The Permanent Forum encourages all United Nations agencies that have not yet developed a policy on engaging with indigenous peoples to follow the example of sister agencies in order to ensure that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is adequately reflected in all United Nations programmes.
The Permanent Forum requests that its secretariat prepare a report on the implementation of the recommendations made, to be submitted to the Forum at its eleventh session, in 2012. The report should analyse the challenges as well as the associated factors that United Nations agencies and funds, Member States and indigenous peoples’ organizations have faced.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the study to examine challenges in the African region to protecting traditional knowledge, genetic resources and folklore prepared by Paul Kanyinke Sena (E/C.19/2014/2), acknowledges the support provided by the WIPO secretariat towards the completion of that study and, in this regard, calls upon the WIPO secretariat to extend its outreach and awareness-raising activities in respect of indigenous peoples, with a particular focus on African indigenous peoples so as to increase their awareness of WIPO processes, and to further develop culturally appropriate training and capacity-building materials for indigenous peoples consistent with article 41 of the Declaration.
The Permanent Forum acknowledges the continuing negotiations between the Nordic States and the Sami peoples towards the adoption of a Nordic Sami convention. The Forum recommends that the minimum international human rights standards contained in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples be the framework for all negotiations concerning the convention and the harmonizing of Sami rights within Nordic countries. It urges Nordic States to recognize and respect the Sami peoples’ right to self-determination, to determine their own identity or membership of their institutions in accordance with their customs and their right not to be subjected to forced assimilation, consistent with articles 8 and 33 of the Declaration, the conclusions and recommendations of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (see CERD/C/FIN/CO/19, para. 13).
The Permanent Forum recommends that States establish mechanisms and processes for consistent dialogues and consultations with indigenous peoples in their countries on ways and means to foster better relationships and to enable indigenous peoples to exercise fully their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, in addition to other individual and collective human rights.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the “Study on the impacts of the Doctrine of Discovery on indigenous peoples, including mechanisms, processes and instruments of redress” (E/C.19/2014/3), with references to the Declaration and particularly to articles 26 to 28, 32 and 40, be submitted to the President of the General Assembly and to Member States as a reference guide in the discussions relating to the high-level plenary meeting/World Conference on Indigenous Peoples.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the President of the General Assembly take immediate steps to ensure the full, equal, direct and effective participation of indigenous peoples throughout all aspects and processes of the high-level plenary meeting/World Conference on Indigenous Peoples in order to achieve an action-oriented, concise, inclusive, constructive and comprehensive outcome that will genuinely promote the full and effective implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (art. 18).
The Permanent Forum welcomes the efforts of the indigenous Global Coordinating Group to respond to the request of the President of the General Assembly as its sixty-eighth session, which concluded with the nomination of two indigenous advisers. The Forum urges the President of the sixty-eighth session to formalize their designation so as to start the consultation process on the high-level plenary meeting/World Conference on Indigenous Peoples as soon as possible, by June.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the organization by the Sami Parliament of Norway of the Global Indigenous Preparatory Conference for the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, held in Alta, Norway from 10 to 12 June 2013. Member States, the United Nations system and indigenous peoples are urged to consider the Alta Outcome Document (A/67/994, annex) as the basis for consultations on the elaboration of the outcome document of the high-level plenary meeting/World Conference on Indigenous Peoples.
The Permanent Forum reiterates that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is the normative framework for the high-level plenary meeting/World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, to be convened during the sixty-ninth session of the General Assembly. The provisions of resolution 66/296 must be given the widest and most generous interpretation possible in order to ensure the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum recommends that United Nations agencies review their policies, which presently allow them to assist only indigenous peoples in developing countries, and to urgently revise such policies to ensure that all indigenous peoples, in both developed and developing countries, have access to resources, technical assistance and other support from all United Nations agencies and funds.
The Forum intends to pursue the agenda of mainstreaming indigenous issues into the process of the Millennium Development Goals and applying the thematic approach to build up a three-year programme of work. The Forum intends moreover to focus on implementation and urges United Nations bodies, States and indigenous peoples to engage actively in the dialogue on these issues, sharing good practices and barriers to implementation.