The Permanent Forum welcomes the legal reforms and policies carried out in some States to recognize the right of indigenous peoples to food and food sovereignty. It would also like to encourage the remaining States to take the steps towards its recognition. The Permanent Forum encourages States to take positive actions to facilitate the capacity of indigenous peoples to strengthen traditional food systems, such as formally recognizing and demarcating indigenous territories to enable them to carry out productive food activities, in accordance with article
8 (2) (b) of the Declaration, which prohibits States from any action that has the aim or effect of dispossessing indigenous peoples of their lands, territories or resources.
The Permanent Forum is concerned that, in their efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, Member States are not complying with the Declaration. In one case, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination requested that Norway temporarily suspend the ongoing construction of the Fosen Vind onshore wind power project, which negatively affects the reindeer herding of the South Sami people. The Government of Norway, having concluded that its administrative and legal processes were sufficient, did not implement the interim measures. The Forum urges Member States to respect and comply with decisions made by the United Nations treaty bodies.
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 appoints Irma Pineda Santiago and Símon Freddy Condo Riveros, members of the Forum, to conduct a study on collective intellectual property and the appropriation of the ideas and creations of indigenous peoples, and to present that study to the Forum at its twenty-first session.
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.
In relation to the preparation for the high-level plenary meeting/World Conference, the Permanent Forum welcomes the study entitled “Rights of indigenous peoples: achievements and challenges in the Latin American countries”, prepared by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean in collaboration with indigenous peoples, and encourages States, agencies and regional commissions to undertake similar studies.
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 has decided to appoint Saul Vicente Vásquez, a member of the Forum, to conduct a study on extractive industries in Mexico and the situation of indigenous peoples in the territories in which these industries are located.