The Permanent Forum requests the host country to promptly issue entry visas for its members, Indigenous Peoples and civil society observers, in accordance with article IV, section 11 of the United Nations Headquarters Agreement.3 In addition, the Permanent Forum encourages other Member States hosting United Nations meetings with Indigenous Peoples’ organizations to expedite visa processing. The Permanent Forum also suggests that host countries consider waiving visa fees for participants involved in the Permanent Forum’s work and associated events. Addressing these issues is essential for promoting accountability, responsibility and inclusiveness in Indigenous Peoples’ decision-making processes.
The Permanent Forum clarifies its call on United Nations entities, in its report on the twenty-first session (E/2022/43-E/C.19/2022/11), to elevate the discussion on Indigenous Peoples to the highest possible governance level of their entities to ensure system-wide ownership and support for Indigenous Peoples’ rights. It encourages Member States to ensure that United Nations entity leaders appoint Indigenous Peoples focal points who report directly to their senior staff member on Indigenous Peoples. The Permanent Forum recommends that United Nations entities employ Indigenous Peoples for these positions.
The Permanent Forum encourages all United Nations entities to actively engage with United Nations resident coordinators and country teams to ensure that Indigenous Peoples’ issues are integrated into country-level initiatives and joint work planning, including through a reflection of their concerns in the common country analysis, in line with the system-wide action plan and the Secretary-General’s Call to Action for Human Rights.
The Permanent Forum reiterates its call at its twenty-first session for a clear distinction between Indigenous Peoples and local communities. All United Nations entities and States parties to treaties concerning the environment, biodiversity and climate are encouraged to eliminate the use of the term “local communities” in
connection with Indigenous Peoples, so that the term “Indigenous Peoples and localcommunities” would be abolished.
The Forum decides to hold a meeting of four of its members with the Inter-Agency Support Group (IASG) at its annual session of IASG, in 2004.
The Forum, further recognizing the long-term benefits for indigenous peoples of training and education opportunities within the United Nations system, such as the establishment of an indigenous fellowship network by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, requests the Office to invite Permanent Forum Members and the secretariat of the Forum to the meeting of the indigenous fellowship network, scheduled to be held August 2004 in Barcelona.
The Forum anticipates that the host country will do its utmost to assure the issuance in a timely manner of entry visas to members of the Forum and observers from non-governmental organizations, pursuant to article IV, section 11, of the Headquarters Agreement, in order to attend its sessions. The Forum also anticipates that other member States hosting United Nations meetings to which indigenous organizations are invited will also do their utmost to ensure the timely issuance of entry visas. The Forum further requests that consideration be given to the waivering of visa fees by host countries for applicants wishing to participate in the work of the Forum and related meetings and activities.
The Forum welcomes the preparation of daily press releases in English, French and Spanish on the discussions of the Forum during its session. The Forum requests the Department of Public Information, in collaboration with the secretariat of the Forum, to:
a) Ensure the widest distribution of the press releases;
b) Develop an overall strategy to fulfil the mandate of the Forum to disseminate information on indigenous peoples and their issues.
The Forum notes with satisfaction the recent activation of the Trust Fund for the support of the Forum, expresses its deep appreciation and thanks to all those who contributed to it and calls upon Governments, foundations and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to give generously to the Fund.
The Forum expresses its appreciation to the Inter-Agency Support Group for its contribution to its work during its third session and in-between sessions, as well as for the documents provided to the Forum. The Forum also expresses its appreciation for the attendance of the session by representatives of the United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, renews its invitation to the United Nations system to continue to attend its sessions, and expresses the hope that this constructive engagement will continue.
Taking into account the Secretary-General’s recommendation to make the twenty-first century "The age of prevention", the wish of the Forum to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and feed into the 10-year review of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action process, the complex cross-cutting nature of issues facing United Nations bodies in formulating appropriate policies, programmes and projects to address the problems of indigenous and tribal communities, and the strong recommendations by indigenous peoples that such policies, programmes and projects should be based on a holistic approach befitting their spiritual values and way of life, the Permanent Forum decides to organize its work for 2005 and onwards around cross-cutting themes that relate directly to the Millennium Development Goals, while considering all the mandated areas of the Permanent Forum.
The Forum takes note with satisfaction of the enhanced contributions of the United Nations system in its work, and recommends that the United Nations system, Governments, indigenous and other organizations further assist in the implementation and monitoring of the Forum’s recommendations and report to the Forum at its annual sessions. The Forum notes with appreciation the database of recommendations and their implementation status, as well as indicative time frames prepared by its secretariat, and recommends that the secretariat further develop this as a useful tool.