The Permanent Forum calls for the implementation on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which gives clear guidance to States on the need for them to minimize childhood exposure to toxic chemicals through water, food, air and other sources of exposure. It is critical that environmental regulators be educated specifically regarding article 24 of the Convention.
The Permanent Forum recommends: (a) using the model of engaging directly with indigenous peoples that is used by the small grants programme delivery mechanism, developed by UNDP since 1992 for implementation of projects at the local level; and (b) strengthen engagement with indigenous peoples in developing innovative tools and methodologies that are suited to and respectful of their cultures and knowledge.
The Permanent Forum urges States to generate statistics disaggregated by ethnicity, gender, indigenous identity, language, language skills and self-identification, and to provide sources of data to allow for a more accurate assessment of whether indigenous children and youth are actually benefiting from the expenditure earmarked for them. The Forum also urges United Nations agencies, funds and programmes to support member States in generating statistics and the United Nations agencies, funds and programmes and academic centres to produce a toolkit that provides a comprehensive and an accurate overview of human development indicators concerning indigenous children and youth.
The Forum recommends to Governments the design and implementation of mechanisms for resolving the problems related to land tenure and access to credits, with quality and efficiency and without affecting indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum recommends that social and environmental impact assessments, including human rights impact assessments and poverty impact assessments, of financial investments and trade agreements directly affecting indigenous peoples be undertaken, and that the resources for those assessments be provided by the sources of the investments and the parties to trade agreements.
The Permanent Forum supports the work of the Special Representative to urge States to integrate human rights into those areas that most affect business practices, including corporate law, export credit and insurance, investments and trade agreements. The Forum suggests that the Special Representative urge States to ensure that such business practices comply with the relevant provisions of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Forum urges the Special Representative to incorporate the specific views and distinct perspectives of indigenous peoples on social and economic development. Regarding the Americas, corporations must also comply with therulings of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which construe the States’ obligations under International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention (No. 169) concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries with regard to the Declaration as extending even to States that have not ratified the Convention. The Forum recommends that this principle be applied in other jurisdictions.
The Permanent Forum expresses its appreciation to Special Rapporteurs, Ms. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz and Mr. Parshuram Tamang for their report entitled “Oil palm and other commercial tree plantations, monocropping: impacts on indigenous peoples’ land tenure and resource management systems and livelihoods”. The Permanent Forum recommends that further analysis be undertaken to include information received and gathered from Governments, the logging and plantation sectors and their networks, indigenous peoples, non-governmental organizations and intergovernmental bodies, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Forum on Forests. The Permanent Forum reappoints Ms. Tauli-Corpuz to continue as the Special Rapporteur to draft the follow-up report, using existing resources, to be presented at the 2008 session of the Permanent Forum.
The Permanent Forum calls on indigenous peoples’ organizations, United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations to develop popular education materials on climate change and climate mitigation and adaptation measures and undertake education and training activities at the local levels. The Forum also recommends that ICT be used to disseminate and raise awareness of indigenous peoples’ perspectives and issues on climate change.
The Permanent Forum recognizes the importance of indigenous peoples knowledge systems as the basis of their development with culture and identity and therefore recommends that ongoing international processes, such as negotiations on the international regime on access and benefit-sharing of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore of the World Intellectual Property Organization, should recognize and integrate the crucial role and relevance of indigenous knowledge systems in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Permanent Forum takes note of the report (E/C.19/2014/8) and recommendations of the expert group meeting, and reiterates and supports the recommendations contained in paragraphs 62, 63, 64, 70 and 72 of the report, as set out below, which are specifically addressed to entities of the United Nations system and States Members of the United Nations.
The Forum recommends that the relevant United Nations entities, in particular the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, in particular its Division for the Advancement of Women, UNICEF, UNIFEM, the Department of Public Information and ILO:
(a) Encourage the dissemination of information in indigenous languages at the local level, concerning the rights of indigenous peoples, especially indigenous women;
(b) Encourage and support the training of indigenous women in human rights and the rule of law;
(c) Provide technical assistance to governments to establish the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples, especially indigenous women.
The Permanent Forum calls upon all States to ensure that their political institutions and structures are not used as a reason to relieve the State of its responsibility to implement international human rights obligations in relation to the rights of indigenous peoples.