E/2024/43 E/C.19/2024/8 112. The Permanent Forum is alarmed at the removal of Indigenous children, based on policies and practices not suited to Indigenous Peoples, owing to a culture of discrimination and perceived risk aversion, rather than care and concern. This harmful practice disconnects Indigenous children from their culture, homes and families, with few ramifications for institutional decision makers. 113. The Permanent Forum heard about calls for a campaign in New Zealand to lower the voting age to 16 years of age, as young people have a greater stake in the future, yet very little influence over it. 114. The Permanent Forum is concerned about reprisals against land and environment defenders among Indigenous youth in the Pacific fa cing the destruction of their sacred sites and ecosystems. The Forum is also concerned about the impacts of extractive industries on Indigenous women and girls, noting the report by the Hawaiian authorities on murdered and missing Indigenous women and girl s. 115. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights also urged Pacific Indigenous Peoples to utilize the Voluntary Fund and the Indigenous Fellowship Programme with a view to increasing their representation at United Nations meetings and within the United Nations system. 116. The Permanent Forum invites Member States to consider adopting an International Day of the Arts at the seventy-ninth session of the General Assembly in recognition of the arts in all their expressions, including Indigenous arts. Dialogues: dialogue on Indigenous platforms established within United Nations entities (item 5 (f)) 117. The Permanent Forum encourages United Nations entities that have platforms for Indigenous Peoples to continue to contribute to t he deliberations of the Forum, including through the submission of conference room papers to further update the Forum. The Forum reiterates the importance of the sustained and consistent engagement of Indigenous Peoples at every stage of decision-making across the United Nations. 118. The Permanent Forum appreciates the joint work of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Special Rapporteur in following up on the recommendations regarding the conflation of the terms “local communities” and Indigenous Peoples. In joint declarations issued in July 2023 and February 2024 Member States, United Nations entities, foundations, funders and non -governmental organizations were called upon to cease the conflation of the terms. The Foru m thanks the United Nations entities that have responded to that call and encourages their continued efforts in that regard. 119. The Permanent Forum reiterates that it has urged all United Nations entities and States parties to treaties concerning the environment, biodiversity and climate change to eliminate the use of the term “local communities” in conjunction with Indigenous Peoples, and to distinguish between the terms, in ongoing processes, policies and new international agreements at all levels. 120. The Permanent Forum encourages parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity to ensure that progress is made with regard to institutional arrangements that guarantee human rights-based approaches to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, with the full and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples. In addition, the Forum calls upon the Conference of Parties to request its relevant subsidiary bodies to convene an ad hoc expert group meeting, with the participation of experts of the three United Nations mechanisms on Indigenous Peoples, to address the conflation of Indigenous Peoples with other groups of society and to develop specific actions to avoid such conflation. 24-07820 19/28