The Permanent Forum is pleased to note that indigenous peoples and their organizations increasingly avail themselves of the human rights procedures of the Human Rights Council and the international human rights instruments, and the increasing visibility of indigenous peoples’ issues within those mechanisms. In that regard, the Forum recommends that OHCHR continue to disseminate information and to conduct capacity-building activities on the United Nations human rights mechanisms for the promotion and protection of human rights.
The Forum also decides to give ongoing priority to two other cross-cutting issues: a. Data collection and segregation as a follow-up of recommendations by the technical workshop on data collection; b. Human rights. In collaboration with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The Permanent Forum notes the general capacity-building efforts on access and benefit-sharing in the African region carried out under Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) of Germany and encourages further efforts to bolster indigenous participation in those workshops and also in developing workshops specifically for indigenous peoples and local communities.
The Permanent Forum recommends that FAO, in 2014, the International Year of Family Farming, organize and host an expert seminar on culture, food sovereignty and traditional livelihoods to feed into the post-2015 process. The seminar should include the participation of an elder, an adult and a young person from each of the seven sociocultural regions of the Forum.
The Forum recommends that States reduce the rates of illiteracy, lack of schooling, truancy and dropouts and raise the rates of completed primary education through literacy campaigns and the design of indigenous, bilingual, inter-cultural educative and extramural models in the States where indigenous peoples live.
The Forum recognizes the unique contributions made by indigenous women in terms of possessing and transmitting through the generations a wealth of traditional knowledge on the conservation of biodiversity and sustainable environmental management, and calls on the secretariat of the Convention for Biological Diversity, UNEP and all relevant United Nations bodies to mainstream indigenous gender issues and knowledge in national environmental policies and programmes.
The Permanent Forum welcomes indigenous peoples’ contributions to the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the development of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. The Forum underlines the need to develop a new programme of work and institutional arrangements on article 8 (j) and other provisions of the Convention with the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples. It recommends that the secretariat of the Convention facilitate a capacity-building process for indigenous peoples to enable them to prepare themselves for the development of new programmes of work and institutional arrangements.
The Forum recommends that the Global Fund and UNAIDS participate in the Inter-Agency Support Group and that the Fund and UNAIDS present a report on the impact of their programmes and activities on indigenous peoples and communities to the Permanent Forum at its 2004 session, with specific focus on preventative programmes and activities impacting children and infants.
The Permanent Forum requests that the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people undertake a study on the rights of urban indigenous peoples and migration, paying particular attention to their ability to exercise and enjoy their economic and social rights, and that the study be considered at the eighth session of the Permanent Forum. The themes that could be considered in the study include cultural identity, equitable access to essential services, the challenges facing indigenous youth and border issues.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Pacific Islands Forum create a mechanism for contributions by and participation of indigenous peoples’ representatives in its meetings and related structures and activities.
The Forum recommends that the Department of Peacekeeping Operations of the United Nations Secretariat establish a policy on indigenous peoples, in consultation with indigenous peoples
The Permanent Forum recommends that United Nations human rights mechanisms examine the plight of indigenous peoples from French Polynesia, Guam and the Marshall Islands who have been victims of the effects of nuclear testing in the Pacific.