The Forum underlines the importance of technical cooperation and capacity-building programmes regarding and involving indigenous women, and in that respect recommends that such programmes conducted by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, ILO, UNDP, among others, include projects regarding and involving indigenous women.
Regarding the negotiations taking place at the sessions of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Permanent Forum reiterates the urgent need to develop an instrument that responds to the current lack of adequate protection of traditional knowledge and recognizes indigenous peoples as equal stakeholders and the legitimate holders of their knowledge. The Forum calls upon the Intergovernmental Committee to fast-track the negotiations and to use its core budget to fund indigenous peoples’ participation in the deliberations.
A majority of States have yet to grant official recognition to indigenous peoples, let alone their collective rights to lands, territories and resources. The Permanent Forum expresses its grave concern about the non-recognition of indigenous peoples, in particular in Africa and Asia, and recommends that States incorporate the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into national legislation, policies and programmes.
The Permanent Forum reiterates its call to all Member States to intensify their efforts to adopt the modalities for the World Conference as soon as possible and before the end of the sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly.
In the absence of in-person sessions of the Permanent Forum for two years, the Forum expresses its appreciation of the online dialogues held with United Nations funds, programmes and specialized agencies and welcomes the continuation of this good practice in the coming years, beyond the effects of the pandemic. The Permanent Forum expresses its appreciation to the secretariat of the Forum for facilitating these dialogues and invites the secretariat to continue to do so.
The Permanent Forum urges the Secretary-General to convene, in consultation with the Forum and before its eighteenth session, regional consultations in each of the seven indigenous regions to discuss the modalities for the participation of indigenous people at the United Nations, including how the participation of indigenous representatives can be enhanced. The Forum urges Member States to support the organization of these regional consultations.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the International Labour Organization (ILO), the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and other relevant United Nations system agencies, in cooperation with the Permanent Forum, study and summarize practices regarding the implementation of free, prior and informed consent globally, that they widely disseminate successful experiences and that they present their findings to the Permanent Forum at its twenty - fourth session, to be held in 2025.
The Permanent Forum recalls that the right to self-determination of Indigenous Peoples is grounded in the Declaration, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Permanent Forum calls upon all Member States to redouble efforts to fully realize the right of self-determination for Indigenous Peoples by ensuring that Indigenous Peoples remain at the centre of all decision-making processes that affect their Peoples, their communities, their lands, their territories and their resources. Furthermore, States should ensure that the right of Indigenous Peoples to selfdetermination is honoured and advanced in all instances where laws, policies, programmes and funding may affect Indigenous Peoples.