The Permanent Forum welcomes the ratification on 15 April 2021 by the Bundestag of Germany of the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169) of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and reiterates its recommendation to all Member States that have not ratified said Convention to do so as early as possible.
The Permanent Forum recalls that, more than 10 years ago, the International Fund for Agricultural Development established an indigenous forum, which the Forum has repeatedly recognized as a good practice and recommended that other United Nations entities should follow. However, despite these recommendations, other entities have not done so, with the notable exception of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Forum reiterates its recommendation that United Nations entities should incorporate indigenous-driven platforms in order to give advice on and promote indigenous peoples’ issues and should consider the participation of the Permanent Forum together with indigenous peoples in such platforms.
Bearing in mind that the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues was named at a time when the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples had not yet been adopted, and considering that the title of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples was changed, two years ago, from its previous title of “Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people”, we strongly urge the Economic and Social Council to recommend that the name of the Forum be changed to “Permanent Forum on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples”.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the work undertaken by indigenous peoples in the regional and thematic caucus preparatory meetings and the Indigenous Global Coordinating Group drafting group and looks forward to the forthcoming recommendations of the Global Preparatory Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, to be held in Alta, Norway, from 10 to
12 June 2013, the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the regional preparatory meetings and their respective contributions to the outcome document of the World Conference. All conclusions and recommendations that arise from those activities must be taken into consideration in the decision-making relating to the World Conference itself. The Forum wishes to draw attention to the collective objective of ensuring an informal hearing, interactive round tables, panel discussions and the adoption of an action-oriented outcome document of the Conference.
The Permanent Forum calls upon the President of the General Assembly at its sixty-sixth session to share with its members the main conclusions and recommendations emanating from the half-day dialogue on the World Conference held by the members of the Forum within the framework of its eleventh session.
The Permanent Forum expresses its readiness to examine existing practices and
ways of developing various forms of administrative and territorial autonomy for
indigenous peoples’ communities whose representatives lead a traditional, nomadic
way of life, as part of the development of the guiding principles on indigenous
peoples’ autonomy and self-government as recommended in the study on indigenous
peoples’ autonomies: experiences and perspectives (E/C.19/2020/5). Such work will
be conducted by an online working group of the Permanent Forum. Indigenous
peoples’ organizations, representative decision-making bodies and institutions,
together with United Nations system entities, Member States and other stakeholders,
are invited to contribute financially and practically and to take an active part in the
work of the working group.