The Permanent Forum recommends that Member States strengthen and implement legal and institutional frameworks that recognize and protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples to their lands, territories and resources and ensure their participation in decision-making processes. Such frameworks should adhere to the Declaration and Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169) of the International Labour Organization, ensuring Indigenous Peoples’ free, prior and informed consent when development, environment, biodiversity and climate change programmes and projects are conducted on their lands and territories.
The Forum regrets that Indigenous Peoples living in environmental ecosystems and latitudes other than tropical and subtropical forests are ineligible for funding, including the $1.7 billion pledge made at the twenty-sixth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Forum advises the Forest Tenure Funders Group to promote a dialogue with United Nations mechanisms on the rights of Indigenous Peoples when defining the ongoing and future process of funding for Indigenous Peoples.
The Forum calls upon international financial institutions to align policies and safeguards with the Declaration.
The Permanent Forum encourages parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity to ensure that progress is made with regard to institutional arrangements that guarantee human rights-based approaches to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, with the full and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples. In addition, the Forum calls upon the Conference of Parties to request its relevant subsidiary bodies to convene an ad hoc expert group meeting, with the participation of experts of the three United Nations mechanisms on Indigenous Peoples, to address the conflation of Indigenous Peoples with other groups of society and to develop specific actions to avoid such conflation.
The Permanent Forum recommends that Member States in the region enhance the protection of Indigenous Peoples through recognition and autonomy, in line with the Declaration, by revising legal and policy frameworks. Governments should rectify the injustices of the colonial past, taking into consideration Indigenous Peoples and their perspectives, in particular those of Indigenous youth, ensuring the participation of Indigenous Peoples in decision-making.
The Permanent Forum heard that industrial companies and authorities in the Russian Federation promoted certain “authorized bodies of Indigenous Peoples”, which in reality were run by State representatives claiming that only these organizations had the right to negotiate on behalf of Indigenous Peoples. In this regard, the Forum proposes that the Government of the Russian Federation revise the federal law on guarantees of the rights of Indigenous Peoples of the Russian Federation.
The Permanent Forum urges actions by States in addressing the racism suffered by Inuit peoples, particularly those residing outside Inuit Nunaat. The Forum is concerned about the high incidence of child removals by child welfare systems legitimized by psychometric tests adapted to non-Inuit peoples.
The Permanent Forum urges the Governments of Canada and Denmark and the government of Greenland to follow up on and implement the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur subsequent to his country visits in 2023. The Forum recommends that a human rights-based approach be taken when investigating and addressing the practices and impacts of the so-called intrauterine device campaign affecting Inuit women and adolescents in Greenland.
The Permanent Forum reiterates its call upon African Member States to extend invitations to the Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples and other mandate holders to conduct country visits to foster transparent and constructive dialogue. The Forum notes the invitations from the Governments of Namibia and the United Republic of Tanzania to the Special Rapporteur to undertake country visits and invites Member States to provide financial support to realize these visits.
The lack of recognition of Indigenous Peoples violates their right to self-determination. Their legal recognition should be aligned with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the report of the Working Group of Experts on Indigenous Populations/Communities of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.1 The Permanent Forum invites African Governments to join groups of friends of Indigenous Peoples.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Pan American Health Organization and all regional United Nations health entities ensure that their mandates address the rights of Indigenous Peoples, separate from minority, diversity and intercultural approaches, in compliance with the Declaration and the WHO resolution on Indigenous health.
The Permanent Forum reiterates the recommendation it made to the United States at its twenty-second session to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier.