The Permanent Forum considers climate change to be a driver of insecurity, exacerbating conflicts over lands, territories and resources. The Forum calls upon the Security Council to consider indigenous peoples as partners. Close consultation with indigenous peoples is required to ensure the respect of the rights of indigenous peoples in conflict and post-conflict situations.
The Forum recommends that Governments:
(a) Respect the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples, in particular women and children, and ensure that they are able to exercise these rights in accordance with international human rights standards;
(b) Include relevant information on the rights of indigenous peoples, in particular indigenous women, in the reports presented to the Committee on the Elimination of All Discrimination against Women and other relevant human rights bodies;
(c) Create mechanisms to ensure access to legal processes, especially for indigenous women, to enable them to take advantage of available juridical instruments including free legal aid, in cases of violations of their fundamental rights;
(d) Encourage the appointment of qualified indigenous women to decision-making positions in the areas of administration and public service.
Many indigenous peoples described situations where their human rights were being impacted by large-scale infrastructure projects, natural resource extraction and industrial agriculture activities in their territories without their free, prior and informed consent. The Permanent Forum received information to that effect from the Shuar, Sapara, Maasai and Ogaden peoples, among others. The Forum is concerned, in particular, by cases where it appears that the interests of investors are better protected than the rights of indigenous peoples. It reiterates that States and the private sector must respect the human rights of indigenous peoples by ensuring the effective implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Working Group on Indigenous Populations include, at its twenty-fifth session in 2007, under its standard-setting mandate, the development of the principle of free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples.
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 welcomes the progress made towards developing plans to realize the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Canada and New Zealand. The Permanent Forum invites Canada and New Zealand to present their final plans on constructive cooperation at the twenty-second session of the Permanent Forum, to be held in 2023.
The Permanent Forum decides to hold an international expert group meeting to discuss in greater detail the way in which the Forum should address its mandate under article 42 of the Declaration.
The Permanent Forum urges the Governments of Canada and the United States to respect the right of indigenous nations to determine their own membership, in accordance with article 33 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Mindful of the systemic discrimination and racism experienced by indigenous peoples in the law enforcement, judicial and correctional institutions of States across the globe, the Permanent Forum urges States that have ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination to comprehensively review the civil rights of indigenous peoples, in particular those of indigenous women and children who are victims of sexual violence, in order to ensure that they have fair, non-discriminatory access to justice.
The Permanent Forum heard reports from Māori Indigenous Peoples that the Government of New Zealand had departed from the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi) and taken measures against the rights of Indigenous Peoples, including the disbandment of Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori health authority. The Forum urges the State and Government of New Zealand to uphold the distinct rights of Māori Indigenous Peoples.
The Permanent Forum urges the Nordic States to ratify, as soon as possible, the Nordic Saami Convention, which could set an example for other indigenous peoples whose traditional territories are divided by international borders.
The Forum recognizes and applauds other indigenous fellowship programmes, in particular the fellowship programme established and funded by the regular budget of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the newly established fellowship programme of the ILO. Furthermore, the Forum particularly recognizes the capacity-building efforts of the indigenous fellowship programme of the Office and requests that, in order to complement their Geneva based training, the indigenous fellows at the Office should participate, on an annual basis, in the sessions of the Forum. Further consideration should also be given to provide some time for training at the secretariat of the Forum, during non-sessional periods.