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 Durban Review Conference welcomed the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which should be used to combat racism against indigenous peoples. The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues decides to have a half-day session on the theme of “Addressing the elimination of racism against indigenous peoples”. This session will be held during the 2011 meeting of the Permanent Forum.
Building upon past work of the Permanent Forum with regard to indigenous women, in particular the study on the extent of violence against indigenous women and girls in terms of article 22 (2) of the United Nations Declaration (see E/C.19/2013/9) and the report of the international expert group meeting on combating such violence (see E/2012/43-E/C.19/2012/13) the Forum recommends that States adopt measures aimed at addressing the specific problems of police brutality, systemic police violence and discrimination against indigenous women, as experienced, for example, by indigenous women in Val-d’Or, Canada, Sepur Zarco, Guatemala, and north-east India.
The Permanent Forum underscores the need to strengthen collaboration with UN-Women in order to finalize a road map, including concrete actions, and specific outcomes within their next strategic plan as well as to include indigenous women’s priorities in global, regional and national programmes, consistent with articles 21, 22 and 41 of the Declaration.
The Permanent Forum invites the General Assembly to request that UNESCO report on activities carried out during the International Year, and subsequent impacts and follow-up activities after 2019, at its seventy-fifth session.
The practice of preparing overview reports, the Message Stick (the quarterly newsletter) and the database on the implementation of recommendations should be maintained. The secretariat should review oral interventions delivered during sessions of the Permanent Forum and take note of references made to the implementation of recommendations, which should be added to information provided in written submissions.
The Permanent Forum reaffirms the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as the normative framework for the high-level plenary meeting of the sixty-ninth session of the General Assembly, to be known as the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples. The provisions of Assembly resolution 66/296 regarding the organization of the World Conference must be given the widest and most generous interpretation possible in order to achieve the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum notes the progress made in including indigenous peoples in several of the newly developed United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks developed in 2020 and the COVID-19 socioeconomic response plans. However, the Forum also notes the uneven inclusion of indigenous peoples in United Nations country programming consultations and development, and the lack of disaggregated data, which perpetuates their invisibility. The Forum reiterates that indigenous peoples should participate in the preparation of common country assessments as well as the Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks and that United Nations country teams should work with Governments to foster effective consultation with indigenous peoples.
The Forum, recognizing the contributions of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in reducing rural poverty and its experience of good practices, recommends that IFAD consider operational guidelines on indigenous peoples and a framework tool for advocacy for promoting indigenous rights and development and achieving internaitonal development goals which emerged from international conferences, summits and conventions which are relevant for indigenous peoples
The Permanent Forum recognizes the role of indigenous parliamentarians in the promotion and protection of indigenous peoples’ rights, and thus recommends increasing their participation in the sessions of the Permanent Forum, adopting regional and national mechanisms to monitor the recommendations and working towards the establishment of particular mechanisms of participation.
Since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by Member States in 2015, the Permanent Forum has repeatedly highlighted the importance of ensuring the meaningful and full participation of indigenous peoples in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Unfortunately, the world is not on track to meet globally agreed targets. This has been particularly evident during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which existing inequities have been exacerbated, placing the survival of indigenous peoples at greater risk. During the pandemic, indigenous peoples, in particular indigenous women and girls, have not only been left behind, but have been left even further behind.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the General Assembly rename the Decade “Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples”.