The Permanent Forum encourages all United Nations agencies that have not yet developed a policy on engaging with indigenous peoples to follow the example of sister agencies in order to ensure that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is adequately reflected in all United Nations programmes.
The Permanent Forum recommends that States establish mechanisms and processes for consistent dialogues and consultations with indigenous peoples in their countries on ways and means to foster better relationships and to enable indigenous peoples to exercise fully their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, in addition to other individual and collective human rights.
The Forum recommends that UNICEF, UNESCO, WHO, the ILO, UNIFEM, UNDP, UNFPA and other United Nations bodies, in collaboration with Governments and in close coordination with indigenous peoples, prepare a Latin American conference of indigenous children and youth in 2004, taking into account the experience of the Subregional Conference of Indigenous Youth and Children, held in Quito in 2001.
The Permanent Forum acknowledges the continuing negotiations between the Nordic States and the Sami peoples towards the adoption of a Nordic Sami convention. The Forum recommends that the minimum international human rights standards contained in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples be the framework for all negotiations concerning the convention and the harmonizing of Sami rights within Nordic countries. It urges Nordic States to recognize and respect the Sami peoples’ right to self-determination, to determine their own identity or membership of their institutions in accordance with their customs and their right not to be subjected to forced assimilation, consistent with articles 8 and 33 of the Declaration, the conclusions and recommendations of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (see CERD/C/FIN/CO/19, para. 13).
The Permanent Forum requests that UNICEF operationalize and implement its strategic framework on indigenous and minority children and report to the Forum in 2012 on measures undertaken to that end.