The Permanent Forum calls for the implementation on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which gives clear guidance to States on the need for them to minimize childhood exposure to toxic chemicals through water, food, air and other sources of exposure. It is critical that environmental regulators be educated specifically regarding article 24 of the Convention.
The Permanent Forum urges States to generate statistics disaggregated by ethnicity, gender, indigenous identity, language, language skills and self-identification, and to provide sources of data to allow for a more accurate assessment of whether indigenous children and youth are actually benefiting from the expenditure earmarked for them. The Forum also urges United Nations agencies, funds and programmes to support member States in generating statistics and the United Nations agencies, funds and programmes and academic centres to produce a toolkit that provides a comprehensive and an accurate overview of human development indicators concerning indigenous children and youth.
The Forum welcomes the initiative of UNESCO to draft a convention on intangible heritage and requests the participation, consultation and dialogue with indigenous peoples and with the Forum.
Recalling its workshop on data collection and disaggregation concerning indigenous peoples (see E/C.19/2004/2), the Forum takes note with satisfaction of the recommendations and intends to: a) Request the World Bank to undertake a study on poverty and indigenous peoples in connection with disaggregation of data, and to present the results to the Forum at its fifth session; b) Devote in-sessional time to in-depth discussions and exchange of good practices concerning the disaggregation of data.
The Forum recommends to Governments the design and implementation of mechanisms for resolving the problems related to land tenure and access to credits, with quality and efficiency and without affecting indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum recommends that social and environmental impact assessments, including human rights impact assessments and poverty impact assessments, of financial investments and trade agreements directly affecting indigenous peoples be undertaken, and that the resources for those assessments be provided by the sources of the investments and the parties to trade agreements.
The Permanent Forum recommends that Member States, the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals and the United Nations system ensure that the processes relating to the definition of the development agenda beyond 2015 are formulated in accordance with the objectives of sustainable development, as defined in the Indigenous Peoples’ International Declaration on Sustainable Development and Self-Determination, adopted by the Indigenous Peoples’ International Conference on Sustainable Development and Self-Determination, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2012, and also recommends that culture be affirmed as the fourth pillar of sustainable development.
The Permanent Forum calls on indigenous peoples’ organizations, United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations to develop popular education materials on climate change and climate mitigation and adaptation measures and undertake education and training activities at the local levels. The Forum also recommends that ICT be used to disseminate and raise awareness of indigenous peoples’ perspectives and issues on climate change.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the fact that the International Union for Conservation of Nature, in cooperation with indigenous peoples, is undertaking preparations for the World Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nature to be convened during the upcoming World Conservation Congress, which will be held in Marseille, France, in September 2021. The summit is aimed at providing an opportunity to highlight and exchange information about the contributions of indigenous peoples to sustaining biodiversity, combating climate change and promoting sustainable development. The Forum recommends that Member States, international organizations and NGOs support the participation of indigenous peoples in the summit. The Forum invites the International Union for Conservation of Nature to share the outcomes of the summit at the Forum’s twenty-first session in 2022.
The Permanent Forum strongly encourages States to provide disaggregated data on health and social welfare indicators for indigenous populations in order to better assist in the monitoring and evaluation of outcomes at the national and international levels.
The Forum recommends that the relevant United Nations entities, in particular the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, in particular its Division for the Advancement of Women, UNICEF, UNIFEM, the Department of Public Information and ILO:
(a) Encourage the dissemination of information in indigenous languages at the local level, concerning the rights of indigenous peoples, especially indigenous women;
(b) Encourage and support the training of indigenous women in human rights and the rule of law;
(c) Provide technical assistance to governments to establish the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples, especially indigenous women.
The Permanent Forum calls upon the member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to recognize the collective rights of indigenous peoples, and calls on ASEAN to ensure that the rights of indigenous peoples are integrated into the development process of the ASEAN charter.