United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/69/2

Sixty-ninth session

Agenda item 65

The General Assembly

Adopts the following outcome document:

1. We, the Heads of State and Government, ministers and representatives of Member States, reaffirming our solemn commitment to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, in a spirit of cooperation with the indigenous peoples of the world, are assembled at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 22 and 23 September 2014, on the occasion of the high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly known as the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, to reiterate the important and continuing role of the United Nations in promoting and protecting the rights of indigenous peoples.

2. We welcome the indigenous peoples' preparatory processes for the World Conference, including the Global Indigenous Preparatory Conference held in Alta, Norway, in June 2013. We take not of the outcome document of the Alta Conference and other contributions made by indigenous peoples.

3. We reaffirm our support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted by the General Assembly on 13 September 2007, and our commitments made in this respect to consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them, in accordance with the applicable principles of the Declaration.

4. We reaffirm our solemn commitment to respect, promote and advance and in no way diminish the rights of indigenous peoples and to uphold the principles of the Declaration.

5. In addition to the Declaration, we recall the other major achievements of the past two decades in building an international framework for the advancement of the rights and aspirations of the world's indigenous peoples, including the establishment of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the creation of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the establishment of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples. We commit ourselves to giving due consideration to recommendations and advice issued by those bodies in cooperation with indigenous peoples.

6. We encourage those States that have not yet ratified or acceded to the International Labour Organization Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), to consider doing so. We recall the obligation of ratifying States under the Convention to develop coordinated and systematic action to protect the rights of indigenous peoples.

7. We commit ourselves to taking, in consultation and cooperation with indigenous peoples, appropriate measures at the national level, including legislative, policy and administrative measures, to achieve the ends of the Declaration and to promote awareness of it among all sectors of society, including members of legislatures, the judiciary and the civil service.

8. We commit ourselves to cooperating with indigenous peoples, through their own representative institutions, to develop and implement national action plans, strategies or other measures, where relevant, to achieve the ends of the Declaration.

9. We commit ourselves to promoting and protecting the rights of indigenous persons with disabilities and to continuing to improve their social and economic conditions, including by developing targeted measures for the aforementioned action plans, strategies or measures, in collaboration with indigenous persons with disabilities. We also commit ourselves to ensuring that national legislative, policy and institutional structures relating to indigenous peoples are inclusive of indigenous persons with disabilities and contribute to the advancement of their rights.

10. We commit ourselves to working with indigenous peoples to disaggregate data, as appropriate, or conduct surveys and to utilizing holistic indicators of indigenous peoples’ well-being to address the situation and needs of indigenous peoples and individuals, in particular older persons, women, youth, children and persons with disabilities.

11. We commit ourselves to ensuring equal access to high-quality education that recognizes the diversity of the cultures of indigenous peoples and to health, housing, water, sanitation and other economic and social programmes to improve well-being, including through initiatives, policies and the provision of resources. We intend to empower indigenous peoples to deliver such programmes as far as possible.

12. We recognize the importance of indigenous peoples’ health practices and their traditional medicine and knowledge.

13. We commit ourselves to ensuring that indigenous individuals have equal access to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. We also commit ourselves to intensifying efforts to reduce rates of HIV and AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and non-communicable diseases by focusing on prevention, including through appropriate programmes, policies and resources for indigenous individuals, and to ensure their access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences.

14. We commit ourselves to promoting the right of every indigenous child, in community with members of his or her group, to enjoy his or her own culture, to profess and practise his or her own religion or to use his or her own language.

15. We support the empowerment and capacity-building of indigenous youth, including their full and effective participation in decision-making processes in matters that affect them. We commit ourselves to developing, in consultation with indigenous peoples, policies, programmes and resources, where relevant, that target the well-being of indigenous youth, in particular in the areas of health, education, employment and the transmission of traditional knowledge, languages and practices, and to taking measures to promote awareness and understanding of their rights.

16. We acknowledge that indigenous peoples’ justice institutions can play a positive role in providing access to justice and dispute resolution and contribute to harmonious relationships within indigenous peoples’ communities and within society. We commit ourselves to coordinating and conducting dialogue with those institutions, where they exist.

17. We commit ourselves to supporting the empowerment of indigenous women and to formulating and implementing, in collaboration with indigenous peoples, in particular indigenous women and their organizations, policies and programmes designed to promote capacity-building and strengthen their leadership. We support measures that will ensure the full and effective participation of indigenous women in decision-making processes at all levels and in all areas and eliminate barriers to their participation in political, economic, social and cultural life.

18. We commit ourselves to intensifying our efforts, in cooperation with indigenous peoples, to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence and discrimination against indigenous peoples and individuals, in particular women, children, youth, older persons and persons with disabilities, by strengthening legal, policy and institutional frameworks.

19. We invite the Human Rights Council to consider examining the causes and consequences of violence against indigenous women and girls, in consultation with the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples and other special procedures mandate holders within their respective mandates. We also invite the Commission on the Status of Women to consider the issue of the empowerment of indigenous women at a future session.

