Indigenous peoples have a profound relationship with their environment. This includes their distinct rights to water. The Permanent Forum urges States to guarantee those rights, including the right to access to safe, clean, accessible and affordable water for personal, domestic and community use. Water should be treated as a social and cultural good, and not primarily as an economic good. The manner in which the right to water is realized must be sustainable for present and future generations. Moreover, indigenous peoples’ access to water resources on their ancestral lands must be protected from encroachment and pollution. Indigenous peoples must have the resources to design, deliver and control their access to water.
The Permanent Forum calls upon States that have not already done so to engage in constructive partnerships with indigenous peoples to achieve the ends of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and to adopt specific action plans, strategies or other measures that will deliver required financial and technical assistance to indigenous peoples in order for them to achieve and exercise self-determination.
The Permanent Forum urges the funds, programmes and specialized agencies to have a special focus on the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the system-wide action plan in a few designated countries in 2017 and 2018 and led by the United Nations resident coordinators. In selecting those countries for joint action, special attention should be given to countries that already are under focus, such as those that are carrying out voluntary national reviews for the high-level political forum on sustainable development, those that are under review by the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, those that are in the preparatory phases for a new United Nations Development Assistance Framework, or those in which a dialogue process between the State and the indigenous peoples is taking place.
In regard to the rights of indigenous peoples, the Permanent Forum reiterates its long-standing position of encouraging the United Nations, its organs and specialized agencies, as well as all States, to adopt a human rights-based approach. At the international, regional and national level, the human rights of indigenous peoples are always relevant if such rights are at risk of being undermined. Human rights are indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated. They must be respected in any context specifically concerning indigenous peoples, from environment to development, to peace and security, and many other issues.
Recalling the recommendations made by the Special Rapporteur appointed to undertake a study on the status of implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord of 1997 (E/C.19/2011/6, sect. VIII), and given that the situation of the indigenous peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts remains a matter of concern, the Forum encourages the Government of Bangladesh to allocate sufficient human and financial resources and set a time frame for the full implementation of the Accord.
The Permanent Forum continues to hear numerous accounts from indigenous peoples who are threatened by alien commercial ventures, militarization and administrative decisions that interfere with their governance over their lands, territories and resources and ultimately inhibit their capacity for sustainable development and well-being for future generations. The Forum strongly recommends that such disputes be considered in accordance with article 27 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and paragraph 21 of the outcome document of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, ensuring that a mechanism exists that provides for fair, independent, impartial, open and transparent adjudication. Any mechanism established for adjudication of disputes over indigenous peoples’ lands, territories and resources should be agreed upon between States and indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum encourages ILO to promote the ratification of the Convention concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries, 1989 (No. 169) (Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention).
The Permanent Forum appoints Brian Keane and Elifuraha Laltaika, members of the Forum, to undertake a study to examine conservation and indigenous peoples’ human rights, to be submitted to the Forum at its seventeenth session.
National human rights institutions are encouraged to work with indigenous peoples to develop strategies to protect and provide support to indigenous human rights defenders.
The Permanent Forum urges States, in cooperation with indigenous peoples, to develop and implement specific laws and mechanisms to protect indigenous human rights defenders, to ensure that attacks against them are investigated and that those persons responsible are held accountable.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the decision of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples to prepare a study on intimidation, criminalization and violence of any form directed against indigenous peoples, communities or individuals, in particular those who defend their rights under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Forum invites the Special Rapporteur to share her preliminary findings and recommendations with the Forum at its seventeenth session.
The Permanent Forum recommends that donors, including the European Union, the European Commission, the Department of State of the United States of America, human rights support organizations and others provide long-term funding, legal aid and other resources to assist indigenous human rights defenders, their families, networks and communities.