The Permanent Forum welcomes the efforts of Member States, United Nations entities and other intergovernmental organizations to implement the Declaration, as reaffirmed in the outcome document of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, as well as the recommendations of the Forum, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples and the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous People in various regions, and urges them to take specific measures in this regard.
The Permanent Forum commends UNICEF and UNFPA for their work to combat female genital mutilation practices and urges them to continue their efforts with indigenous peoples and their communities.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Secretary-General, in his report on the study of violence against women, address the particular situation of indigenous women and girls whose suffering is based not only on gender but also on ethnicity and culture.
The Permanent Forum urges Member States to provide financial support to the trust fund on indigenous issues (fund 32FII) to support the work of the Forum in implementing its mandate and to the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples to facilitate the participation of indigenous peoples in key United Nations meetings and processes. The Forum recommends that States, private foundations, intergovernmental organizations and NGOs support the work of indigenous-led funding initiatives.
The Permanent Forum demands that WIPO recognize and respect the applicability and relevance of the Declaration as a significant international human rights instrument that must inform the Intergovernmental Committee process and the overall work of WIPO. The minimum standards reflected in the Declaration must either be exceeded or directly incorporated into any and all WIPO instruments that directly or indirectly impact the human rights of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum invites United Nations bodies with expertise on human rights, cultural rights and the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples to provide legal and technical comments on the revised draft protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity on access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilization for transmission to parties to the Convention for consideration in their final negotiations.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the recognition and inclusion of indigenous peoples’ knowledge in the work of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services to assess the state of biodiversity and ecosystem services. The Forum supports the Platform’s approach to recognize and work with indigenous knowledge throughout its work programme, for example, recognizing the contribution of indigenous knowledge in its global assessment on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystems. The Forum invites the Platform to continue to inform the Forum about the progress of its work, including at its seventeenth session.
The Permanent Forum commends WIPO for the establishment of the Voluntary Fund for Accredited and Indigenous Local Communities, and urges Member States and public and private entities to contribute to the Fund to ensure its operation beyond the twenty-second session of the Intergovernmental Committee in accordance with States’ commitment to article 41 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the World Intellectual Property Organization facilitating a process, in accordance with the Declaration, to engage with indigenous peoples on matters including intellectual property, genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore.
The Forum invites the World Health Organization, as lead agency on Millennium Development Goals 4, 5, and 6 with UNDP, the World Intellectual Property Organization and other relevant agencies and States, to partner with the Forum to organize, host and report to the Forum at its next session on methods, processes and best practices of integrating indigenous traditional knowledge, medicine, healing and other health practices in mainstream health-care systems and sensitizing health personnel concerning the protection of indigenous knowledge systems
The Forum recommends that the Inter-Agency Support Group convene a technical workshop on indigenous traditional knowledge, in collaboration with United Nations agencies dealing with this issue, with the participation of indigenous experts, with a view to promoting a collaborative, complementary and holistic approach to traditional knowledge in order to enhance better understanding of indigenous concerns and their possible solution and requests the workshop to submit its report to the Forum at its fifth session
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.