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 Permanent Forum recommends that the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women prepare a specific report on the situation of indigenous women’s empowerment, in collaboration with the Forum and indigenous women’s organizations, for submission to the Forum at its seventeenth session.
The Permanent Forum recommends that United Nations entities, including the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Peoples’ Issues, take effective measures to support the promotion of indigenous languages and the successful implementation of the goals and objectives of the International Year, including in activities related to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the systemwide action plan on the rights of indigenous peoples, the celebration of international days and other processes.
The Permanent Forum recommends that United Nations agencies review their policies, which presently allow them to assist only indigenous peoples in developing countries, and to urgently revise such policies to ensure that all indigenous peoples, in both developed and developing countries, have access to resources, technical assistance and other support from all United Nations agencies and funds.
The Permanent Forum thanks the Governments of Canada and the United States of America for hosting its 2011 pre-sessional meeting, and thanks the Governments of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Spain, Norway, Denmark and Greenland and China for having hosted previous pre-sessional meetings of the Forum. The Permanent Forum recommends that States that have not yet done so consider hosting future pre-sessional meetings. The Permanent Forum also requests that the Secretariat organize pre-sessional meetings for future sessions of the Forum.
The Permanent Forum reiterates its call to all Member States, intergovernmental organizations, the bodies and organizations of the United Nations system, in particular the Inter-Agency Support Group, non-governmental organizations and the private sector to cooperate fully with the preparatory processes and the World Conference.
The Permanent Forum calls upon Member States, guided by the spirit of solidarity with indigenous peoples and consistent with their capabilities, to provide support for the effective implementation of the outcomes of the World Conference in mutually agreed areas of cooperation within the framework of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Permanent Forum expresses concern regarding indigenous young people in situations in which they are increasingly migrating from their communities because of poverty, lack of economic opportunities and climate change. With a focus on Sustainable Development Goal 8, the Forum encourages ILO and IOM, in cooperation with indigenous peoples, to conduct a study, by 2021, on good practices on, opportunities for and challenges in generating culturally appropriate, decent work for indigenous young people. The study should inform the development of programmes and initiatives for indigenous youth employment, both in their communities and in the context of migration.
The Permanent Forum recommends that States and United Nations agencies apply the rights affirmed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples throughout their operational frameworks for implementing the Programme of Action for the Decade, in particular its objective on free, prior and informed consent by indigenous peoples.
Given the unique role of information and communications technology companies in the design, development and use of contemporary language technologies, the Permanent Forum reiterates its invitation to the private sector to contribute to the International Decade. The Permanent Forum encourages these companies to continue to develop digital platforms, in cooperation with indigenous peoples and academic institutions, in order to compile information archives for the preservation and revitalization of indigenous languages, language corpora, speech recognition, machine translation and synthesis tools, digital dictionaries and online courses.
The Permanent Forum notes the importance of several concurrent United Nations Decades that are of importance to indigenous peoples. The Permanent Forum recommends that the United Nations entities responsible for the international decades declared by the General Assembly, such as the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, the International Decade for Action, “Water for Sustainable Development”, 2018–2028, and the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, ensure good communication and coordinate efforts regarding the participation of indigenous peoples and their issues. In this regard, the Permanent Forum recommends that the relevant United Nations entities report to the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, which, in turn, is invited to prepare a study on the funding, modalities and scale of indigenous peoples’ participation in all four Decades. The Permanent Forum further invites Member States to support and fund cooperation during the four Decades to ensure the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the fact that United Nations entities and bodies, including mandate holders and, notably, OHCHR and the United Nations Environment Programme, take their share of the responsibility to ensure a safe space for Indigenous Peoples participating in United Nations meetings. The Permanent Forum requests that United Nations bodies and entities create an urgent response mechanism to acts of intimidation and reprisals against Indigenous human rights defenders cooperating with the United Nations, in line with existing United Nations guidance on protection and promotion of civic space and the Secretary-General’s Call to Action for Human Rights. The Permanent Forum will consider how to strengthen its own response mechanisms and its cooperation with the Assistant SecretaryGeneral for Human Rights, in line with General Assembly resolution 77/203, on this pressing matter, including through the appointment of focal points.