The Permanent Forum welcomes the initiation of a national dialogue to discuss and achieve key constitutional reforms in the field of justice in Guatemala, and encourages the recognition of indigenous justice systems. The Forum urges Guatemala and the private sector, in addition to the World Bank and other international economic institutions, to acknowledge that serious efforts require structural economic and social reforms rather than rapid growth of gross domestic product in order to reverse widespread and growing poverty among the indigenous peoples of Guatemala. Such crucial reforms must ensure more equitable distribution and access to traditional lands for the indigenous peoples of Guatemala, consistent with the rights affirmed in the United Nations Declaration, and on the basis of respect for and legal recognition of their collective rights, including their self-determined development. Furthermore, the Forum calls upon Guatemala to reinforce the effective and full implementation of the Peace Accords.
With reference to article 42 of the United Nations Declaration, the Permanent Forum invites African States, in particular Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Libya, Mali, Nigeria and Rwanda, to present, at its sixteenth session, information on the situation of indigenous peoples affected by conflict in those countries.
The Permanent Forum calls upon all member States and United Nations agencies to respond to the annual questionnaire from the secretariat of the Permanent Forum in order to provide information on reliable practices that lead to the full and effective implementation of the Declaration. Further, the Forum recommends that the secretariat of the Permanent Forum include questions that particularly focus on indigenous children and youth.
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.
Indigenous peoples lack recognition, and face poor implementation of their rights and flagrant violations of their rights and their lands, while the need for their free, prior and informed consent and the right to autonomy of self-government is disregarded by local businesses and transnational corporations in mining, logging, and oil and gas extraction, among other sectors. The territories and resources of indigenous peoples are seized and livelihoods are destroyed to the detriment of their knowledge, cultures and languages. In that respect, it is important to remind Member States of their duty to protect.
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 Constitution of Nepal has provisions for special, protected and autonomous regions for Indigenous Peoples. The Permanent Forum welcomes further progress towards realizing the provisions of the Constitution, including by considering the recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to Nepal in 2018 on respect for Indigenous Peoples’ rights to their traditional lands and resources and to self-determination.
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 recommends that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in cooperation with the Permanent Forum develop a coherent and strategic plan of action in Africa in cooperation with indigenous peoples and their representative organizations, and that the implementation of the programme of the Office of the High Commissioner to strengthen capacity to protect and advocate for the human rights of indigenous peoples be linked to other United Nations bodies, notably the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), UNESCO and others.
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.