The Permanent Forum recognizes the history of the placement of Indigenous children in boarding and residential schools without free, prior and informed consent, where there have been dramatically grave negative impacts on the well-being and identity development of Indigenous students, on their families, and on the communities and cultures of Indigenous Peoples in all sociocultural regions. The Forum recommends that States find mechanisms to redress the harms caused by boarding and residential schools, and engage in effective reconciliation efforts. With respect to French Guiana specifically, the Forum calls upon the Government of France to establish a truth commission to investigate the conditions of boarding and residential schools in France and its overseas territories. The Government of France should adopt measures for healing, reparation and rehabilitation. The commission should guarantee gender equality in terms of inclusion and ensure the full participation of the Indigenous Peoples affected.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the initiative of the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Issues to create a working group on finance. The Forum encourages the working group to consult Forum members regularly and to build initiatives to strengthen the capacity of Indigenous Peoples to manage finance and access financial institutions.
The Permanent Forum acknowledges the existence of gender-diverse Indigenous Peoples, including two-spirit peoples, worldwide, and calls upon the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples to ensure that two -spirit Indigenous Peoples are not prevented from participating in United Nations processes.