The Permanent Forum reiterates its concern over environmental violence, in particular the pervasive impacts of such violence on indigenous women and girls. The Forum takes note with appreciation of the recommendations from the third International Indigenous Women’s Symposium on Environment and Reproductive Health, held at Columbia University in New York on 14 and 15 April 2018. The Forum recommends that members of the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Peoples’ Issues and the relevant special procedures of the Human Rights Council consider ways to address and incorporate the recommendations from that Symposium.
Positive developments have been achieved in setting international human rights standards for the rights of indigenous peoples to lands, territories and resources, including by regional human rights mechanisms in Africa and the Americas. The Permanent Forum welcomes those developments, including the recent decision of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in the case of the Ogiek community in Kenya. The Forum encourages indigenous peoples and States to engage further with regional mechanisms and to implement their decisions effectively.