Welcome to the United Nations
Addressee: Member States, UN agencies
Full Text
As a means of redefining approaches, countries with indigenous peoples are urged to incorporate the issues and challenges specifically faced by indigenous peoples directly into the framework of the Millennium Development Goal reports by: (a) including indigenous peoples within the context of the overall report; (b) including indigenous peoples in the context of meeting each specific goal; (c) including indigenous peoples in the planning of the overall report and each individual goal; and (d) including indigenous peoples’ effective participation in the planning process of future interventions, and in the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of programmes and projects that will directly or indirectly affect them.
Responses
The Secretariat of the CBD reports: “(a)The Conference of the Parties has not responded to the general recommendations made by the Permanent Forum to the UN system. However, noting that regular recommendations have been made by the Forum concerning the effective participation of indigenous peoples in matters that affect them, the Conference of the Parties at its eighth meeting adopted enhanced participation mechanisms and measures to assist the effective participation of indigenous and local communities in the development of an international regime on access and benefit-sharing of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge. (b) As an indication of the importance placed on the implementation of article 8 (j) and the effective participation of indigenous and local communities, it should be noted that the Convention is the only multilateral environmental agreement with two full-time positions in its secretariat exclusively focused on traditional knowledge and its role in the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. (c) At its eighth meeting, held in Curitiba, Brazil, in March 2007, the Conference of the Parties became the first governing body of a multilateral environmental agreement to establish a voluntary funding mechanism specifically for the participation of indigenous and local communities in meetings held under the Convention. In recognition of the diversity of indigenous and local communities, the Conference of the Parties also established separate categories of accreditation for indigenous communities and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles. (d) The eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties attracted a large number of participants from indigenous and local communities, as well as more than 1,000 NGOs, including 348 indigenous organizations. After the Permanent Forum, the SCBD hosts one of the largest gatherings of indigenous and local communities in the international system, which is further testimony to the high priority given by indigenous and local communities to participation in the work of the Convention.”
The Government of Switzerland reports: “Switzerland supports this progressive recommendation, but would like to see it include specific references to indigenous women and children, to make it consistent with the legal framework provided by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This would also help to mainstream gender issues into all components of the Millennium Development Goals.”
UNDP: a) UNDP reports that over the past four years, it has engaged in raising awareness of the MDGs among indigenous peoples and their organizations at various international forums. UNDP seeks to collaborate with indigenous peoples and their organizations in achieving the MDGs and recognizes that greater efforts are needed to include the participation of indigenous peoples’ organizations in the development of the country reports that monitor the progress of achievement of the Goals. Greater coordination between indigenous peoples’ organizations and the Millennium Campaign remains a challenge. b) UNDP is incorporating an indigenous peoples’ component into the developmetn framework at both the policy and programme levels, mainly through the programme HURIST, a joint programme of UNDP and the OHCHR, aimed at integrating human rights into development programming processes by building the capacity of UNDP country offices, supporting the development of national human rights action plans, developing tools and methodologies on human rights-based approaches to development programming and documenting and disseminating good practices in the application of the human rights-based approach. A detailed account of UNDP’s work in this area is available in the document E/C.19/2007/3/Add.12.
Final Report of UNPFII Session 5 (2006)
Area of Work
