The Permanent Forum recommends that relevant United Nations agencies dealing with indigenous peoples’ issues should take action on the inclusion of indigenous persons with disabilities in all their activities, make their websites accessible to persons with disabilities, promote the increased participation of indigenous persons with disabilities in their annual sessions and consider having expert sessions on indigenous persons with disabilities.
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.
The Permanent Forum expresses its grave concern about the lack of observance and implementation of indigenous peoples’ rights, as enshrined in the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This underscores the need for more awareness-raising and capacity-building regarding indigenous peoples’ rights, not only for indigenous peoples themselves, but also for government and justice officials, as well as for private sector actors and civil society at large. In this regard, the Forum welcomes the e-learning course on indigenous peoples’ rights developed by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), with the support of the Expert Mechanism and United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples. The course, which is available on the OHCHR website, is a small but important contribution towards building capacities for the promotion and protection of indigenous peoples’ rights.
The Permanent Forum recommends that relevant States recognize indigenous peoples’ right to prior, free and informed consent and provide support mechanisms for involuntarily displaced indigenous peoples to be able to return to their original communities, including appropriate forms of repatriation, compensation and restitution and provision for the sustainable livelihoods of those peoples.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Plurinational State of Bolivia should speed up implementation of the constitutional provisions regarding the freeing of individuals, families and communities in the light of the fact that forced labour and servitude are serious human rights violations that must be addressed with great urgency.
The Permanent Forum urges Colombia to promote and guarantee the rights of indigenous peoples in the development of the regulatory framework of the Colombian peace agreement and to ensure that a process of free, prior and informed consent is established for the implementation of the “ethnic chapter” of the agreement with their full and effective participation.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Ad Hoc Working Group on Access and Benefit-sharing consider at its next meeting the report of the international indigenous and local community consultation on access and benefit-sharing and the development of an international regime (UNEP/CBD/WG-ABS/5/INF/9).
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 recommends that the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights recognize the human rights of indigenous peoples in the ASEAN declaration on human rights and establish a working group on indigenous peoples. In addition, the Forum urges the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation to establish a human rights commission and a working group on indigenous peoples.
In regard to the rights of indigenous peoples, the Permanent Forum reiterates its long-standing position of encouraging the United Nations, its organs and specialized agencies, as well as all States, to adopt a human rights-based approach. At the international, regional and national level, the human rights of indigenous peoples are always relevant if such rights are at risk of being undermined. Human rights are indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated. They must be respected in any context specifically concerning indigenous peoples, from environment to development, to peace and security, and many other issues.
Foster the training of indigenous women in order to gain leadership skills to become community advocates and defenders for indigenous women's rights to achieve gender equity
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Executive Office of the Secretary-General urgently set up a meeting between the Permanent Forum and the High-level Panel on United Nations System-wide Coherence in the Areas of Development, Humanitarian Assistance, and the Environment to secure the integration of indigenous peoples’ perspectives into the ongoing process of furthering system-wide coherence.