A/RES/54/150 Page 3 8. Urges Governments to participate actively in the open-ended inter-sessional ad hoc working group that the Commission on Human Rights in its resolution 1999/52 of 27 April 19996 decided to re-establish from within existing overall United Nations resources, which is to meet for eight working days prior to the fifty-sixth session of the Commission to submit, with a view to completing its task, one or more concrete proposals on the possible establishment of a permanent forum for indigenous people in the United Nations system; 9. Decides that the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations, established pursuant to General Assembly resolution 40/131 of 13 December 1985 and modified by Commission on Human Rights resolution 1995/32 and Assembly resolutions 50/156 of 21 December 1995 and 53/130 of 9 December 1998, should also be used to assist representatives of indigenous communities and organizations in participating in the deliberations of the open-ended inter-sessional ad hoc working group of the Commission on Human Rights re-established in accordance with Commission resolution 1999/52; 10. Expresses its appreciation to the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations for the work it has accomplished; 11. Encourages Governments to support the Decade by: (a) Preparing relevant programmes, plans and reports in relation to the Decade, in consultation with indigenous people; (b) Seeking means, in consultation with indigenous people, of giving indigenous people greater responsibility for their own affairs and an effective voice in decisions on matters that affect them; (c) Establishing national committees or other mechanisms involving indigenous people to ensure that the objectives and activities of the Decade are planned and implemented on the basis of full partnership with indigenous people; (d) Contributing to the United Nations Trust Fund for the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People; (e) Contributing, together with other donors, to the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations in order to assist indigenous representatives in participating in the Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights,7 the open-ended intersessional working group charged with developing a draft declaration on the rights of indigenous people and the re-established open-ended inter-sessional ad hoc working group on the possible establishment of a permanent forum for indigenous people in the United Nations system; (f) Considering contributing, as appropriate, to the Fund for the Development of Indigenous Peoples in Latin America and the Caribbean, in support of the goals of the Decade; 6 Ibid., 1999, Supplement No. 3 (E/1999/23), chap. II, sect. A. 7 Formerly known as the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities; see E/1999/INF/2/Add.2. For the final text, see Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 1999, Supplement No. 1 (E/1999/99), decision 1999/256. /...