The Permanent Forum calls upon Canada to re-examine its support for the Enbridge Line 5 oil pipeline, which jeopardizes the Great Lakes in the United States. The pipeline presents a real and credible threat to the treaty-protected fishing rights of Indigenous Peoples in the United States and Canada. The Permanent Forum recommends that Canada and the United States decommission Line 5.
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 calls on affected Member States to implement the rulings of their supreme courts on indigenous peoples’ rights, such as the recent court decision in Norway on wind turbines in Fosen, in full cooperation with indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum takes note with concern of the situation of indigenous peoples of the Sahel and other parts of Africa, where a number of factors, including climate change, are having a devastating impact on economic development and human security. The lack of recognition of the collective rights of these peoples has created fertile ground for their loss of territories and resources and the emergence of complex forms of conflict, including violent extremism. The Forum calls on the Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities in Africa of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to prepare recommendations for the consideration of the African Union to address this situation, in partnership with the Economic Commission for Africa and other regional bodies.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the results of the 2018 High-level Expert Seminar on Indigenous Food Systems, in particular the creation of an online global hub on indigenous food systems, and would like to recommend that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) continue work on: (a) Indigenous young people towards the creation of a forum on indigenous young people in the coming years; (b) Indigenous food systems, in particular in relation to the links with traditional knowledge, climate change and the respect of indigenous peoples’ rights to their lands, territories and resources; (c) Indigenous women (the global campaign on indigenous women and the leadership and food security schools for indigenous women).
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.
According to articles 25 to 36 of the Declaration, States shall uphold the right to the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples and avoid, minimize and adjudicate disputes concerning land, territory or resources arising from extractive industries, large-scale water, energy and infrastructure projects, and agricultural investments.
The Forum recommends that UN-Habitat jointly, with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, through the United Nations Housing Rights Programme, organize an expert group meeting in 2006 to review the status of the realization process of indigenous peoples’ housing rights globally, and identify and document best practices and report on the outcome and recommendations of the expert group meeting at the sixth session of the Forum.
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 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 Permanent Forum takes note of the 2009 report of the ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, particularly the general observation, and the nine individual observations on implementation of ILO Convention No. 169 on indigenous and tribal peoples. The Forum welcomes the increased attention paid by the Committee to ILO Convention No. 169 and calls upon the Committee to fully incorporate the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in its individual observations as a source of interpretation of the Convention.
The Permanent Forum reiterates its concern about information brought to its attention on continuing violations of human rights of indigenous peoples in various parts of the world, and calls upon all States to fully implement their obligations under the international human rights and humanitarian instruments. The Forum reiterates its call on States to recognize the rights of indigenous peoples constitutionally and legally, to strengthen their institutions for the promotion and protection of the human rights of indigenous peoples and to enhance awareness-raising and capacity-building efforts for government officials.