The Permanent Forum calls for the implementation on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which gives clear guidance to States on the need for them to minimize childhood exposure to toxic chemicals through water, food, air and other sources of exposure. It is critical that environmental regulators be educated specifically regarding article 24 of the Convention.
The Permanent Forum urges States to generate statistics disaggregated by ethnicity, gender, indigenous identity, language, language skills and self-identification, and to provide sources of data to allow for a more accurate assessment of whether indigenous children and youth are actually benefiting from the expenditure earmarked for them. The Forum also urges United Nations agencies, funds and programmes to support member States in generating statistics and the United Nations agencies, funds and programmes and academic centres to produce a toolkit that provides a comprehensive and an accurate overview of human development indicators concerning indigenous children and youth.
The Forum recommends that the United Nations system continue its advocacy work on indigenous connectivity in preparation for phase II of the World Summit on the Information Society, to be held in 2005, taking into account the Declaration of the Global Forum of Indigenous Peoples and the Information Society and the Programme of Action. The Forum supports and applauds the decision taken by the Summit to establish multi-stakeholder portals that allow communication between indigenous peoples at the national level.
The Forum recommends to Governments the design and implementation of mechanisms for resolving the problems related to land tenure and access to credits, with quality and efficiency and without affecting indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum recommends that social and environmental impact assessments, including human rights impact assessments and poverty impact assessments, of financial investments and trade agreements directly affecting indigenous peoples be undertaken, and that the resources for those assessments be provided by the sources of the investments and the parties to trade agreements.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the document of the Commission of the European Communities (COM (2008)), Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council: The European Union and the Arctic Region delivered in Brussels on 20 November 2008 and urges the European Union to begin implementing the recommendations relevant to indigenous peoples from this document.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the document of the Commission of the European Communities (COM (2008)), Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council: The European Union and the Arctic Region delivered in Brussels on 20 November 2008 and urges the European Union to begin implementing the recommendations relevant to indigenous peoples from this document.
Recognizing the emerging role of civil society and indigenous peoples in the search for creative solutions as a means of contributing to formulating, developing and implementing policies and programmes of the United Nations system, the Forum welcomes the initiative of the Secretary-General to create a high-level panel to prepare a series of recommendations on the participation of civil society in the work of the United Nations system. The Forum recommends that the Secretary-General ask the high-level panel to hold consultations and to take into account the recommendations of the Forum on the improvement of indigenous peoples’ participation in and contributions to the work of the United Nations system.
The Permanent Forum calls on indigenous peoples’ organizations, United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations to develop popular education materials on climate change and climate mitigation and adaptation measures and undertake education and training activities at the local levels. The Forum also recommends that ICT be used to disseminate and raise awareness of indigenous peoples’ perspectives and issues on climate change.
Reports received by the Permanent Forum indicate that United Nations agencies, notably UNICEF and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), incorporate indigenous issues into their health programming at the country and regional levels and apply culturally sensitive approaches to health delivery. The Forum encourages those agencies to share their experience in health programming for indigenous peoples with other relevant United Nations agencies working in the field.
The Forum recommends that the relevant United Nations entities, in particular the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, in particular its Division for the Advancement of Women, UNICEF, UNIFEM, the Department of Public Information and ILO:
(a) Encourage the dissemination of information in indigenous languages at the local level, concerning the rights of indigenous peoples, especially indigenous women;
(b) Encourage and support the training of indigenous women in human rights and the rule of law;
(c) Provide technical assistance to governments to establish the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples, especially indigenous women.
In accordance with article 42 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Permanent Forum urges States to conduct an independent audit of their constitutional and other laws, policies and programmes in order to assess their consistency with the Declaration and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and to amend such laws, policies and programmes in order to remove all forms of discrimination. In particular, the Forum urges States to prioritize laws, policies and programmes that target hate speech and political and racial vilification.