The Permanent Forum calls upon the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity to adopt the terminology “indigenous peoples and local communities” as an accurate reflection of the distinct identities developed by those entities since the adoption of the Convention almost 20 years ago.
The Permanent Forum urges the Government of Kenya to implement the recommendations of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the rights of Endorois to the ownership of their ancestral lands, to the restitution thereof and to compensation in that connection.
With reference to article 42 of the United Nations Declaration, the Permanent Forum invites African States, in particular Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Libya, Mali, Nigeria and Rwanda, to present, at its sixteenth session, information on the situation of indigenous peoples affected by conflict in those countries.
The Permanent Forum urges OHCHR in the Plurinational State of Bolivia to continue and strengthen its monitoring of the human rights of the Guaraní people to address as a matter of urgency the situation of the families and communities that are subjected to forced labour and other forms of servitude and to report regularly and publicly on developments in that situation. In the area of technical assistance, the Permanent Forum urges OHCHR in the Plurinational State of Bolivia to strengthen the human rights capacities of the Guaraní authorities in Alto Parapetí and other districts where there are serious human rights violations.
The Permanent Forum urges States that have not yet done so to ratify the Convention of the Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
The Forum recommends that Member States, the intergovernmental system, international financial institutions and the private sector respect and adhere to the principle of free, prior and informed consent in all matters affecting indigenous peoples
The Permanent Forum urges the international community to pay particular attention to the situation of the Batwa peoples, in particular Batwa women, and to support the inclusion of the San people and other indigenous groups in the national census. The Permanent Forum urges African States and their international development partners to review the poverty reduction strategy papers and other frameworks for integrating the specificities of such indigenous peoples as the Batwa, Pygmies, Touaregue, Amazigh, Khoisan and other hunter-gatherers or nomadic peoples in their countries, both in Central and in Southern Africa.
The Permanent Forum heard reports from Māori Indigenous Peoples that the Government of New Zealand had departed from the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi) and taken measures against the rights of Indigenous Peoples, including the disbandment of Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori health authority. The Forum urges the State and Government of New Zealand to uphold the distinct rights of Māori Indigenous Peoples.