E/2004/43
E/C.19/2004/23
United Nations fellowship programmes
106. The Forum welcomes the establishment of the indigenous fellowship
programme in its secretariat, and calls upon Governments, foundations and
intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to give generously to the
Trust Fund of the Secretary-General in support of the Forum, and to earmark their
donations for the fellowship programme.
107. The Forum recognizes and applauds other indigenous fellowship programmes,
in particular the fellowship programme established and funded by the regular budget
of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the
newly established fellowship programme of the ILO. Furthermore, the Forum
particularly recognizes the capacity-building efforts of the indigenous fellowship
programme of the Office and requests that, in order to complement their Genevabased training, the indigenous fellows at the Office should participate, on an annual
basis, in the sessions of the Forum. Further consideration should also be given to
provide some time for training at the secretariat of the Forum, during non-sessional
periods.
108. The Forum, recognizing the need for complementarity and coordination of
indigenous training and education within the United Nations system, recommends
that training and education partners within the United Nations system, in particular
the ILO, the Office and other relevant agencies, hold discussions in order to develop
a coordinated approach and a common electronic gateway to all education and
training opportunities for indigenous peoples within the international system. As the
United Nations body for coordination regarding indigenous issues, the Forum will
construct the web site of the Forum available for such a gateway.
109. The Forum, further recognizing the long-term benefits for indigenous peoples
of training and education opportunities within the United Nations system, such as
the establishment of an indigenous fellowship network by the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, requests the Office to invite
Permanent Forum Members and the secretariat of the Forum to the meeting of the
indigenous fellowship network, scheduled to be held August 2004 in Barcelona.
Methodological points
110. Taking into account the Secretary-General’s recommendation to make the
twenty-first century “The age of prevention”, the wish of the Forum to contribute to
the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and feed into the 10-year
review of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action
process, the complex cross-cutting nature of issues facing United Nations bodies in
formulating appropriate policies, programmes and projects to address the problems
of indigenous and tribal communities, and the strong recommendations by
indigenous peoples that such policies, programmes and projects should be based on
a holistic approach befitting their spiritual values and way of life, the Permanent
Forum decides to organize its work for 2005 and onwards around cross-cutting
themes that relate directly to the Millennium Development Goals, while considering
all the mandated areas of the Permanent Forum.
111. The Forum also decides to give ongoing priority to two other cross-cutting
issues:
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