A/RES/54/150
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(g) Identifying resources for activities designed to implement the goals of the Decade, in cooperation
with indigenous people and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations;
12. Welcomes the offer of the Government of Spain to host at Seville in February 2000 the first meeting
of the open-ended inter-sessional ad hoc working group on article 8 (j) of the Convention on Biological
Diversity8 regarding the traditional knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local
communities, and encourages Governments to include representatives of indigenous and local communities
in their delegations to the meeting;
13. Invites United Nations financial and development institutions, operational programmes and the
specialized agencies, as well as other regional and international organizations, in accordance with the
existing procedures of their governing bodies:
(a) To give increased priority and resources to improving the conditions of indigenous people, with
particular emphasis on the needs of those people in developing countries, including through the preparation
of specific programmes of action for the implementation of the goals of the Decade, within their areas of
competence;
(b) To launch special projects, through appropriate channels and in cooperation with indigenous
people, to strengthen their community-level initiatives and to facilitate the exchange of information and
expertise among indigenous people and other relevant experts;
(c) To designate focal points for the coordination of activities related to the Decade with the Office
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights;
and commends those institutions, programmes, agencies and regional and international organizations that
have already done so;
14. Recommends that the Secretary-General ensure coordinated follow-up to the recommendations
concerning indigenous people of relevant United Nations conferences, namely, the World Conference on
Human Rights, held at Vienna from 14 to 25 June 1993, the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development, held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 3 to 14 June 1992, the International Conference on
Population and Development, held at Cairo from 5 to 13 September 1994, the Fourth World Conference on
Women, held at Beijing from 4 to 15 September 1995, the World Summit for Social Development, held at
Copenhagen from 6 to 12 March 1995, the second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements
(Habitat II), held at Istanbul, Turkey, from 3 to 14 June 1996, and the World Food Summit, held at Rome
from 13 to 17 November 1996, and other relevant international conferences;
15. Requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to submit, through the
Secretary-General, a report on the implementation of the programme of activities of the Decade to the
General Assembly at its fifty-fifth session;
8
See United Nations Environment Programme, Convention on Biological Diversity (Environmental Law and
Institutions Programme Activity Centre), June 1992.
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