The Permanent Forum recommends that the Secretary-General, in his report on the study of violence against women, address the particular situation of indigenous women and girls whose suffering is based not only on gender but also on ethnicity and culture.
Owing to the cross-cutting nature of gender equality, it is also critical that gender perspectives be fully integrated into the implementation and monitoring of all the other objectives associated with the United Nations Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals.
The Permanent Forum calls upon the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), UNICEF, UNFPA, UNDP and other entities of the United Nations system to develop programmes and projects that support and build the capacity of indigenous women in Africa in order to empower them economically and socially. A good practice in this regard is strengthening the entrepreneurship of indigenous women and facilitating their access to formal markets and financial institutions for their activities. The Forum also encourages States to develop affirmative actions that are aimed at actively including indigenous women in decision-making at all levels and at ensuring that indigenous women’s voices are equally represented in economic, social and political decision-making processes.
The Permanent Forum urges UN-Women, UNDP, other relevant United Nations agencies and Governments to support the political participation of indigenous women by assigning resources to training and exchange programmes and strengthening organization and networks of indigenous women.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Secretary-General, in his report on the study of violence against women, address the particular situation of indigenous women and girls whose suffering is based not only on gender but also on ethnicity and culture.
Redefining the Millennium Development Goals provides an opportunity to incorporate into the Goals the concerns of indigenous peoples, particularly indigenous women. The Goals offer a strategic framework within which to fully integrate the goals of the Platform for Action, which provides an important human rights-based approach to the development agenda for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women, including indigenous women.
The Permanent Forum recognizes the particular concerns of African indigenous youth, who are striving against political, social and economic challenges, poverty, marginalization and a lack of capacity development and employment. The Permanent Forum calls upon, among others, the Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union, including the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, to provide adequate capacity-building programmes and opportunities to enable African indigenous youth, women and persons with disabilities to engage meaningfully with States and other key development players, including by organizing and sponsoring attendance at training sessions, conferences and other forums on indigenous issues.
The Permanent Forum, reaffirming the recommendations on health made at its first, second and third sessions, further recommends that all relevant United Nations entities, especially WHO, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and UNFPA, as well as regional health organizations and Governments, fully incorporate a cultural perspective into health policies, programmes and reproductive health services aimed at providing indigenous women with quality health care, including emergency obstetric care, voluntary family planning and skilled attendance at birth. In the latter context, the roles of traditional midwives should be re-evaluated and expanded so that they may assist indigenous women during their reproductive health processes and act as cultural brokers between health systems and the indigenous communities’ values and world views