The Permanent Forum urges States to respect and support indigenous peoples’ priorities, including through the development and implementation of economic recovery strategic plans to support and strengthen indigenous peoples’ institutions, authorities and decision-making bodies in the exercise of their right to selfdetermination. Indigenous peoples have the right to possess the means for financing their autonomous functions and priorities.
The Permanent Forum, bearing in mind the contributions of indigenous peoples’ traditional medicines to the recovery from the pandemic, invites the World Health Assembly to declare an international year of indigenous peoples’ traditional medicines by 2025.
The Permanent Forum urges the World Intellectual Property Organization, UNESCO, the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and other relevant United Nations entities to align their internal policies, within their respective mandates, so as to recognize and protect the collective intellectual property rights of indigenous peoples in respect of their creations, discoveries, traditional knowledge and knowledge of biodiversity. The Permanent Forum invites the above-mentioned United Nations entities to report back to future sessions on the progress made in that regard.
The Permanent Forum notes that the Constitutional Court of Guatemala issued ruling No. 2112-2016 of 24 October 2017 on indigenous peoples’ intellectual collective property. The Permanent Forum urges Guatemala to comply with the ruling and to adopt laws and policies, respecting the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum expresses concern over the misappropriation and misuse of indigenous peoples’ cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, and urges States and companies, in cooperation with indigenous peoples, to take effective measures to recognize and protect their rights, in accordance with article 31 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In this regard, the Permanent Forum calls upon Member States to take measures to safeguard indigenous peoples’ rights to intellectual property by adopting laws and public policies, in which it is recognized that indigenous peoples have the right over their creations, knowledge, discoveries, works, traditional cultural expressions and other elements.
The Permanent Forum calls upon the Government of the United Republic of
Tanzania to immediately cease efforts to evict the Maasai people from the
Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
The Permanent Forum urges the Government of Kenya to implement the recommendations of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the rights of Endorois to the ownership of their ancestral lands, to the restitution thereof and to compensation in that connection.
The Permanent Forum is deeply concerned about the particular vulnerabilities
of indigenous children. In this regard, it notes the study of the Expert Mechanism on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on the rights of the indigenous child under the
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (A/HRC/48/74) and
the note by the Secretariat entitled “Update on the promotion and application of the
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: violence against
children” (E/C.19/2022/4), prepared in collaboration with the Special Representative
of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children. The Permanent Forum calls
upon Member States to prioritize the human rights of indigenous children and young
people, in cooperation with indigenous peoples. The Permanent Forum further calls
upon those States that have not yet ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child,
including its three Optional Protocols – on a communications procedure, on the sale
of children, child prostitution and child pornography and on the involvement of
children in armed conflict, to do so as soon as possible.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the draft general recommendation on the rights of indigenous women and girls of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. The Permanent Forum reiterates its recommendation, contained in the report on its twentieth session (E/2021/43, para. 32), that the general recommendation be adopted at the earliest opportunity. The Permanent Forum invites the Committee to share its plans for implementation of the general recommendation at the twenty-third session of the Permanent Forum, to be held in 2024.
The year 2022 is the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture. The Permanent Forum therefore recommends that FAO prepare a study on the impacts of industrial fishing on the rights of indigenous peoples in regard to traditional fishing. The Permanent Forum invites the Organization to share the findings of said study at the twenty-third session of the Permanent Forum, to be held in 2024.
The Permanent Forum continues to be deeply disturbed by the threats that the extractive industries, infrastructure megaprojects, such as roads and dams, legal and illegal logging, and the expansion of large-scale agriculture pose to the indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation and initial contact. While recognizing the guidelines for the protection of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact in the Americas prepared by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the corresponding guidelines elaborated by OHCHR, the Permanent Forum recommends that OHCHR, in cooperation with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and with the participation of indigenous peoples’ organizations, evaluate the progress made, identify implementation gaps and make recommendations to advance the protection of indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation and initial contact and to guarantee their rights.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, in cooperation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), facilitate a series of online regional meetings in 2023 to discuss the development of standards and redress mechanisms for conservation programmes that affect indigenous peoples’ lands, territories and waters. The dialogue should include the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on the rights of indigenous peoples, the Permanent Forum, indigenous peoples’ representatives, non-governmental organizations, the private sector and other stakeholders. The Permanent Forum would welcome a presentation of the outcomes of such a meeting at its twenty-third session, to be held in 2024.