Urgent transformational actions by States and other development actors for Indigenous Peoples must be based on a human rights framework enabling the identification of the root causes of inequality and providing mechanisms to tackle systemic discrimination and racism and must contribute to reforming discriminatory laws and policies and strengthening the accountability of States, including ensuring democratic space for all.
The Permanent Forum recalls its invitation to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to initiate a general comment on the collective rights of indigenous peoples to lands, territories and natural resources. The Forum welcomes the decision of the Committee to draft a general comment on land and economic, social and cultural rights. However, the Forum expresses its concern about the limited participation of indigenous peoples in the drafting of the general comment and invites the Committee to consider facilitating the participation of indigenous peoples. The Forum also invites the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples to provide support in this regard.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the lively and analytical dialogue that emerged from the half-day discussion on the African region and encourages the United Nations Development Group to facilitate further dialogue between States and indigenous peoples at the African continental level to foster better understanding of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the commitments to indigenous peoples that Member States have made. Within this framework, capacity-building at the national level should be enhanced.
The Permanent Forum recommends that in the case of projects affecting indigenous peoples, States ensure that transnational corporations and other business enterprises comply with specific standards contained in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and ILO Convention No. 169.
The Permanent Forum recommends that Governments, bilateral and multilateral donor and development agencies and other development partners responsible for or assisting in the implementation of sectoral strategies or other programmes affecting lands owned, occupied or otherwise used by indigenous peoples review the consistency of such strategies and programmes with internationally recognized standards for the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples and the impact of such strategies and programmes on indigenous communities and report to the Permanent Forum at its seventh session in 2008 on the results of these reviews and on any strategies adopted to address the challenges they might identify.
The Permanent Forum decides to extend the mandate of the Special Rapporteurs on indigenous peoples and corporations, Carlos Mamani Condori, Elisa Canqui Mollo and Pavel Sulyandziga, for one year, and requests them to submit a written report to the Forum at its ninth session, in 2010.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the fact that the principles and rules contained in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples have been integrated into the new constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, which was ratified in a referendum held on 25 January 2009.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Human Rights Council and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights investigate the possibility of the development and acceptance of general recommendations relating to the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination by securing their access to their ancestral lands, territories and natural resources.
The Permanent Forum considers climate change to be a driver of insecurity, exacerbating conflicts over lands, territories and resources. The Forum calls upon the Security Council to consider indigenous peoples as partners. Close consultation with indigenous peoples is required to ensure the respect of the rights of indigenous peoples in conflict and post-conflict situations.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, the African Union and the European Union establish special mechanisms for the protection of indigenous peoples in areas of conflict and high insecurity in the countries of the Sahel and Sahara region, in particular Tuaregs in Mali and Libya.
In reference to the study by Mr. John and Ms. Dorough on how States exploit weak procedural rules in international organizations to devalue the United Nations Declaration and other international human rights law, the Permanent Forum recommends that all funds, programmes and specialized agencies of the United Nations system and other intergovernmental forums begin to reform their respective procedural rules, with the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples, with the aim of ensuring compliance and consistency with the human rights affirmed in the Declaration.
The Permanent Forum urges States to prepare reports on the actions taken to address the recommendations of all United Nations special rapporteurs, in particular the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, especially the recommendations made at the conclusion of country visits, and encourages States to monitor their progress in this regard, in collaboration with indigenous peoples, United Nations country teams and all other relevant parties. Furthermore, the Forum reiterates that national human rights institutions are encouraged to assist indigenous peoples, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples and the Permanent Forum in the implementation of the Declaration.