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Addressee: Member States, UN agencies
Paragraph Number: 18
Session: 11 (2012)
Full Text:
The Forum recommends that African States, United Nations agencies and academic institutions undertake studies on the impact of the doctrine of discovery on indigenous peoples of Africa, with a view to creating understanding and awareness.
Area of Work: Human rights
Addressee: Member States
Paragraph Number: 14
Session: 11 (2012)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum calls upon States to ensure that racial non discrimination is guaranteed in their constitutions. The term “racial discrimination” means any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin that has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life. The Forum calls upon States to adhere to the peremptory norm and the absolute prohibition against racial discrimination as well as all other forms of discrimination, including gender and age.
Area of Work: Human rights
Addressee: Member States
Paragraph Number: 13
Session: 11 (2012)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum calls upon all States to ensure that their political institutions and structures are not used as a reason to relieve the State of its responsibility to implement international human rights obligations in relation to the rights of indigenous peoples.
Area of Work: Human rights
Addressee: Member States
Paragraph Number: 12
Session: 11 (2012)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum highlights the activities of those States that have undertaken or are currently undertaking constitutional revision processes to strengthen constitutional provisions on human rights, pluriculturalism and juridical pluralism, among others, and also welcomes those States that are in the midst of ongoing constitutional revision or reform processes. The Forum calls upon all relevant States to review and revise their constitutions and legal frameworks to comprehensively recognize the human rights of indigenous peoples. The Forum recommends that the process of constitutional revision in Member States should be driven by indigenous peoples.
Area of Work: Human rights
Addressee: UN System, Member States, IP
Paragraph Number: 10
Session: 11 (2012)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum welcomes the recommendation to establish a voluntary international mechanism to receive and consider communications from indigenous peoples specifically concerning their claims to, or violations of, their rights to the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired. This recommendation deserves further elaboration by indigenous peoples and others concerned. The Forum takes note of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples in this regard.
Area of Work: Human rights
Addressee: Member States
Paragraph Number: 8
Session: 11 (2012)
Full Text:
During its tenth session, the Permanent Forum emphasized that redefining the relationship between indigenous peoples and the State as an important way to understand the doctrine of discovery and a way to develop a vision of the future for reconciliation, peace and justice. To that end, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples provides a strong human rights framework and standards for the redress of such false doctrines, notably in articles 3, 28 and 37. The Permanent Forum encourages the conduct of the processes of reconciliation “in accordance with the principles of justice, democracy, and respect for human rights, equality, non-discrimination, good governance and good faith”.
Area of Work: Human rights
Addressee: Member States
Paragraph Number: 4
Session: 11 (2012)
Full Text:
The Permanent Forum recalls the fourth preambular paragraph of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which affirms that all doctrines, policies and practices based on or advocating superiority of peoples or individuals on the basis of national origin or racial, religious, ethnic or cultural differences are racist, scientifically false, legally invalid, morally condemnable and socially unjust. Legal and political justification for the dispossession of indigenous peoples from their lands, their disenfranchisement and the abrogation of their rights such as the doctrine of discovery, the doctrine of domination, “conquest”, “discovery”, terra nullius or the Regalian doctrine were adopted by colonizers throughout the world. While these nefarious doctrines were promoted as the authority for the acquisition of the lands and territories of indigenous peoples, there were broader assumptions implicit in the doctrines, which became the basis for the assertion of authority and control over the lives of indigenous peoples and their lands, territories and resources. Indigenous peoples were constructed as “savages”, “barbarians”, “backward” and “inferior and uncivilized” by the colonizers who used such constructs to subjugate, dominate and exploit indigenous peoples and their lands, territories and resources. The Permanent Forum calls upon States to repudiate such doctrines as the basis for denying indigenous peoples’ human rights.
Area of Work: Human rights
