Sexual and gender-based violence increases in settings of conflict. Sexual violence has also been used systematically as a weapon of war against indigenous women. In the light of the particular risks and vulnerabilities of indigenous women and girls relating to sexual and gender-based violence, the Permanent Forum recommends that Governments, local authorities, specialized agencies of the United Nations system and civil society collaborate with indigenous peoples to establish multisectoral and holistic approaches to combat the various forms of violence against women and girls.
The Forum recommends that Governments integrate a gender framework that encompasses all areas of their work, including their agricultural and economic policies, and include in their policies actions that directly benefit indigenous women, through the following measures:
(a) Provide access for indigenous women to funding from public budgets;
(b) Create specific measures that enhance women’s participation in their own development processes;
(c) Create national policies that generate employment for indigenous women;
(d) Improve indigenous women’s access to education and the development of their skills, and reform education systems so that they allow women to take advantage of training and employment opportunities;
(e) Strengthen programmes in indigenous communities that ensure benefits for indigenous women.
The Permanent Forum notes the second World Conference of Indigenous Women, which will be organized in 2020 by the International Indigenous Women’s Forum, in cooperation with regional indigenous women’s networks and hosted by the Saìmi Nisson Forum. The global agenda for promoting the rights of indigenous women in the context of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and of the International Conference on Population and Development will be discussed at the World Conference. The Forum encourages Member States and United Nations entities to support the organization of the World Conference of Indigenous Women and the participation of indigenous women from all seven sociocultural regions.