E/2019/43 E/C.19/2019/10 43. The Permanent Forum welcomes the participation of indigenous midwives at its eighteenth session and recognizes the important role that they play in maternal and child health. Indigenous women have both higher morbidity and mortality rates as a result of lack of access to health care, discrimination and marginalization. The practices and knowledge of indigenous midwives are crucial to the health of indigenous peoples. Unfortunately, their criminalization persists, with a devastating impact not only on the midwives themselves, but also on mothers, children and communities. 44. The Permanent Forum repeats its call for an end to the criminalization of indigenous midwives as expressed in the recommendations contained in paragraphs 49 and 50 of its report on its seventeenth session (E/2018/43-E/C.19/2018/11) and urges States to respect the right of indigenous peoples to maintain their traditional health practices in accordance with article 24 of the Declaration. 45. In the context of the implementation of the Policy on Ethnicity and Health, adopted by the executive committee of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in 2017 (CE160.R11), the Permanent Forum invites PAHO and the World Health Organization (WHO) to collaborate with health institutions and policymakers to address issues related to indigenous maternal health, including the practice of indigenous midwifery. It recommends that PAHO prepare a study on the advancements in indigenous maternal health, including best practices used by indigenous midwives and supportive organizations. The Forum invites PAHO to submit the report by 2020. 46. The Permanent Forum welcomes the study on tuberculosis and indigenous peoples (E/C.19/2019/9) by expert member Dr. Mariam Wallet Aboubakrine and urges Member States to implement the recommendations contained in the study, with the support of United Nations entities and in cooperation with indigenous peoples. 47. The Permanent Forum recommends that WHO, in coordination with PAHO, engage indigenous health experts in efforts to eradicate tuberculosis, including through intercultural approaches, and to report to the Forum at its nineteenth session. 48. The Permanent Forum calls upon the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Peoples’ Issues to organize, by 2021, in-country dialogues that will feed into a global expert group meeting on indigenous peoples and HIV/AIDS, with the aim of proposing key principles of action for HIV/AIDS programming, and urges States, in collaboration with indigenous peoples, to contribute to this initiative. 49. The Permanent Forum reiterates the recommendation contained in paragraph 47 of its report on its seventeenth session and calls upon Member States to begin work on a global, legally binding regime for toxic industrial chemicals and hazardous pesticides under the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade. Human rights 50. The Permanent Forum is deeply disturbed by apparent widespread policies and practices in previous years of the forced sterilization of indigenous women. This violation of women’s rights is exacerbated by the likely intention to restrict or reduce the population of indigenous peoples. 51. The Permanent Forum recommends that the Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction take the lead, in collaboration with OHCHR, UNFPA and WHO, in conducting an initial study on the global scope of past forced sterilization programmes of indigenous peoples and 19-08162 11/28