The Permanent Forum recommends that States, relevant United Nations agencies and other intergovernmental organizations and bilateral donors support strategies for intercultural prevention and eradication of violence against women that are designed and driven by indigenous women’s organizations and that consider indigenous approaches to address gender-based violence.
The Forum urges the United Nations funds, agencies and programmes and multilateral cooperation entities, including UNIFEM, to adopt policies and strengthen existing funds for financing and supporting indigenous women’s participation, strengthening their own participation and social development options in all initiatives that promote their cultural identities.
The Permanent Forum calls upon the Commission on the Status of Women to consider the issue of gender equality and the empowerment of Indigenous women and girls as a priority theme in its next multi-year programme of work in 2025.
The Forum urges indigenous organizations to make more effective use of existing international human rights monitoring instruments, such as the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and to bring communications to their attention regarding claims of violence of different forms against indigenous women, to ensure States take steps to end the persistent and unaddressed violence, including murders and disappearances of indigenous women.
The Forum recommends that the Commission on Human Rights appoint or designate a rapporteur to undertake a study on genocidal and ethnocidal practices perpetuated on indigenous peoples, including programmes for the sterilization of indigenous women and girls, the use of indigenous communities as subjects of nuclear testing or for the storage of nuclear waste and as subjects of the testing of unapproved drugs on indigenous women, children and peoples.
The Permanent Forum urges States to expand opportunities to enable indigenous women to participate actively in the political life of the country in which they live. The Forum also urges States to ensure the safety of indigenous women who are defending the rights of their peoples and territories and to prosecute those persons involved in incidents of violence against them.
The Permanent Forum urges States to intensify efforts at the national level to implement Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) of 31 October 2000 on women, peace and security, including through national action plans that pay special attention to indigenous women.
The Forum recalls the Millennium Development Goal to "Achieve universal primary education", especially for indigenous women and girls, as well as the Dakar Framework for Action, "Education for all: meeting our collective commitments", and reiterates its support, with a focus on indigenous women and girls. In accordance with the provision contained in the relevant international instruments, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, International Labour Organization Convention 169 and the UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education, some Governments have in recent years, taking into account their specific situations, formulated policies and programmes to safeguard indigenous peoples’ equal rights to education, and have adopted positive measures to address indigenous education issues. These should be promoted as good practices throughout the United Nations system and broadly to all Member States. Furthermore, to achieve equitable
educational outcomes for indigenous peoples, especially indigenous women and girls, Governments should adopt special measures (UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education).
The Permanent Forum recommends that agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations system, in collaboration with indigenous peoples ’ organizations, monitor the high levels of global violence and threats directed at indigenous women human rights defenders. The Forum calls for an immediate halt to the criminalization,
incarceration, intimidation, coercion and assassination of, and death threats to, all indigenous human and environmental rights defenders.
The Forum expresses its concerns regarding continued violence against women and, owing to the seriousness of these conditions, reiterates its previous recommendations regarding: human and sex trafficking; prostitution and trans-border issues; the disappearance, or murder, of aboriginal women; issues related to identification and birth certificates; environmental violence; intergenerational trauma; youth suicide; peace and security; conflict prevention and resolution; cultural practices such as female genital mutilation or cutting; bride price and promised brides; racism and discrimination; and data disaggregation.
The Forum recommends that UNESCO, other cultural institutions and academic institutions:
(a) Recognize and document the diversity of gender relations in indigenous communities based on active community input and participation;
(b) Examine and document women’s spheres of power in indigenous societies, taking into account traditional mechanisms of gender definition and distinction (e.g., pollution/purity, gender-specific roles in ritual, gendered division of labour);
(c) Examine and document the instrumental role of women in indigenous societies as the custodians of sacred knowledge and power, and as medical specialists;
(d) Highlight and give recognition to women’s instrumental roles in indigenous societies as educators, healers and ritual specialists;
(e) Highlight indigenous women’s traditional skills, arts and crafts and publicize them through the media, cultural institutions etc.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the intention of the Commission on the Status of Women to make the issue of the empowerment of indigenous women a focus area of its sixty-first session, to be held in 2017. The Forum invites the Bureau of the Commission to consider organizing a half-day session on the issue. The Forum calls upon the Commission to consider the empowerment of indigenous women as a theme in future sessions, pursuant to paragraph 19 of General Assembly resolution 69/2.