E/2023/43
E/C.19/2023/7
and the rights of Indigenous Peoples and to the Human Rights Council on green
financing, a just transition to protect Indigenous Peoples’ rights.
49. The Permanent Forum is encouraged by the ongoing focus that the Expert
Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples dedicates to treaties, agreements,
and other constructive arrangements between Indigenous Peoples and States,
including peace accords and reconciliation initiatives, and their constitutional
recognition, including through studies and interactive dialogues. The Permanent
Forum supports the invitation extended by the Chairperson of the Expert Mechanism,
Binota Moi Dhamai, to Member States in collaboration with Indigenous Peoples to
make use of the country mandate of the Expert Mechanism.
50. The Permanent Forum heard many testimonies about the violation of Indigenous
Peoples’ right to free, prior and informed consent in the context of climate change
mitigation and adaptation, conservation efforts, the establishment of protected areas
and extractive industries. Such violations result in dispossession of ancestral lands,
the desecration of sacred sites, forced displacement and the destruction of traditional
economies and livelihoods, including through abolition of hunting and fishing rights.
51. Those violations also take place in countries that have ratified the Indigenous
and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169). The Permanent Forum recommends
that countries that have ratified that Convention update their legislation and legal
systems to conform with the Convention and its provisions. The Permanent Forum
welcomes the landmark ruling in October 2021 by the Supreme Court of Norway
protecting Indigenous Peoples from the establishment of a windmill park that would
interfere with their traditional reindeer grazing areas. The Permanent Forum urges the
Government of Norway to implement the decision of the Supreme Court without
delay. It also recommends that Norway urgently address the allegations of increased
incidents of hate speech online and offline against the Saami peoples following the
Supreme Court ruling.
52. The Permanent Forum notes with alarm situations in many countries in Latin
America and the Caribbean, Asia and Africa in which Indigenous Peoples are
subjected to intimidation, hate speech, vexatious litigation, arbitrary arrest,
interrogation, torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, enforced disappearances and
killings.
53. The Permanent Forum underscores the serious impact on the human rights of
Indigenous Peoples by Russian aggression against Ukraine, including through illegal
conscription, which leads to forced displacement and the disruption and
traumatization of Indigenous families and their communities.
54. The Permanent Forum is deeply concerned with armed aggression and conflicts
in other regions and countries, such as in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Sahel,
the Congo Basin and in Asia, either by States or non-State actors, including criminal
organizations, or both. Those are situations that underscore the relevance of the
International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and
Members of Their Families, the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 1951
and the Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees of 1967.
55. The Permanent Forum welcomes the intent of Nicaragua in drafting legislation
on territorial regulation of Indigenous territories. The Permanent Forum urges
Nicaragua to establish dialogue with the legitimate Indigenous authorities to initiate
and conclude drafting of the legislation as soon as possible, in order to prevent
repetition of the recent gross human rights violations against the Mayangna Sauni and
Wilu communities, allegedly committed by armed settlers. It further urges Nicaragua
to ensure that perpetrators are held to account through the justice system for the
murders committed and for the destruction of property. Impunity is not an option.
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