The Permanent Forum recommends that the United States of America grant clemency to Leonard Peltier, who has been imprisoned since 1977 and is now an elderly person.
The Permanent Forum calls on the chairs of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals to address inequalities through the sustainable development goals, with a special focus on indigenous peoples, in order to uphold human rights for all, eliminate discrimination, reduce inequalities and ensure that no one is left behind.
Given that the right of indigenous peoples to free, prior and informed consent is recognized and affirmed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, questions have arisen concerning its implementation. In the light of such fundamental concerns, the Permanent Forum has decided to prioritize free, prior and informed consent. Therefore, in the context of future work, the Permanent Forum will explore the potential for the development of guidelines on the implementation of free, prior and informed consent. The Permanent Forum will endeavour to do so in collaboration with the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, who are specifically mandated to address the human rights of indigenous peoples. This initiative, as well as those referred to immediately below, are fully consistent with articles 38, 41 and 42 of the Declaration.
The Permanent Forum requests that Member States and other potential donors increase their contributions to the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations, the United Nations Indigenous Peoples’ Partnership and the Trust Fund on Indigenous Issues in order to guarantee the exercise of the right of indigenous peoples to participate in United Nations meetings of specific concern to them.
The Permanent Forum recommends that Governments of member States adopt in relevant national legislation the principle of free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples when involving their territories, lands and natural resources.
The special rapporteurs, as well as other mechanisms relevant to the Commission on Human Rights, are encouraged to study the effects of armed conflict on the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples, especially on women and children.
The Forum, taking note with appreciation of the conclusions and
recommendations of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UNHabitat) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights joint publication entitled “Indigenous peoples’ right to adequate housing: a global overview”, recommends that UN-Habitat, jointly with the Office of the High Commissioner, organize an expert group meeting in 2006 to review the status of progress on indigenous peoples’ housing rights globally and identify and document best practices, and report on the outcome and recommendations of the meeting to the Forum at its sixth session.
The Permanent Forum expresses its concern for the human rights of indigenous peoples in the Non-Self-Governing Territories in the Pacific region and calls on the United Nations Human Rights Council to designate a Special Rapporteur on the situation of indigenous peoples of those territories.
The Permanent Forum urges States to promote and protect the rights of indigenous women and men working as journalists, communicators and as human rights defenders in accordance with international human rights law, in particular in accordance with article 16 of the Declaration, which calls for the full freedom of expression of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the collaboration with indigenous parliamentarians during the tenth session of the Forum. It encourages the parliamentarians and other elected indigenous representatives from national, regional and local decision-making bodies to establish an international network or organization in order to share common experiences, including those related to the implementation of the Declaration in legislative and other democratic bodies. It further encourages the Inter-Parliamentary Union to install a liaising body with the indigenous parliamentarians to strengthen awareness of the Declaration. The Forum calls upon indigenous parliamentarians to promote the necessary legislative reforms for implementation of the Declaration.
The Forum requests the Special Rapporteur on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples to undertake a study on the United Nations decolonization process and on the Special Committee on Decolonization to assess its historical and current impact on the human rights of indigenous peoples of the non-self-governing territories. Furthermore, the Forum requests the Secretary-General to undertake a mid-decade review of the Second International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism to determine whether substantial progress has been made in achieving the goals of the Second Decade and to identify proposals for addressing obstacles to achieving the goals of the Second Decade.
The Permanent Forum urges the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to require States parties to take into account, in their reports to each body, the first article of both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which must be understood pursuant to article 3 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which sets out the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination