Economic and Social Council

Seeking informed consent from indigenous peoples before undertaking projects affecting their territories and resources was crucial to their survival and human rights, participants told the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today.

Covering 30 per cent of the earth’s land surface and providing critical food security, energy and livelihoods for some 1.6 billion people, forests were intimately linked to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and their responsible management crucial to humanity’s future, speakers underlined today, as the United Nations Forum on Forests opened its twelfth session.

The very survival of indigenous peoples depended on States taking swift action to rapidly recognize and respect all human rights, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues heard today, concluding the first week of its sixteenth session.

The empowerment of indigenous women as powerful agents of change could only strengthen their communities and nations in the face of environmental and other challenges, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues heard today.

Calls demanding respect for traditional lands, resources, knowledge and cultures rang through the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today, with participants from the North Pole to New Zealand pressing Governments to move beyond “paper promises” and uphold their rights.

Fearing a rollback of achievements in implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, speakers appealed to Governments to uphold commitments protecting the rights of all indigenous peoples and prevent a reversal of hard-won gains, as the sixteenth session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues continued today.

While progress had been made on a range of pressing challenges amid the world’s embrace of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, far more must be done to ensure that indigenous peoples were not left behind, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues heard today, during the opening of its sixteenth session.

The Economic and Social Council today adopted a resolution calling on all organizations in the United Nations system to make full use of the United Nations Staff College in Turin, Italy, and welcoming its role as a catalyst for organizational change.

More than 1,000 indigenous participants from all over the world will be at United Nations Headquarters from 24 April to 5 May to attend the sixteenth session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

Prior to adopting resolutions on tax evasion and the United Nations Forum on Forests, as well as a decision on geospatial information, speakers informed the Economic and Social Council that the world was facing a serious crisis, with the lives of more than 20 million people now under serious threat due to extreme hunger.