The Permanent Forum welcomes the Community Land Act of Kenya, which represents a critical step towards securing the land rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Forum reiterates its recommendation that the Government of Kenya implement a sustainable system of equitable land tenure to prevent further evictions of the Ogiek community in the Mau forest, and calls upon the Government to enhance the participation of Indigenous Peoples in the sustainable management of forests and to comply with the decision of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The Permanent Forum was presented with horrific testimonies of Indigenous children incarcerated in prisons and other holding facilities. The Permanent Forum reminds Member States to fulfil their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child in relation to the arrest, detention, or imprisonment of a child. No child should be in prison. In that regard, the Permanent Forum notes the finding in 2022 of the Supreme Court of Western Australia that the extensive solitary confinement and significant reduction in liberty of children, primarily Aboriginal children, was unlawful. The Permanent Forum calls upon Australia to respect the Court decision and remove its reservation to article 37 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Permanent Forum recommends that Member States review and reform their child protection policies and systems to prevent undue removal of Indigenous children from their families and communities.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the study entitled “Free, prior and informed consent: a human rights-based approach” (A/HRC/39/62), prepared by the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It encourages Member States, United Nations entities, including the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Bank, regional development banks, the private sector, civil society organizations and other stakeholders, to use the study as guidance for understanding the principle of free, prior and informed consent when working on issues of concern to indigenous peoples. The Forum also encourages indigenous peoples to use the study to guide the development of their own community protocols on free, prior and informed consent for engaging with these stakeholders.
Building upon the study prepared by members of the Permanent Forum on the situation of indigenous persons with disabilities, with a particular focus on challenges faced with respect to the full enjoyment of human rights and inclusion in development (see E/C.19/2013/6), and in the light of the call in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to “leave no one behind”, the Forum is concerned that the experiences and rights of indigenous persons with disabilities require further study and examination. In that regard, the Forum calls upon the secretariat of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as the focal point within the United Nations system on matters relating to disability, to conduct a qualitative study with regard to indigenous persons with disabilities, in all seven regions of the world.
The Permanent Forum recommends that States implement the principles contained in General Comment No. 21 (2009) of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on article 15, paragraph 1 (a), of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights regarding the right of everyone to take part in cultural life. In its interpretation of the article, the Committee takes into account the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It consequently distinguishes the right of indigenous peoples to take part in their own culture from the same right as it applies to minorities. This distinction is made in particular as a result of the extension of the concept of indigenous culture to material aspects such as territories and resources.
The Forum recommends that Member States, United Nations bodies and mechanisms, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and other parts of the United Nations system strengthen the machinery to address the urgent, gross and ongoing human rights violations, militarization of indigenous lands and systemic violence committed by Member States against indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum recommends that United Nations human rights mechanisms examine the plight of indigenous peoples from French Polynesia, Guam and the Marshall Islands who have been victims of the effects of nuclear testing in the Pacific.
The Permanent Forum is alarmed by the continuing acts of violence being perpetrated against indigenous peoples by Member States and others. The Forum therefore acknowledges the need for States to establish a monitoring mechanism to address violence against indigenous peoples, including assassinations, assassination attempts and rapes, and intimidation of indigenous peoples in their attempts to safeguard and use their homelands and territories that transcend national borders, including the non recognition of their membership identification and documents and the criminalization of their related activities. Specific attention must be paid to such actions being perpetrated by State and local police, the military, law enforcement institutions, the judiciary and other State-controlled institutions against indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Plurinational State of Bolivia should continue to link its policies for the freeing of individuals and the recovery of lands in the Chaco region with a view to the territorial reconstitution of the Guaraní people, which both the Government and APG consider the ultimate objective.
The Forum recommends that the Department of Peacekeeping Operations of the United Nations Secretariat establish a policy on indigenous peoples, in consultation with indigenous peoples
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Pacific Islands Forum create a mechanism for contributions by and participation of indigenous peoples’ representatives in its meetings and related structures and activities.
The Permanent Forum urges States and State-owned corporations to consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before the approval of any policies, plans and projects affecting their lands or territories and other resources, particularly in connection with the development, utilization or exploitation of minerals, water and other resources, in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.