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Addressee: UN agencies

Paragraph Number: 114
Session: 9 (2010)
Full Text:

The Permanent Forum invites United Nations bodies with expertise on human rights, cultural rights and the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples to provide legal and technical comments on the revised draft protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity on access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilization for transmission to parties to the Convention for consideration in their final negotiations.

Area of Work: Traditional Knowledge, Human Rights
Paragraph Number: 113
Session: 9 (2010)
Full Text:

The Permanent Forum reiterates to the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity that, consistent with international human rights law, States have an obligation to recognize and protect the rights of indigenous peoples to control access to the genetic resources that originate in their lands and waters and any associated indigenous traditional knowledge. Such recognition must be a key element of the proposed international regime on access and benefit-sharing, consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Area of Work: Traditional Knowledge
Paragraph Number: 103
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:

Recalling the special theme of its second session, "Indigenous children and youth", the Permanent Forum confirms its commitment to make indigenous children and youth an ongoing part of its work. In so doing, it acknowledges the efforts made by organizations representing indigenous peoples, United Nations bodies, especially the Committee on the Rights of the Child and States, to address the urgent needs of indigenous children and youth, and encourages partners of the Forum towards further collaboration regarding this crucial cross-cutting issue.

Area of Work: Indigenous Children and Youth
Paragraph Number: 82
Session: 9 (2010)
Full Text:

The Permanent Forum recommends that the Government of Paraguay should give priority, in its emergency plans, to the protection of vulnerable indigenous children from practices of forced labour and other forms of exploitation.

Area of Work: Indigenous Children and Youth
Paragraph Number: 13
Session: 9 (2010)
Full Text:

The Permanent Forum recognizes the importance of indigenous peoples knowledge systems as the basis of their development with culture and identity and therefore recommends that ongoing international processes, such as negotiations on the international regime on access and benefit-sharing of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore of the World Intellectual Property Organization, should recognize and integrate the crucial role and relevance of indigenous knowledge systems in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Area of Work: Environment, Traditional Knowledge
Paragraph Number: 20
Session: 3 (2004)
Full Text:

The Forum recommends that the United Nations system consider the following recommendations:

(a) The United Nations system should fully explore the protection, use and promotion of indigenous (including traditional) knowledge and ensure synergies across the relevant bodies currently investigating the issues (specifically the World Intellectual Property Organization, UNESCO, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the World Health Organization, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and others) and furthermore should invite the Forum to participate;

(b) UNESCO should continue to investigate indigenous pedagogy and its application to indigenous education in collaboration with the Special Rapporteur on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples and the Forum and other relevant bodies. The study should include the use of such strategies as boarding schools and both their negative and positive effects. To assist with this investigation into indigenous education, UNESCO is urged to facilitate regional conferences and a global forum on indigenous education to identify both barriers to educational equity and good practice;

(c) The Forum calls upon Governments and UNESCO to give more attention (by increasing their budgets) to developing quality indigenous education policies (with the participation of indigenous peoples) to achieve the Dakar objectives. “Education for all” is one of the fundamental objectives of the World Education Forum that should be achieved by 2015;

(d) The Forum encourages the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNESCO and other agencies to continue to support, in cooperation with indigenous peoples, intercultural and bilingual education programmes and to promote in particular the right of education for girls;

(e) The Forum should work with UNITAR to coordinate training for indigenous peoples within the United Nations system;

(f) UNESCO is requested to facilitate a world indigenous education conference, with appropriate United Nations partners (the Forum, UNESCO, UNITAR etc.), Member States and indigenous peoples. Furthermore, UNESCO should invite indigenous peoples and the Forum to participate in United Nations activities in the field of education. UNESCO has recently completed and distributed a publication on best practices for indigenous peoples education and this should be promoted throughout the international community;

(g) UNICEF advocates bilingual and cross-cultural education for indigenous peoples and conducts schools for girls and women’s literacy programmes in Latin America, and this initiative should be further encouraged and expanded;

(h) The Forum recommends that relevant agencies and Governments, on a regional basis, should provide technical services and the political and moral support needed for the creation, recognition and functioning of future international indigenous universities;

(i) Taking into account the importance of UNESCO national commissions, the Forum recommends that the Economic and Social Council and Governments facilitate the participation of indigenous peoples in the regional commissions with the incorporation of indigenous representation;

(j) The Forum, to underscore the crucial role of language skills to sustainable development and in celebration of the United Nations Year on Education for Sustainable Development (2005), recommends that the secretariat of the Forum, together with the United Nations Development Programme, UNICEF and UNESCO, explore the possibility of organizing a regional workshop in Asia or Africa on the theme “Indigenous children and language education”, to discuss policies, programmes and practical experiences with bilingual education to strengthen additive learning through the use of mother tongue and the “indigenization” of curricula in formal schooling, among members of the Forum, United Nations agencies, Governments (especially departments of education), indigenous and tribal representatives and indigenous education experts.

Area of Work: Education, Traditional Knowledge