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Addressee: Australia

Paragraph Number: 62
Session: 22 (2023)
Full Text:

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.

Area of Work: Indigenous Children and Youth, Human rights

Addressee: Member States

Paragraph Number: 62
Session: 21 (2022)
Full Text:

The Permanent Forum expresses concern over the misappropriation and misuse of indigenous peoples’ cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, and urges States and companies, in cooperation with indigenous peoples, to take effective measures to recognize and protect their rights, in accordance with article 31 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In this regard, the Permanent Forum calls upon Member States to take measures to safeguard indigenous peoples’ rights to intellectual property by adopting laws and public policies, in which it is recognized that indigenous peoples have the right over their creations, knowledge, discoveries, works, traditional cultural expressions and other elements.

Area of Work: Economic and Social Development, Intellectual property
Paragraph Number: 5
Session: 2 (2003)
Full Text:

Recognizing the progress made, and building on the recommendations made in
its report on its first session, the Forum provides the following advice and recommendations:

(a) Encourages United Nations bodies whose activities have an impact on indigenous children and youth, including, but not limited to, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), and the Department of Public Information of the United Nations Secretariat, to report regularly to the Forum. The reports should contain detailed information on and assess the progress made within programmes directed at, affecting and relating to indigenous adolescents.

(b) Reiterates its recommendation that the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF), as the United Nations nodal agency on children:
Present a comprehensive report to the Forum on an annual basis, including budgetary allocations and an assessment of their impact, including details of all its initiatives undertaken in collaboration with other specialized bodies of the United Nations system relating to indigenous children and those undertaken at the international or regional levels, as well as country initiatives, where applicable; Provide information from the multi-indicator cluster survey being globally undertaken by UNICEF, disaggregating data on the antenatal health, birth, registration, immunization and early childhood development of indigenous children.

Area of Work: Indigenous Children and Youth