The Permanent Forum notes with concern the slow progress made in the negotiations on the final protocol on access and benefit-sharing. The Permanent Forum reiterates its requests to the parties to the Convention to take into account the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the negotiation, adoption and implementation of the access and benefit-sharing protocol.
The Forum recommends that in staffing the secretariat of the Forum, due consideration be given to qualified indigenous youth applicants.
The Permanent Forum recommends that Member States formulate evidence- based policies, long-term strategies and regulatory frameworks, in cooperation with indigenous peoples, to ensure their support and the protection and revitalization of indigenous languages, including adequate, sustained support for bilingual, mother- tongue education. The Forum also recommends that States facilitate the mainstreaming of indigenous languages. Allowing indigenous peoples to gain access to health care and other public services in their own languages will help to ensure their overall well-being.
The Forum recommends that the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) and the bureau of the fifty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women include indigenous women as experts on violence against women in the interactive panels and guarantee the participation of indigenous women in the process of preparation for and during the fifty-seventh session of the Commission.
Building upon past work of the Permanent Forum with regard to indigenous women, in particular the study on the extent of violence against indigenous women and girls in terms of article 22 (2) of the United Nations Declaration (see E/C.19/2013/9) and the report of the international expert group meeting on combating such violence (see E/2012/43-E/C.19/2012/13) the Forum recommends that States adopt measures aimed at addressing the specific problems of police brutality, systemic police violence and discrimination against indigenous women, as experienced, for example, by indigenous women in Val-d’Or, Canada, Sepur Zarco, Guatemala, and north-east India.
The Permanent Forum underscores the need to strengthen collaboration with UN-Women in order to finalize a road map, including concrete actions, and specific outcomes within their next strategic plan as well as to include indigenous women’s priorities in global, regional and national programmes, consistent with articles 21, 22 and 41 of the Declaration.
The Permanent Forum invites the General Assembly to request that UNESCO report on activities carried out during the International Year, and subsequent impacts and follow-up activities after 2019, at its seventy-fifth session.
The Permanent Forum welcomes national engagement of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples with Brazil, Finland, Mexico, New Zealand and Sweden on projects related to, among others, the development of national action plans for the implementation of indigenous peoples’ rights, processes related to land demarcation and land titling, and facilitating the repatriation of sacred ceremonial objects. The Forum highlights the agreement facilitated by the Expert Mechanism among the Museum of World Culture in Sweden, the Yaqui people in Mexico and the United States of America on the repatriation of the Maaso Kova as a commendable best practice. The Forum encourages States and indigenous peoples to build on the successful country engagement practices and avail themselves of the Expert Mechanism’s unique analytical capacity and potential to support dialogue between indigenous peoples and Governments.
The Forum, recognizing the contributions of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in reducing rural poverty and its experience of good practices, recommends that IFAD consider operational guidelines on indigenous peoples and a framework tool for advocacy for promoting indigenous rights and development and achieving internaitonal development goals which emerged from international conferences, summits and conventions which are relevant for indigenous peoples
The Permanent Forum welcomes the “International Conference on Biological and Cultural Diversity: Diversity for Development and Development for Diversity” (8-10 June 2010, Montreal, Canada) as a useful dialogue on the interface of diversities and development and notes its goal to consider a future collaborative programme of work between the Secretariat of the Conference on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), other relevant agencies, including the Forum and relevant indigenous organizations and non-governmental organizations, and decides to send the Chair of the Forum to report on the outcomes of the ninth session of the Permanent Forum regarding the theme.
Since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by Member States in 2015, the Permanent Forum has repeatedly highlighted the importance of ensuring the meaningful and full participation of indigenous peoples in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Unfortunately, the world is not on track to meet globally agreed targets. This has been particularly evident during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which existing inequities have been exacerbated, placing the survival of indigenous peoples at greater risk. During the pandemic, indigenous peoples, in particular indigenous women and girls, have not only been left behind, but have been left even further behind.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the General Assembly rename the Decade “Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples”.