E/2013/43 E/C.19/2013/25 14. The Permanent Forum affirms that articles 11 to 15 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples provide a critical framework for ensuring the necessary transformative changes in indigenous education and the exercise of the right to self-determination. Indigenous peoples have the right to be involved in defining and developing educational priorities and initiatives, including laws, regulations and policies, which have a direct impact upon them. Such educational systems should respect, recognize and include indigenous peoples’ world views, cultures, languages and traditional knowledge, while ensuring gender equality and the recognition of traditional knowledge-keepers as pedagogical authorities. 15. The Permanent Forum encourages States and United Nations agencies and funds to implement, in cooperation with indigenous peoples, proactive and substantive measures to realize the full and effective implementation of the rights affirmed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. These measures must include greater accessibility for indigenous learners who live in remote areas or in nomadic communities. The Forum calls upon States to respect and implement article 19 of the Declaration by ensuring the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that affect them. 16. Education in the mother tongue and bilingual education, foremost in primary and secondary schools, lead to effective and long-term successful educational outcomes. The Permanent Forum urges States to fund and implement the Programme of Action for the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, specifically in the following education-related objective. The Forum underlines the need for States to respect and promote indigenous peoples’ definitions of learning and education, founded on the values and priorities of the relevant indigenous peoples. The right to education is independent of State borders and should be expressed by indigenous peoples’ right to freely traverse borders, as supported by articles 9 and 36 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 17. The Permanent Forum recommends, on the basis of articles 14 and 15 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, that States support indigenous peoples in establishing their own educational systems and institutions, including universities. Specific measures should be put in place to support indigenous, intercultural and community higher education institutions and programmes in their academic, organizational, financial and accreditation processes. An excellent example of best practices in this regard is the inclusion of compulsory indigenous studies in the curricula of higher education institutions. The Forum urges States to recognize the importance of the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative, launched during the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development of 2012, and to incorporate the knowledge, history and proposals of indigenous peoples into the activities to be undertaken. 18. The Permanent Forum recalls the recommendations contained in paragraphs 48 and 56 of the report of the international expert group meeting on indigenous youth (E/C.19/2013/3), emphasizing that linguistic education and linguistic sovereignty are of fundamental importance to indigenous peoples. The Forum recommends that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), UNICEF and other competent bodies of the United Nations convene, together with the Forum, a meeting of experts on intercultural matters and bilingual education. 13-36172 5