The Permanent Forum recommends that the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) convene platforms of dialogue with countries, United Nations agencies and private sector actors to find solutions to improve the economic empowerment of indigenous peoples consistent with their cultural identity and diversity, as well as sustainable and equitable development. The Forum also recommends that specific indicators pertaining to the well-being of indigenous peoples be systematically adopted in IFAD-funded projects implemented in accordance with article 41 of the Declaration.
The Forum encourages the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and its Member States to take practical steps to ensure that the inappropriate and unauthorized documentation and publication of traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions/folklore does not occur, and to reinforce the capacity of indigenous peoples and local communities to make informed decisions in their own interests concerning whether and how documentation should be issued, including through the development of practical toolkits and guides which should have this as their aim.
The Permanent Forum recommends that States discontinue all sedentarization and other programmes that coerce indigenous peoples to forsake shifting cultivation for other modes of cultivation without their free, prior and informed consent. Alternative modes of cultivation ensure food sovereignty, livelihood security, health security, educational security and forest conservation and other safeguards.
The Permanent Forum recommends that UNDP further engage indigenous peoples in the discussion regarding the concept of human development and in the elaboration of its Human Development Reports. The UNDP concept of human development and its work to promote such a paradigm should be more strongly founded on human rights principles and therefore on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. With regard to indigenous peoples, this means recognizing the principles of self-determination, independent development and other peoples’ rights. Thus, national, regional and global UNDP Human Development Reports should reflect indigenous peoples’ views of development from the perspective and with the participation of indigenous peoples themselves.
The Forum invites the Economic and Social Council and the regional commissions to present reports on the economic situation, scenarios and impacts of free-trade policies, especially the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, with emphasis on indigenous peoples.
The Forum renews the recommendation made at its first session on the need to create a three-year working group on free, prior informed consent and participatory research guidelines, under the aegis of the Forum, with funding from the regular budget that includes a focus on how the guidelines relate to the protection of indigenous knowledge and natural resources.
The Permanent Forum encourages international financial institutions to establish policy mechanisms and programme frameworks requiring corporations to comply with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which were unanimously endorsed by the Human Rights Council in 2011, in addition to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, International Labour Organization Convention No. 169, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
The Permanent Forum commends existing small-grant schemes and programmes, since they often enable indigenous peoples’ organizations to play an active role in implementing the recommendations of the Forum. The Forum encourages the United Nations system to develop small-grant schemes and to increase the level of funding aimed directly at indigenous peoples and also to continue establishing mechanisms to ensure that they effectively reach and benefit indigenous peoples at the local level and provide funds directly to indigenous organizations for socioculturally appropriate project implementation.
The Permanent Forum recommends that States develop laws and policies to ensure the recognition, continued vitality and protection from misappropriation of indigenous traditional knowledge.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Framework Convention on Climate Change, in cooperation with States, provide adaptation funds to indigenous peoples affected by climate change-related disasters. Indigenous peoples whose lands have already disappeared or have become uninhabitable or spoilt due to seawater rise, floods, droughts or erosion, and who have thus become environmental refugees or displaced persons, should be provided with appropriate relocation with the support of the international community.
The Permanent Forum calls on UNEP to conduct a fast track assessment of short-term drivers of climate change, specifically black carbon, with a view to initiating negotiation of an international agreement to reduce emissions of black carbon.
The Permanent Forum is concerned that legal obligations and commitments and indigenous peoples’ treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements with States are routinely denied and violated by States. With regard to interventions by indigenous peoples on unresolved land rights, including the Six Nations of the Grand River and others on which the Forum has made specific recommendations in the past, the Forum calls upon States to fairly and equitably redress the long-standing unresolved land rights issues through good-faith negotiations, consistent with the United Nations Declaration and without extinguishing indigenous peoples’ land rights.