The Permanent Forum wishes to express its appreciation to the Inter-Agency Support Group for its contribution to the work of the Forum, and encourages all United Nations agencies to join the Group, particularly those whose area of work is of special relevance for the rights and well-being of indigenous peoples, such as the World Health Organization.
The Permanent Forum calls upon the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity to work in partnership with other members of the Inter-Agency Support Group and donors to organize regional workshops for the purposes of information exchange and capacity-building among Governments, indigenous peoples and local communities and other stakeholders with regard to the proposed international regime on access and benefit-sharing. In addition, the secretariat is called upon to provide financial support for indigenous networks to disseminate information, in appropriate and accessible languages, and through appropriate media, to indigenous communities on this issue.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the dialogues to support indigenous peoples’ preparations for the United Nations Food Systems Summit. The Forum requests Member States and the secretariat of the Summit to guarantee the participation of indigenous peoples at the Summit with a view to ensuring due reflection of indigenous peoples’ rights and issues in the relevant outcome documents.
The Forum:
(a) Urges all Governments and the international community to fully apply the AKWE:KON guidelines for any proposed development on sacred sites and lands and water traditionally occupied by indigenous and local communities;
(b) Welcomes the establishment of a trust fund for the participation of indigenous and local communities in the work of the Convention on Biological Diversity, and urges Governments to provide funding to ensure an adequate level of participation by indigenous and local communities in the work of the Convention;
(c) Notes the decision by the Conference of Parties to the Convention to negotiate, within the framework of the Convention, an international regime on access to genetic resources and the sharing of benefits arising from their realization, and emphasizes that such negotiations should be developed and should allow the full participation of members of the Forum and indigenous representatives to participate in the negotiations;
(d) Urges indigenous and local comunities to contribute actively to the work of the Secretariat of the Convention on the composite report on the status and trends of traditional knowledge to ensure that the report is truly reflective of the concerns of indigenous and local communities with regard to the loss of traditional knowledge of relevance to biological diversity;
(e) Recommends that the Executive Secretary of the Convention organize, in coordination with other relevant agencies, a workshop on indicators to measure progress in the objectives of the multi-year programme of work and other programmes of work, with the full participation of indigenous peoples and their organizations, in order to incorporate the necessary human and social indicators;
(f) Recommends that the Convention's ad hoc open-ended working group on article 8(j) advance its mandate to develop mechanisms for the effective sui generis systems of protection based on customary laws of indigenous peoples, especially in light of the decision of the Conference of Parties to the Convention to increase the pace in the elaboration and implementation of a proposed international regime on access and benefit-sharing.
Relevant States of the Congo Basin region and the World Bank are urged to enforce, expand and respect the moratorium on the new forest concessions in order to allow time to strengthen the capacities of indigenous peoples and civil society in the Congo Basin region and to allow a participative zoning process.
The Permanent Forum recommends that interested parties organize an international expert group meeting on the theme “Indigenous peoples: sacred plants and sites, articles 11, 24 and 31 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples”, and requests that the conclusions of such a meeting be submitted to the Forum at its tenth session.
The Forum recommends that the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences pay special attention to the impact of violence against indigenous women, including war-related violence and domestic violence.
The Permanent Forum recommends that WHO conduct a study on the health effects on indigenous peoples throughout the world caused by uranium mining, dumping of radioactive waste and nuclear testing on indigenous held lands and territories, and provide a report to the ninth session of the Forum in 2010.
The Permanent Forum recommends that national and transnational corporations adhere to the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in order to ensure protection of the rights of indigenous human rights defenders.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the United Nations system promote understanding of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples among decision makers, public officials, justice systems, national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations.
The Forum recommends that States include independent indigenous experts in national human rights commissions
The Permanent Forum recommends that human rights treaty bodies begin to undertake dialogue and cooperation with indigenous peoples’ organizations with a view to discussing the preparation of general comments relevant to indigenous peoples, and that those bodies be encouraged to formulate recommendations and general comments within their competence on the rights of indigenous peoples.