E/2007/43 E/C.19/2007/12 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Water Education, the World Water Assessment Programme and UNICEF. 55. The Permanent Forum applauds the historic decision of the United Nations Human Rights Council in recognizing the right to water as a human right, as well as its decision to initiate a study on the scope and content of the relevant human rights obligations related to equitable access to safe drinking water and sanitation under international human rights instruments, to be submitted prior to the sixth session of the Council. 11 The Permanent Forum also calls upon the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to present to the seventh session of the Permanent Forum the results of her study on the impact on the rights of indigenous peoples in terms of contamination, diversion, appropriation and privatization of water, which is sacred to indigenous peoples and is central to all life. Participants shared many examples of such impacts, which profoundly affect their peoples. 56. The Permanent Forum welcomes the invitation extended by the Russian Federation to hold a United Nations expert group meeting devoted to environmental and indigenous peoples’ issues in Khabarovsk, Russian Federation, in August 2007, and invites other States to follow its good example. 57. The Permanent Forum takes note of the following reports: (a) “Cultural indicators for food security, food sovereignty and sustainable development”, from the second Global Consultation on the Right to Food, Food Security and Food Sovereignty for Indigenous Peoples, held in Bilwi, Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, from 7 to 9 September 2006; (b) The Latin America and the Caribbean regional meeting on indicators, held in Bilwi, Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua in September 2006; (c) Meeting on indigenous peoples and indicators of well-being; Aboriginal Policy Research Conference, Ottawa, 22 and 23 March 2006; (d) Asia Regional Workshop on Indicators Relevant for Indigenous Peoples, Convention on Biological Diversity and Millennium Development Goals, Mindoro Oriental, Philippines, November 2006; (e) African Regional Expert Workshop on Indicators of Well-being and Indigenous Peoples, Nairobi, November 2006. The Permanent Forum further recommends that United Nations agencies, Member States and indigenous peoples utilize these indicators and support further efforts to develop them and to test some of these indicators in some countries. 58. The Permanent Forum welcomes the invitation of the Multilateral Financial Institutions Working Group on Environment to exchange views on indigenous peoples and sustainable development at its next session in November 2007. 59. The Permanent Forum recognizes that the United Nations has declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity and that indigenous peoples, as custodians of the Earth’s biodiversity, should be major players in actions planned for 2010. In that spirit, the Permanent Forum calls for close cooperation between the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Forum in promoting the __________________ 11 07-37675 A/HRC/2/9, decision 2/104. 11