E/2025/43 E/C.19/2025/8 24. The Permanent Forum endorses the report of the international expert group meeting on the theme “The rights of Indigenous Peoples, including those in voluntary isolation and initial contact in the context of critical minerals” (E/C.19/2025/4). The Forum urges the United Nations system, the private sector and multinational corporations to collaborate on the implementation of the recommendations contained in the report. Addressing the rights of Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact is vital and States must take urgent action to comply with these recommendations. Recommendations for the United Nations system 25. States should operationalize the Declaration by reviewing and reforming internal administrative boundaries that divide Indigenous Peoples’ territories, ensuring respect for their territorial integrity. United Nations entities should integrate Indigenous Peoples’ territorial realities into data systems, peacebuilding, development and humanitarian efforts to avoid reliance on State-centric boundaries that overlook Indigenous geographies. 26. The Permanent Forum urges United Nations entities, States and partners to fund and support effective youth participation in all relevant United Nations forums. Sufficient financing will better enable Indigenous youth to shape a sustainable future. 27. United Nations Ocean Conferences should ensure the effective engagement of Indigenous Peoples, as exemplified in decision 16/19 adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2024, in which the Indigenous determinants of health framework was incorporated. 28. The Coalition on Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems is critical for Indigenous led food sovereignty. The Permanent Forum calls upon States and United Nations entities to provide funding for the Coalition. 29. The Permanent Forum commends the World Health Organization (WHO), including its regional offices, for advancing the recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ traditional medicine and midwifery. However, some regional offices, particularly the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), utilize the concept of interculturality, which predates the Declaration, to conflate rights holders with stakeholders in the implementation of initiatives, undermining Indigenous Peoples’ autonomy and self determination and compliance with the principle of free, prior and informed consent. The Forum calls upon PAHO and any regional offices using this approach to halt this conflation and to address Indigenous issues separately from those of stakeholders. WHO, PAHO and Member States should also recognize Indigenous midwifery as an autonomous ancestral practice and a critical Indigenous determinant of health, decriminalize Indigenous-recognized traditional midwifery, finance Indigenous-led maternal care, integrate Indigenous-recognized midwifery into national health policies, and fully respect Indigenous Peoples’ distinct rights. 30. The Permanent Forum calls upon the World Tourism Organization, the World Bank and the World Health Organization to develop a framework for monitoring and reporting on the impact of tourism on Indigenous Peoples by 2026, including data disaggregation. Recommendations for Member States 31. The Permanent Forum urges States that have not yet done so to ratify Convention No. 169 of the International Labour Organization and to take concrete measures to fully implement the Declaration. 8/23 25-07572