.
The Permanent Forum takes note of the progressive decisions made by the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in favour of the collective rights of indigenous peoples. The Forum is concerned about the lack of implementation and urges the Government of Kenya to fully implement its decisions on applications 006/2012 (African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights v. Republic of Kenya) and 276/03 (Centre for Minority Rights Development (Kenya) and Minority Rights Group (on behalf of Endorois Welfare Council) v. Kenya).
The Permanent Forum recommends that United Nations treaty bodies and mechanisms, as well as the universal periodic review process, scrutinize the reports and human rights records of States, so as to effectively address rights ritualism. This should include ensuring that States’ claims are systematically compared with the concerns raised by indigenous peoples and civil society.
Mindful of the systemic discrimination and racism experienced by indigenous peoples in the law enforcement, judicial and correctional institutions of States across the globe, the Permanent Forum urges States that have ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination to comprehensively review the civil rights of indigenous peoples, in particular those of indigenous women and children who are victims of sexual violence, in order to ensure that they have fair, non-discriminatory access to justice.
The Permanent Forum reiterates that indigenous peoples should report to the Forum on how they are implementing the Declaration in their own communities, thereby contributing to the growing evidence of how the principles enshrined in the Declaration are being practised.
The Permanent Forum has decided to appoint members of the Forum, Megan Davis, Simon William M’Viboudoulou, Valmaine Toki, Paul Kanyinke Sena, Edward John, Álvaro Esteban Pop Ac and Raja Devasish Roy, to conduct a study on national constitutions and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, with a view to assessing the nature and extent of the inclusion of indigenous peoples’ human rights in national constitutions, with reference to the rights affirmed in the Declaration, to be submitted to the eleventh session of the Permanent Forum in 2012.