E/2022/43 E/C.19/2022/11 Arctic 115. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed existing inequalities and challenges that indigenous peoples across the Arctic region face. These include an infrastructure deficit that contributes overall to a higher prevalence of infectious diseases, poverty rates and other factors affecting the well-being of indigenous peoples. The pandemic and related border closures have also had a negative impact on indigenous peoples and their livelihoods. 116. The Permanent Forum welcomes recent proposals made by the Sami to add ress cross-border collaboration and urges the States involved to work constructively with the affected indigenous peoples in these matters. The Permanent Forum also welcomes the Inuit Nunangat Policy of Canada, by which Inuit Nunangat is recognized as a distinct geographic, cultural and political region that encompasses the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Nunavut, Nunavik, and Nunatsiavut. The Permanent Forum invites other Member States to develop, in close cooperation with indigenous peoples, similar arrangements that recognize indigenous peoples’ ancestral territories. Asia 117. Recognition of Asia’s indigenous peoples by Governments is key to achieving effective implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169). Without such recognition, indigenous peoples are subject to marginalization, assimilation and violent attacks. 118. Post-pandemic recovery efforts have exacerbated human rights violations against indigenous peoples across Asia. Governments have used economic recovery plans as a justification to seize indigenous lands for the purposes of resource extraction, and indigenous environmental defenders are often threatened and arrested. The Permanent Forum calls on Member States to guarantee the principles of free, prior and informed consent throughout its post-pandemic recovery efforts to ensure that the socioeconomic development of indigenous territories is implemented in full cooperation with indigenous peoples. Central and South America and the Caribbean 119. The topics highlighted at the Central and South America and the Caribbean dialogue included collective intellectual property rights, indigenous migrants, traditional medicine, land rights, territorial exploitation and displacement, indigenous human rights defenders, criminalization and persecution. 120. The Permanent Forum urges Member States to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169) and the Escazú Agreement. 121. The Permanent Forum recommends that United Nations entities establish programmes and working groups to facilitate the recruitment of indigenous professionals. United Nations entities are invited to report on the advancement of such recruitment endeavours at future sessions of the Permanent Forum. North America 122. Important issues raised during the North America dialogue included the intergenerational trauma and continued mental health impact of boarding schools, access to mental health and health in the post-pandemic recovery period, the participation of indigenous peoples and violence against indigenous women and girls, including missing and murdered women and girls. 22-07676 21/27