Welcome to the United Nations
Addressee: UN system/UN agencies, IASG, Donor agencies
Full Text
The Permanent Forum also welcomes the recent adoption of the United Nations Development Group guidelines for indigenous peoples’ issues, which will bring the United Nations normative framework on indigenous peoples to the field level and contribute to the implementation of the goals and objectives of the Decade and of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Forum encourages the United Nations system to support the Guidelines with a programme of action and calls upon the donor community to provide resources to that effect. The Forum also calls upon the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Issues to review and revise the Guidelines in light of the adoption of the Declaration.
Responses
The IASG reports on the establishment of a management committee to coordinate the plan of action for the roll-out and implementation of teh Guidelines. Several agencies also cooperated to develop a resource kit on indigenous peoples' issues. The IASG also reiterated its commitment to further implement the plan of action for the roll-out and implementation of the United Nations Development Group guidelines on indigenous peoples’ issues. In the light of the recommendations of the Permanent Forum on the guidelines in paragraphs 61 and 103 of the Forum’s report on its seventh session (E/2008/43), the Group will consider pursuing relevant editing of the guidelines through the appropriate procedures.
ILO reports: PRO 169 has continued its technical support to the development of indicators relevant to indigenous peoples and participated in two international events to this effect: a seminar organised in Mexico by the IADB and Fondo Indígena and a seminar organized in the Philippines with the secretariat of the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) and the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB). A practice guide for the inclusion of indigenous peoples in PRSPs has been published and distributed to partners in three languages. Follow-up at the country-level is undertaken in the context of national programmes in Cambodia, Cameroon and Nepal. A comprehensive ILO delegation participated in the annual session of the UN Permanent Forum in May 2008. PRO 169 co-sponsored the participation of a high-level delegation from Nepal, headed by the Minister for Local Development, and a media delegation. A video describing the Nepali process and participation in the Forum (“The Long Journey” by Navin Subba), is available on request. The ILO participates in the annual sessions of the Inter-Agency Support Group on indigenous issues (most recently in 2008 in Paris). Key areas for discussion and coordination have been the joint promotional efforts of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Convention No. 169; country-level coordination and the elaboration and roll-out of the UNDG Guidelines to Country Teams. For the latter, a special “Management Committee” was established under the UNDG, in which the ILO is participating. For 2009 it is foreseen that training for UNCT staff will be organized jointly with the ILO International Training Centre in Turin and country-level training was organised in Nepal in February.
Final Report of UNPFII Session 7 (2008)
Area of Work
