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 expresses its solidarity with the families of 43 trainee teachers of Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, Mexico, who have been missing since 26 September 2014, and supports their efforts to seek justice. The Forum also welcomes and acknowledges the steps taken thus far by the Government of Mexico to resolve this disappearance, and encourages the Government to continue its efforts in collaboration with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and in close consultation with the relevant indigenous peoples and families.
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 High Commissioner for Refugees ensure a significant focus on refugee issues in the Pacific region, giving particular attention to the vulnerability of indigenous peoples in that region.
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.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Government of Paraguay should remain firm in its commitment to cooperating with indigenous peoples’ organizations in order to find emergency solutions to the extremely serious situation of the indigenous communities that have been wholly dispossessed of their land, and to implement policies to ensure the reconstitution of their territory.
The Permanent Forum decides to appoint Myrna Cunningham and Alvaro Pop to prepare jointly with UNICEF a report on the situation of indigenous children in Latin America and the Caribbean and to present it to the Forum at its eleventh session.
The Permanent Forum notes the organization of preparatory meetings for indigenous youth for its sixteenth session, including the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus meeting hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The Forum recommends that this practice be scaled up in 2018, with representative participation of indigenous youth through indigenous peoples’ organizations from all regions, and invites FAO to report on progress achieved to the Forum at its seventeenth session.
The Permanent Forum reiterates that the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Peoples’ Issues constitutes a key forum for the achievement of more effective coordination and coherence in supporting the preparations for and the participation of indigenous peoples in the World Conference and recommends stronger engagement and the participation of all agencies, programmes and funds in the work of the Group.
With the COVID-19 pandemic preventing in-person meetings, the Permanent Forum held virtual regional dialogues with indigenous peoples from all seven sociocultural regions of the world in preparation for its twentieth session. The dialogues highlighted cross-cutting issues affecting indigenous peoples across the globe, including the adverse effects of the pandemic, discrimination, the need for disaggregated data, and indigenous peoples’ rights to lands, territories and resources. A full summary of the regional dialogues is available at the Permanent Forum website.[1] The Forum is committed to continuing to organize virtual regional dialogues in the context of building back better and the recovery from the pandemic. The Permanent Forum invites the secretariat of the Forum to continue to support these dialogues.
The Permanent Forum recognizes that the United Nations has declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity and that indigenous peoples, as custodians of the Earth’s biodiversity, should be major players in actions planned for 2010. In that spirit, the Permanent Forum calls for close cooperation between the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Forum in promoting the International Year and in highlighting the role of indigenous peoples as custodians of biodiversity.