CONSEJO INTERNACIONAL DE TRATADOS INDIOS

REQUEST THAT INDIGENOUS CHILDREN’S ISSUES

BE A SEPARATE AND PERMANENT FOCUS

IN THE WORK PLAN AND AGENDA OF THE PERMANENT FORUM

Submitted by the Indigenous Caucus to

the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

May 13 – 24 2002,

New York, New York

At a duly called meeting on 21 May 2002, the Indigenous Peoples Caucus agreed to submit the following resolution, relating to Indigenous Children and Youth, to the members of the Permanent Forum:

RECOGNIZING that Indigenous children are discriminated against for a variety of reasons, form the universally most disadvantaged and marginalized section of children around the world and are disproportionately represented in every situation of neglect, exploitation and discrimination including poor health, deprivation of basic needs such as food, shelter and education, as well as in more critical situations such as those of sexual abuse, violence and trafficking, armed conflict and displacement, and

REITERATING that indigenous children’s issues have not received due attention in international and UN forums on children or on issues that concern and affect children, including in the Declaration and Programme of Action of the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Other Forms of Related Intolerance, September 2001; the Yokohama Global Commitment 2001 of the Second World Congress Against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, Yokohama 17 –20 December, 2001; and the Outcome Document “A World Fit for Children” of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children, New York, 8-10 May 2002, and 

RECOGNIZING, that issues of human rights of indigenous children, which include the rights to survival, protection, development and participation, come within the purview of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues as well as the mandate of its parent body the Economic and Social Council, and

RECALLING the resolution of the First International Workshop on Indigenous Children, held in Geneva 19 – 21 July 2001, calling for the needs of indigenous children to be addressed at all forums in the UN systems and for indigenous children’s participation, and

FURTHER RECALLING the resolution of the Second International Workshop on Indigenous Children, adopted by the Indigenous Caucus in Geneva on 22 July 2001, which requests that  the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues recognize the urgency of the situation of indigenous youth, and requests specific and immediate attention to all matters concerning the circumstances and situations of indigenous children and youth.

NOW   THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Indigenous Caucus hereby requests that  the members of the Permanent Forum take the following actions:

1.   Include Indigenous children and youth as a specific and permanent agenda item on the future work programme of the Permanent Forum

2.   Encourage United Nations specialised agencies whose activities have an impact on indigenous children and youth to report regularly to the Permanent Forum or to any mechanism established by the Permanent Forum to coordinate these reports, on their activities and their impacts.  The reports  should also contain detailed information on programs directed at, affecting and relating to indigenous children from other international and UN agencies, including but not limited to WHO, UNAIDS, UNESCO, UNHCR, FAO, ILO and UNDP.

3.   Request that UNICEF, as the UN nodal agency on children, (a) present a comprehensive report to the Permanent Forum on an annual basis, including budgetary allocations and an assessment of their impact; and (b) request that UNICEF provide information from the Multi Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) being globally undertaken by UNICEF regarding disaggregated data on antenatal health, birth registration, immunisation and early childhood development of indigenous children. The report should also include details of all its initiatives undertaken in collaboration with other specialized bodies of the UN system relating to indigenous children and those undertaken at international or regional level as well as country initiatives where applicable.

4.   Establish strong links with the Committee on the Rights of the Child and other monitoring mechanisms, including Special Rapporteurs and Representatives of the UN system, that have both specific mandates and implications for the rights and issues of children, including access to reports compiled by these mechanisms.