Relations between development agencies and the organizations of indigenous peoples should be direct and not relayed through intermediate institutions of the dominant society
Indigenous culture and tourism is often seen as a driver of growth and development for the economies and businesses of indigenous peoples, with indigenous peoples often trivialized and viewed solely as cultural icons and objects by others. The Permanent Forum therefore recommends that United Nations agencies, in collaboration with the indigenous peoples concerned, affirm and make operational the right of indigenous peoples to determine their own priorities for development and opportunities concerning indigenous culture and tourism.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the policy guides that are being developed by UN-Habitat, including on housing for indigenous peoples in the urban setting, which will be presented at the upcoming session of the World Urban Forum, to be held from 3 to 7 November 2008, in Nanjing, China. States are encouraged to support the production of the guidelines.
The Permanent Forum commends the inclusion by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development of free, prior and informed consent in its policy on indigenous peoples, and strongly urges other multilateral and bilateral financial institutions to follow this example. In particular, the Forum calls upon the Asian Development Bank to ensure that free, prior and informed consent and the provisions of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples are integrated into its revised policy on indigenous peoples. It also calls upon the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation to review their policies and adopt free, prior and informed consent as the central principle in their dealings with indigenous peoples instead of the present free, prior, informed consultation. The international financial institutions should develop a strategy to raise staff awareness at the national and headquarters levels on indigenous peoples’ rights and development perspectives and thereby improve their relationships with indigenous peoples at the country level.
The Forum welcomes the establishment of indigenous education caucuses and looks forward to working with them to promote mutual indigenous education goals, and urges indigenous educators to become actively involved in these useful structures.
The Forum recommends that States rescue, foster and give publicity to the history and culture of indigenous peoples in the education systems of the world to strengthen their identity.
The Permanent Forum recommends that States immediately begin the process of demarcation of indigenous peoples’ lands and territories in accordance with customary laws and the norms reflected in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, with a view to further protecting indigenous peoples’ lands and resources from expropriation, exploitation and designation as conservation areas or national parks without the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples, as set out in articles 19, 26 and 27 of the Declaration.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the adoption by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity at its 10th meeting of the Code of Ethical Conduct to Ensure Respect for the Cultural and Intellectual Heritage of Indigenous and Local Communities Relevant to the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity (the Tkarihwaié:ri code of ethical conduct), which arose from a Forum recommendation made at its second session, and invites parties and Governments, international agencies and all those working with indigenous communities to make use of the code for research and access to, use, exchange and management of information concerning traditional knowledge.
The Forum decides to appoint Victoria Tauli-Corpuz and Lars Anders-Baer, members of the Permanent Forum, as special rapporteurs to prepare a report on various models and best practices of mitigation and adaptation measures undertaken by indigenous peoples from various parts of the world. The Forum requests that these special rapporteurs, in collaboration with indigenous peoples, also prepare a draft declaration of action on climate change and indigenous peoples, which can include a road map for indigenous peoples towards the 2009 Copenhagen Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and beyond. These will be presented at the eighth session of the Forum.
The Permanent Forum calls upon the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity to adopt the terminology “indigenous peoples and local communities” as an accurate reflection of the distinct identities developed by those entities since the adoption of the Convention almost 20 years ago.
Consistent with article 10 of the United Nations Declaration, the Permanent Forum calls upon Member States and human rights institutions to consider examining, in conjunction with the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples and other mandate holders, the forced relocation of indigenous communities.
The Permanent Forum urges the international community to pay particular attention to the situation of the Batwa peoples, in particular Batwa women, and to support the inclusion of the San people and other indigenous groups in the national census. The Permanent Forum urges African States and their international development partners to review the poverty reduction strategy papers and other frameworks for integrating the specificities of such indigenous peoples as the Batwa, Pygmies, Touaregue, Amazigh, Khoisan and other hunter-gatherers or nomadic peoples in their countries, both in Central and in Southern Africa.