The Permanent Forum strongly urges Member States to uphold the linguistic rights of indigenous peoples.
Recalling that the Human Rights Council will assume, review and, where necessary, improve and rationalize all mandates, mechanisms, functions and responsibilities of the Commission on Human Rights in order to maintain a system of special procedures, expert advice and complaint procedures; and recalling also that the Council shall complete the review within one year after the holding of its first session, the Permanent Forum strongly urges the Council to ensure the full participation of representatives of indigenous peoples in that review process. The Permanent Forum further urges the Council to maintain and improve mechanisms, mandates, special procedures, expert advice mechanisms and complaint procedures relevant and pertaining to the promotion and protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples.
Pursuant to article 38 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Permanent Forum reiterates its invitation to States to provide the Permanent Forum with substantive information on the implementation
of the Declaration and an assessment of the effectiveness of the Declaration at the national and local levels.
The Permanent Forum recommends that Paraguay should speed up the reform of INDI and of other institutions with competence in indigenous issues so that the proper participation of indigenous peoples will strengthen their democratic representation before the legislative and judicial powers, which are still reluctant to act.
Indigenous peoples have a profound relationship with their environment. This includes their distinct rights to water. The Permanent Forum urges States to guarantee those rights, including the right to access to safe, clean, accessible and affordable water for personal, domestic and community use. Water should be treated as a social and cultural good, and not primarily as an economic good. The manner in which the right to water is realized must be sustainable for present and future generations. Moreover, indigenous peoples’ access to water resources on their ancestral lands must be protected from encroachment and pollution. Indigenous peoples must have the resources to design, deliver and control their access to water.
The Forum urges UNICEF to develop its policy on and guidelines regarding indigenous peoples in time for the third session of the Forum.
Violent conflicts and militarization fundamentally affect the lives of indigenous women and their families and communities, causing violations of their human rights and displacement from their ancestral lands. Yet indigenous women do not see themselves as passive victims but have taken up the roles of mediators and peace builders. Recognizing the profound concerns of the impact of conflict situations on indigenous women, the Forum recommends:
(a) That IOM and other relevant United Nations entities incorporate the needs and priorities of women and girls as ex-combatants in the design and implementation of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes, and ensure their full access to all resources and benefits provided in reintegration programmes, including income-generation and skill-development programmes;-
(b) That UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA, WHO, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Food Programme, and other field-based agencies collect data on the situation of indigenous women living in conflict areas. Such data would be valuable for analysis and programme development;
(c) That IANWGE integrate indigenous women issues into its strategies on women, conflict, peace and security;
(d) That the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and other United Nations human rights bodies ensure that statutory provisions prohibiting war crimes and crimes against humanity cover criminal acts perpetrated on a gender basis since their occurrence remains particularly acute, especially the high incidence of mass rape and mutilation during armed conflict;-
(e) That UNHCR give priority to indigenous women and their families who are displaced internally and externally by force due to armed conflict in their territories.
States, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, the private sector, academia and the media should promote national dialogues and collaboration, including through the establishment of policy and institutional frameworks, as appropriate, in order to bring together indigenous peoples' perspectives, technical knowledge and priorities for sustainable human development and their expectations regarding the Millennium Development Goals. Indigenous peoples' institutions and processes, where they exist, should be respected during these dialogues
The Permanent Forum recommends that joint regional and/or thematic preparatory conferences, workshops or other events be organized with the support of Member States, United Nations agencies, funds and programmes and indigenous peoples, with the full participation of indigenous peoples and Member States, as well as the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples and the Permanent Forum.
The Permanent Forum recommends to the President of the sixty-eighth session of the General Assembly the continuation of the practice, established during the sixty-sixth session of the Assembly, of appointing a State representative and an indigenous peoples’ representative to conduct inclusive informal consultations on his behalf in order to build consensus on the themes of the round table and panel discussions and the content of the outcome document of the World Conference, as well as to ensure the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples in the process.
The Permanent Forum commits to facilitating informal online regional dialogues between Member States and indigenous peoples on autonomy and self-governance to support the development of guiding principles for the realization of the rights of indigenous peoples to autonomy and self-government. The Permanent Forum invites the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous People’s Issues to participate in the organization of these regional dialogues and in the preparation of a discussion paper on this matter to be presented at the twenty-first session of the Forum. The Permanent Forum also invites the Group of Friends of Indigenous Peoples to encourage the active participation of Member States in this endeavour.
The Permanent Forum recognizes the initial efforts made by FAO towards the elaboration of a methodological discussion platform to address indigenous peoples’ territorial rights. The Permanent Forum recommends that FAO and other interested or partner agencies continue the joint elaboration of the participatory methodology and start using it in the field in order to strengthen the delimitation, titling and negotiated development processes specifically targeting indigenous peoples’ needs