The Forum recommends that the Coordinator of the Second International Decade of the World's Indigenous People fully consult with the Forum regarding the preparation of the draft plan of action for the Second Decade
It is important to recognize that indigenous peoples themselves must claim ownership of their languages and direct the revitalization efforts of the languages, while States should support these efforts and facilitate the transmission of the languages by parents and grandparents to the younger generations.
UNESCO should provide technical assistance for the elaboration of national and regional programs and projects on developing culturally relevant curricula and educational materials as well as pedagogy to improve the access to and quality of indigenous education in all countries with indigenous peoples
The Permanent Forum urges States to recognize indigenous peoples’ customary laws on genetic resources and traditional knowledge and to consider the development of sui generis systems based on such customary laws, as appropriate, for the protection of traditional knowledge and access and benefit-sharing of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge.
The Forum expresses its great concern about the effects of armed conflict on indigenous women and children, and recommends that a workshop be convened with the framework of the 10-year review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in order to formulate strategies to protect vulnerable groups, such as indigenous peoples, especially taking into account the vulnerabilities of indigenous women and children. These strategies should incorporate capacity-building of indigenous women living in areas of armed conflict or in precarious circumstances.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Pacific States endorse and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Permanent Forum, in accordance with article 26 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (the right to the lands, territories and resources that the indigenous peoples have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired), requests States, United Nations agencies, churches, non-governmental organizations and the private sector to fully respect the property rights of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact in the Amazon and the Paraguayan and Bolivian Chaco.
The Permanent Forum recommends that all Governments, including the Government of Canada, and the bodies established under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea ensure respect for and recognition of the provisions of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and that they follow up on the full and effective implementation of the Declaration, in particular in the context of Arctic indigenous peoples. In this regard, these parties must pay immediate and special attention to the right of indigenous peoples to participate in decision-making in all matters that affect their rights; the right of indigenous peoples to their lands, territories and resources; and the right of indigenous peoples to free, prior and informed consent.
United Nations special procedures are an essential tool for monitoring the implementation of priority human rights issues. The Permanent Forum recommends that the special procedures with a mandate on gender issues (carried out by the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, and the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children) brief the Permanent Forum each year during its annual session on the situation of indigenous women.
The Forum recommends that the United Nations system, particularly the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and UNEP, taking note of the World Bank's extractive industries review, organize a workshop on resource extraction and indigenous peoples to further discuss such issues as corporate accountability and the rehabilitation of mined out areas, polluted water bodies and compensation of adversely affected communities, sustainable development and land rights, with a view to developing a mechanism to address the issues.
States should take effective measures to eliminate violence against indigenous peoples by studying the root causes of conflict and human rights abuses, developing indicators and methodologies for risk assessment and early warning mechanisms and improving national legislation for the administration of justice with regard to the perpetrators of war crimes.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction take the lead, in collaboration with OHCHR, UNFPA and WHO, in conducting an initial study on the global scope of past forced sterilization programmes of indigenous peoples and determine whether such programmes continue to exist, and report to the Forum at its nineteenth session on the progress made.