The Permanent Forum welcomes the first indigenous media zone, established at the sixteenth session of the Forum, and encourages the continuation of this initiative at future sessions, in cooperation with indigenous community media, and, where possible, encourages United Nations entities to continue collaboration with indigenous community media at the regional and national levels.
Considering that 2008 is the International Year of Languages, the Permanent Forum recommends holding an expert group meeting on indigenous languages that will call upon States, the United Nations system and indigenous peoples and their organizations to consider the following elements:(a)Working towards concrete actions and legislative development aimed at eliminating discrimination against the current use of indigenous languages;(b)Developing programmes aimed at promoting the empowerment of indigenous languages through all mediums, including radio and television;(c)Supporting and increasing the number of centres for the study of indigenous languages;(d)Financing and supporting schemes for special projects that are formulated by indigenous peoples and are focused on revitalization and rescue of threatened languages;(e) Designing, in consultation with indigenous peoples and the Permanent Forum, the organization of a world conference on linguistic diversity, indigenous languages, identity and education, as a contribution to the programme of the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People.
The Permanent Forum urges other States to provide similar support and urges regional commissions to strengthen their focus on urban indigenous peoples and issues, in particular regarding the implementation of the recommendations contained in the 2006 publication.