States Members of the United Nations and indigenous peoples must continue their constructive dialogue under the auspices of the President of the General Assembly, within the framework of the relevant decisions of the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and the Human Rights Council. It is also important to continue to make use of and explore ways to improve the opportunities provided through the existing formats and modalities of the Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, the Human Rights Council and various entities of the United Nations system. In that regard, the Permanent Forum welcomes the adoption by the Assembly of resolution 75/168 and the continuation of the dialogue within the context of the Forum at its twenty-first session.
During the pandemic, indigenous peoples have been seriously affected by a lack of access to energy, health-care establishments, education centres, infrastructure that supplies clean water, and communication services and information technologies. Governments have made a range of efforts to support economic activity in their responses to the economic impacts of the pandemic. The relaxation of environmental and human rights standards in order to support activities that will promote economic growth, such as logging, mining, large-scale agriculture and various infrastructure and energy projects, threaten indigenous peoples’ territories. The Permanent Forum requests Member States to include indigenous peoples in the preparatory process and the outcome of the high-level dialogue on energy to be held by the General Assembly in September 2021, in order to accelerate action on achieving Goal 7 and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement.