The Permanent Forum welcomes the progress made in operationalization of the United Nations Indigenous Peoples’ Partnership, a joint venture of the United Nations agencies, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNDP, ILO, UNICEF and UNFPA at the regional and country levels, in partnership with indigenous peoples, and reiterates its support to its work, firmly believing that it is critical to the implementation of the Declaration at the country level. The Forum also welcomes the contributions of the Governments of Denmark and Finland to the Partnership and calls upon States Members of the United Nations and others to support the work of the Partnership.
It is also vital that Governments recognize indigenous peoples’ institutions, especially their representative institutions. These institutions help promote and protect the cultures, livelihoods, identities and languages of indigenous peoples and other essential elements of their lives. These institutions should be supported and strengthened as essential elements of diverse and multicultural States. The Permanent Forum notes that many Governments already recognize indigenous peoples’ representative institutions at the municipal and national levels. However, they are not yet recognized at the international level.
The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues takes account of the diversity of national experience with surveys, censuses and other data and information-collection systems as applied to indigenous peoples, and in view of the urgent need for disaggregated data on indigenous peoples within all of the mandated areas for developing and streamlining the policies and guidelines of the work of United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, and also in view of the complexities of producing coherent data, reiterates the recommendation made at its first session to organize a workshop on the subject, and recommends that the Economic and Social Council adopt draft decision 1 contained in chapter I, section A, of the present report.
The Permanent Forum calls on ILO to provide more information in the future on the status and trends in the practice of traditional occupations.
The Permanent Forum has paid particular attention to the significant increase in the infrastructure budget of the World Bank, from $15 billion to $45 billion in 2009, for the primary economies of developing States. The implications of this development in relation to the respect and protection of indigenous peoples’ rights have to be clearly understood, and the imperative of getting the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples affected by infrastructure projects has to be guaranteed. The Forum also urges the World Bank to provide additional operational budget to manage this large increase in infrastructure spending. The Permanent Forum reiterates its previous recommendations that the World Bank revise its operational safeguard policies to be consistent with the provisions of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
6. The Permanent Forum congratulates the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on the adoption of its policy on indigenous and tribal peoples and requests that FAO take measures towards the implementation of the policy at all levels, especially at the country level. Such measures include improving the capacity of FAO staff to work effectively with indigenous peoples and their organizations and establishing a mechanism for partnership. Further, the Permanent Forum requests that FAO involve it in the development of voluntary guidelines on the responsible governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests. In addition, the Forum requests participation in the Committee on World Food Security and membership in the Committee’s advisory group.
During the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the members of the Permanent Forum were not able to register as United Nations experts. Forum members attend many United Nations meetings where their specific status is not recognized. The Forum therefore recommends that Member States include Forum members as United Nations experts, not as part of major groups, in United Nations accreditation processes.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the presence of the Minister of the Environment and International Development of Norway and the side event organized by the Government of Norway, at which the Minister held an interactive dialogue with indigenous peoples and others on the Oslo-Paris Initiative on REDD-plus. The Forum recommends that the Initiative ensure the inclusion and the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples and that it not remain as an initiative of Governments only. The Forum further recommends that the Initiative ensure the implementation of the safeguards contained in the report of the Ad Hoc Working Group on long-term cooperative action under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change on its eighth session (FCCC/AWGLCA/2009/17) which stresses the need to respect the knowledge and rights of indigenous peoples, noting the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; the need for the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples, the non-conversion of natural forests for other uses, and the conservation of biological diversity; and the need to address the drivers of deforestation and land tenure issues.
Good practices are emerging that complement public health services with traditional health practices. These practices emphasize intercultural dialogue and discussion to ensure that health care is delivered in a culturally specific way, consistent with articles 23 and 24 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. These practices should be supported and promoted.
The Permanent Forum recommends that Canada operationalize the Declaration by passing Bill C-262 (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act) as a significant step towards reconciliation.
The Forum welcomes the participation of the Chairperson of the Committee on the Rights of the Child in the high-level panel and dialogue on indigenous children and youth held during its second session, and expresses the hope that that will lead to enhanced monitoring and promotion of the rights of indigenous children at the national and international levels. The Forum recommends that the Chairman of the Committee inform the next meeting of the Chairpersons of the human rights treaty bodies of the results of the high-level panel and dialogue. The Forum recommends that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights transmit the results of the discussion of the Committee to the Forum at its third session.
Noting that the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women makes no reference to indigenous women and that it does not take into account the specific nature of the gender dimension of racial discrimination, the Forum recommends that the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women:
a. Pay special attention to the issues related to maintaining the integrity of indigenous women and the gender dimension of racial discrimination against indigenous peoples;
b. Organize a meeting, in collaboration with indigenous women, UNIFEM, UNESCO and UNDP, with the objective of beginning a process to develop and adopt a general recommendation on indigenous women, including women living under colonization.