The Permanent Forum appreciates the steps taken by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, UNFPA and the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Peoples’ Issues for the organization of an international workshop on indigenous peoples and HIV/AIDS, and calls on Member States and United Nations entities to contribute to the workshop.
Governments, the United Nations system and donor agencies are urged to support the formation of an international network of traditional healers who work with HIV/AIDS patients and organize expert meetings between traditional and medical practitioners on HIV/AIDS and traditional medicine.
The Forum welcomes the nomination of the High Commissioner, Justice Louise Arbor, and recommends that she convene a meeting with the Forum members.
The Permanent Forum recommends that Member States take measures to advance indigenous women’s right to intercultural health through its inclusion in legal frameworks and public policies, as well as programmes to guarantee culturally, geographically and financially appropriate health and social services.
The Permanent Forum urges States to promote and protect the rights of indigenous women and men working as journalists, communicators and as human rights defenders in accordance with international human rights law, in particular in accordance with article 16 of the Declaration, which calls for the full freedom of expression of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum acknowledges the Ibero-American Action Plan for the Implementation of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2018 and the establishment of an indigenous peoples’ regional observatory, led by the Fund for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, as a tool to measure the progress made in implementing the Declaration. In addition, the Forum encourages Member States and the United Nations system to strengthen cooperation with the Fund, considering its fundamental role in the region in processes of dialogue and consultation between States and indigenous peoples.
The Forum, taking note with appreciation of the conclusions and
recommendations of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UNHabitat) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights joint publication entitled “Indigenous peoples’ right to adequate housing: a global overview”, recommends that UN-Habitat, jointly with the Office of the High Commissioner, organize an expert group meeting in 2006 to review the status of progress on indigenous peoples’ housing rights globally and identify and document best practices, and report on the outcome and recommendations of the meeting to the Forum at its sixth session.
The Permanent Forum urges all Arctic States to endorse and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Permanent Forum recommends that OHCHR pursue its efforts to encourage increased use of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by national human rights institutions.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women prepare a specific report on the situation of indigenous women’s empowerment, in collaboration with the Forum and indigenous women’s organizations, for submission to the Forum at its seventeenth session.
The Permanent Forum continues to raise region-specific concerns about the adverse impact of climate change on indigenous communities (see E/2011/43-E/C.19/2011/14, para. 30) and invites the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to prepare a study on the impact of climate change on indigenous women, for submission to the Forum at its eighteenth session.
The Permanent Forum reiterates its invitation to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to adopt a general recommendation on indigenous women by 2020, in accordance with the Declaration and other international instruments. The Forum recommends that the general recommendation on indigenous women consider issues related to the individual and collective rights to equality, non-discrimination and self-determination; social and economic rights, including the rights to decent work and to land, territory and resources; the right to water and food; cultural rights; civil and political rights; and the right to live free of any form of violence.