Post-pandemic recovery efforts have exacerbated human rights violations against indigenous peoples across Asia. Governments have used economic recovery plans as a justification to seize indigenous lands for the purposes of resource extraction, and indigenous environmental defenders are often threatened and arrested. The Permanent Forum calls on Member States to guarantee the principles of free, prior and informed consent throughout its post-pandemic recovery efforts to ensure that the socioeconomic development of indigenous territories is implemented in full cooperation with indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the first meeting of Escazú Agreement. The Escazú Agreement is the first instrument that includes provisions on the protection of human rights defenders in environmental matters. The Permanent Forum urges States parties to ensure implementation of the Agreement and invites them to establish mechanisms for the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples in the work thereof. The Permanent Forum reiterates its invitation to countries that have not yet signed or ratified the Agreement to do so.
The Permanent Forum demands that WIPO recognize and respect the applicability and relevance of the Declaration as a significant international human rights instrument that must inform the Intergovernmental Committee process and the overall work of WIPO. The minimum standards reflected in the Declaration must either be exceeded or directly incorporated into any and all WIPO instruments that directly or indirectly impact the human rights of indigenous peoples.
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 on Indigenous Issues has analysed and discussed indigenous fishing rights in the seas on the basis of a report submitted by the Special Rapporteurs. As a result of those discussions, the Forum considers the protection of the material basis of the culture of indigenous peoples to be a part of international law that should be applied also to fishing rights in the seas, and recommends that States in which indigenous peoples live in coastal areas recognize indigenous peoples’ right to fish in the seas on the basis of historical use and international law. In that context, the Forum notes the ongoing consultations between the Government of Norway and the Sami Parliament and recommends that the Government recognize the right of the coastal Sami to fish in the seas on the basis of historical use and international law.
The Permanent Forum acknowledges the signing of the peace accord in Colombia and the efforts to implement it. The Forum takes note of Colombia’s statement at the eighteenth session of the Forum on the need to protect the lives and integrity of indigenous human rights defenders. The Forum is, however, deeply concerned that killings of indigenous leaders have been increasing. The Forum urges the Government of Colombia to intensify its efforts to provide effective measures to prevent further attacks and to ensure peace and security for indigenous human right defenders and leaders.
The Permanent Forum recommends that all States with indigenous peoples review their legislation, policies and programmes in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Programme of Action for the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People.
The Permanent Forum notes that the Greenland-Danish Self-Government Commission submitted its report on self-government on 6 May 2008. The main task of the Commission has been to submit draft legislation regarding a self-government arrangement for Greenland. A referendum was held in Greenland on 25 November 2008 concerning the act and the process leading up to its entry into force. The Permanent Forum welcomes the successful passage of the act through the Danish Parliament on 19 May 2009.
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 appreciates the invitation to participate in the Second Continental Summit of Indigenous Communication, to be held in Oaxaca, Mexico, in 2013 and recommends that Forum members Saul Vicente Vazquez and Alvaro Pop attend the Summit.
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.