In the context of the United Nations system-wide coherence, in particular gender equality architecture reform, the Permanent Forum recommends that States and the United Nations system ensure the inclusion of the priorities and demands of indigenous women.
The Forum welcomes the participation and perspective of indigenous women and girls with disabilities, recognizes the distinct vulnerability and marginalization that such indigenous individuals encounter as members of an indigenous group, and encourages United Nations agencies, and Governments and organizations, to include their views.
The Forum recommends that ILO, with the participation of interested parties, including indigenous peoples' organizations (the United Nations system, the International Finance Corporation, the European Bank for Rural Development) conduct a workshop on capacity-building for the sustainable development of indigenous communities to ensure that the Millennium Development Goals and targets are implemented in a timely and appropriate manner for indigenous peoples
The Permanent Forum welcomes the study to examine challenges in the African region to protecting traditional knowledge, genetic resources and folklore prepared by Paul Kanyinke Sena (E/C.19/2014/2), acknowledges the support provided by the WIPO secretariat towards the completion of that study and, in this regard, calls upon the WIPO secretariat to extend its outreach and awareness-raising activities in respect of indigenous peoples, with a particular focus on African indigenous peoples so as to increase their awareness of WIPO processes, and to further develop culturally appropriate training and capacity-building materials for indigenous peoples consistent with article 41 of the Declaration.
As a matter of indigenous human rights and consistent with article 18 of the United Nations Declaration, previous Permanent Forum recommendations and the outcome document of the World Conference, with particular consideration of paragraph 33, the right to participate in decision-making is highly relevant to fast-approaching and pivotal multilateral negotiations. In this regard, the Forum urgently requests all States, United Nations agencies and high-level representatives of the United Nations system to ensure the direct participation of indigenous peoples in the multilateral negotiations referred to below. The Forum also requests that all those actors advocate and ensure that there is explicit reference to indigenous peoples and their distinct human rights and status throughout the processes relating to:
(a) The United Nations summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda, to be held from 25 to 27 September 2015;
(b) The high-level event on climate change, to be held in New York on
29 June 2015, and the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and eleventh session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, to be held in Paris from 30 November to 11 December 2015;
(c) The third International Conference on Financing for Development, to be held in Addis Ababa from 13 to 16 July 2015.
The Permanent Forum recalls that, to ensure effective implementation, the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights must be aligned with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), of ILO, the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean, known as the Escazú Agreement, and the jurisprudence of the human rights treaty bodies. Furthermore, the Permanent Forum recognizes the work of the Human Rights Council to develop an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises. In that respect, the Permanent Forum stresses the need to ensure that the new instrument affirms indigenous peoples’ rights, including with regard to free, prior and informed consent. The Permanent Forum recommends that this instrument explicitly define due diligence processes and their specific methods of implementation. Therefore, the Permanent Forum underlines the importance of full and effective participation by indigenous peoples throughout the development of the instrument.
The Permanent Forum recommends that UNESCO and other United Nations entities facilitate the work of language activists, including through methodological, educational, scientific, psychosocial and financial support, within the framework of the International Decade. The Permanent Forum invites UNESCO and its Forum of National Commissions, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research to develop, in cooperation with experts and representatives of indigenous peoples, an incubator of international methodologies in multilingual education, including studies of language revitalization best practices, teacher training and cross-cultural learning tools by 2025
The Permanent Forum recommends that Member States and the United Nations make additional and more steadfast efforts to collect data and perform research regarding Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation and in initial contact and the effects of such data and research. The Forum reiterates its recommendation that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in cooperation with regional bodies and Indigenous Peoples, advance the protection of Indigenous Peoples living in voluntary isolation and in initial contact.
The Permanent Forum is deeply concerned about circumstances in which Indigenous Peoples are deprived of essential services and experience violence, including gender-based violence. The Forum urges Member States and United Nations entities to protect displaced Indigenous Peoples, including refugees, and calls upon the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to conduct global and regional studies, by 2026, on the needs of displaced Indigenous Peoples and to update the Forum at its 2025 session. Furthermore, the Forum urges UNHCR to join the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Issues.