The Permanent Forum calls upon States that have created special national committees on the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People to cooperate more effectively with it, and would welcome invitations to attend activities of such national committees. The Permanent Forum encourages those States that have not yet done so to establish national committees on the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People.
The Permanent Forum, with the assistance of relevant member of the Inter-Agency Support Group, and in collaboration with indigenous experts, will conduct timely technical reviews at critical stages in the negotiations of international standards on the protection of traditional knowledge, such as the international regime on access and benefit-sharing and the deliberations of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), to evaluate consistency and harmonization with existing and developing international legal instruments, standards and arrangements and, in particular, the human rights of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum expresses appreciation to Mr. Michael Dodson for his concept paper on traditional knowledge, and recommends that the paper be widely circulated. The Permanent Forum invites States, United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations and indigenous peoples and their organizations and academic institutions to submit written comments to the secretariat for consideration at the seventh session of the Permanent Forum. The Permanent Forum welcomes the support and notes that the recommendation in paragraph 24 of the report of the Special Rapporteur states that: “the Permanent Forum should commission a study ... to determine whether there ought to be a shift in the focus on the protection of indigenous traditional knowledge away from intellectual property law to protection via customary law ... The study should consider how indigenous traditional knowledge could be protected at an international level by utilizing customary law, including the extent to which customary law should be reflected, thereby providing guidance to States and, subsequently, protection at national and regional levels”. The Permanent Forum would particularly welcome written submissions addressing the above recommendation. The Permanent Forum re-appoints Mr. Dodson as Special Rapporteur to present a follow-up study on indigenous traditional knowledge, taking into account the written submissions, and to present the report to the seventh session of the Permanent Forum in 2008.
The Permanent Forum calls on the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences and the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children to hold regional consultations with indigenous women in Asia, and requests that UNIFEM support such consultations.
The Permanent Forum urges UNICEF and UNIFEM to include urban and migrant indigenous women and their children in their relevant studies on violence against women.