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 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 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 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 recalls the many recommendations that call for statistics on indigenous health. Data collection and disaggregation remain a challenge. In particular, the delivery of health care in rural and remote areas remains a major obstacle to the right to health. In addition, there remains an urgent need for more indigenous health professionals, mental health services and programmes addressing non-communicable diseases and reproductive health. In particular, the Forum reaffirms the recommendation of the eighth session that an expert group meeting on sexual health and reproductive rights be held.
The Forum recommends that UNICEF prepare a report on indigenous children who have limited or no access to direct health-care services, including recommendations to improve health-care access.
The Permanent Forum encourages APG to continue to give priority to its endeavours to eliminate the servitude and contemporary forms of slavery to which families and communities in Santa Cruz, especially in Alto Parapetí, and in Chuquisaca, are subjected. The Permanent Forum encourages APG, as the organization that represents the Guaraní people in the Plurinational State of Bolivia, to continue to give priority to combating these extremely serious human rights violations as part of its broader programme of reconstitution of the Guaraní people.
Considering the continued threats facing indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation and initial contact, and given their unique vulnerability in the time of the pandemic, the Permanent Forum recommends that local populations in the territories and adjacent areas of indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation and initial contact be prioritized in COVID-19 vaccination plans. The Forum reminds States that, by virtue of their international obligations, and specifically those contained in the American Convention on Human Rights, they must adopt measures to safeguard the life and integrity of their citizens, especially when it comes to highly vulnerable population groups, as in the case of indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation and initial contact.
The Permanent Forum requests that UNICEF prepare a report on the state of the world’s children, with a thematic focus on indigenous children. The report should give special attention to the implementation by Member States of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and general comment No. 11 (2009) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on indigenous children and their rights under the Convention. Furthermore, the Forum requests UNICEF to begin to disaggregate data on indigenous children, including from its existing database.
Recognizing the progress made, and building on the recommendations made in
its report on its first session, the Forum provides the following advice and recommendations:
(a) Encourages United Nations bodies whose activities have an impact on indigenous children and youth, including, but not limited to, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), and the Department of Public Information of the United Nations Secretariat, to report regularly to the Forum. The reports should contain detailed information on and assess the progress made within programmes directed at, affecting and relating to indigenous adolescents.
(b) Reiterates its recommendation that the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF), as the United Nations nodal agency on children:
Present a comprehensive report to the Forum on an annual basis, including budgetary allocations and an assessment of their impact, including details of all its initiatives undertaken in collaboration with other specialized bodies of the United Nations system relating to indigenous children and those undertaken at the international or regional levels, as well as country initiatives, where applicable; Provide information from the multi-indicator cluster survey being globally undertaken by UNICEF, disaggregating data on the antenatal health, birth, registration, immunization and early childhood development of indigenous children.
The Permanent Forum urges United Nations organizations, non-governmental organizations, States and other supportive organizations to facilitate, support and fund local, regional and international youth activities and other upcoming training workshops and forums.