IPCGC: 2005 - AGENDA ITEM 5 – FUTURE WORK OF THE PERMANENT FORUM

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES CAUCUS OF THE GREATER CARIBBEAN (IPCGC)

AGENDA ITEM 5 – FUTURE WORK OF THE PERMANENT FORUM

Madam Chair, we welcome the Second Decade and we extend thanks the UN General Assembly for proclaiming the Second Decade.

We encourage the Permanent Forum to focus on the recommendations previously made from the 1st to the 4th Sessions. The Indigenous Peoples Caucus of the Greater Caribbean makes the following recommendations:

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. We call on the Permanent Forum to request ECOSOC to recommend the expansion of the membership of the Permanent Forum to include a direct Caribbean presence in the Forum.

2. That some of the Expert Members of the Permanent Forum visit the Caribbean region, including CARICOM, to have a first hand knowledge on the situation of the Indigenous Peoples.

3. To urge the UN Agencies, Programmes, Funds, and other donors to allocate funding for meetings in the Caribbean relating to Indigenous Issues including the proposed meetings that the Expert members will be participating in.

4. We urge the Permanent Forum to ensure the effective participation of Caribbean Indigenous Women to be reflected in the work of the Second International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples. We also urge the Permanent Forum to request ECOSOC to urge the Governments to recognize and respect Indigenous Women's Groups and their recommendations particularly with regard to the MDGs and the Goals of the Second Decade.

5. To establish National and Regional Offices of the Permanent Forum in the Caribbean and to request the UN to provide adequate funding for these offices.


SECOND DECADE

1. We call on the Permanent Forum to urge ECOSOC to recommend that governments in the Caribbean Region establish National Committees to deal with the activities of the Second Decade. The establishment of the Committees must include the effective and full participation of the Indigenous Peoples including Indigenous Peoples Organisations. The Committees must participate in the evaluation of the second decade in achieving its goals.

2. We call on the Permanent Forum to assist in securing adequate funding for the region for th implementation of the Programme of Activities and the Plan of Action of the Second Decade for the Indigenous Peoples of the Greater Caribbean.

3. Implementation of MDGs should be monitored by developing an defectively using human rights impact assessment methods which are sensitive to the realities of indigenous peoples

4. To call on governments to support an encourage the building of alliances among Indigenous peoples including those separated by borders to revitalize an strengthen their culture

5. We support the call for the preservation of Sacred species be one of the goals of the Second decade.

Thank you madam Chair.