20. We recognize commitments made by States, with regard to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources.

21. We also recognize commitments made by States, with regard to the Declaration, to establish at the national level, in conjunction with the indigenous peoples concerned, fair, independent, impartial, open and transparent processes to acknowledge, advance and adjudicate the rights of indigenous peoples pertaining to lands, territories and resources.

22. We recognize that the traditional knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous peoples and local communities make an important contribution to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. We acknowledge the importance of the participation of indigenous peoples, wherever possible, in the benefits of their knowledge, innovations and practices.

23. We intend to work with indigenous peoples to address the impact or potential impact on them of major development projects, including those involving the activities of extractive industries, including with the aim of managing risks appropriately.

24. We recall the responsibility of transnational corporations and other business enterprises to respect all applicable laws and international principles, including the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework and to operate transparently and in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. In this regard, we commit ourselves to taking further steps, as appropriate, to prevent abuses of the rights of indigenous peoples.

25. We commit ourselves to developing, in conjunction with the indigenous peoples concerned, and where appropriate, policies, programmes and resources to support indigenous peoples’ occupations, traditional subsistence activities, economies, livelihoods, food security and nutrition.

26. We recognize the importance of the role that indigenous peoples can play in economic, social and environmental development through traditional sustainable agricultural practices, including traditional seed supply systems, and access to credit and other financial services, markets, secure land tenure, health care, social services, education, training, knowledge and appropriate and affordable technologies, including for irrigation and water harvesting and storage.

27. We affirm and recognize the importance of indigenous peoples’ religious and cultural sites and of providing access to and repatriation of their ceremonial objects and human remains in accordance with the ends of the Declaration. We commit ourselves to developing, in conjunction with the indigenous peoples concerned, fair, transparent and effective mechanisms for access to and repatriation of ceremonial objects and human remains at the national and international levels.

28. We invite the Human Rights Council, taking into account the views of indigenous peoples, to review the mandates of its existing mechanisms, in particular the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, during the sixty-ninth session of the General Assembly, with a view to modifying and improving the Expert Mechanism so that it can more effectively promote respect for the Declaration, including by better assisting Member States to monitor, evaluate and improve the achievement of the ends of the Declaration.

29. We invite the human rights treaty bodies to consider the Declaration in accordance with their respective mandates. We encourage Member States to include, as appropriate, information on the situation of the rights of indigenous peoples, including measures taken to pursue the objectives of the Declaration, in reports to those bodies and during the universal periodic review process.

30. We welcome the increasingly important role of national and regional human rights institutions in contributing to the achievement of the ends of the Declaration. We encourage the private sector, civil society and academic institutions to take an active role in promoting and protecting the rights of indigenous peoples.

31. We request the Secretary-General, in consultation and cooperation with indigenous peoples, the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Peoples’ Issues and Member States, to begin the development, within existing resources, of a system-wide action plan to ensure a coherent approach to achieving the ends of the Declaration and to report to the General Assembly at its seventieth session, through the Economic and Social Council, on progress made. We invite the Secretary-General to accord, by the end of the seventieth session of the Assembly, an existing senior official of the United Nations system, with access to the highest levels of decision-making within the system, responsibility for coordinating the action plan, raising awareness of the rights of indigenous peoples at the highest possible level and increasing the coherence of the activities of the system in this regard.

32. We invite United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, in addition to resident coordinators, where appropriate, to support the implementation, upon request, of national action plans, strategies or other measures to achieve the ends of the Declaration, in accordance with national priorities and United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks, where they exist, through better coordination and cooperation.

33. We commit ourselves to considering, at the seventieth session of the General Assembly, ways to enable the participation of indigenous peoples’ representatives and institutions in meetings of relevant United Nations bodies on issues affecting them, including any specific proposals made by the Secretary-General in response to the request made in paragraph 40 below.

34. We encourage Governments to recognize the significant contribution of indigenous peoples to the promotion of sustainable development, in order to achieve a just balance among the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future generations, and the need to promote harmony with nature to protect our planet and its ecosystems, known as Mother Earth in a number of countries and regions.

35. We commit ourselves to respecting the contributions of indigenous peoples to ecosystem management and sustainable development, including knowledge acquired through experience in hunting, gathering, fishing, pastoralism and agriculture, as well as their sciences, technologies and cultures.

36. We confirm that indigenous peoples’ knowledge and strategies to sustain their environment should be respected and taken into account when we develop national and international approaches to climate change mitigation and adaptation.

37. We note that indigenous peoples have the right to determine and develop priorities and strategies for exercising their right to development. In this regard, we commit ourselves to giving due consideration to all the rights of indigenous peoples in the elaboration of the post 2015 development agenda.

38. We invite Member States and actively encourage the private sector and other institutions to contribute to the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples, the Trust Fund on Indigenous Issues, the Indigenous Peoples Assistance Facility and the United Nations Indigenous Peoples’ Partnership as a means of respecting and promoting the rights of indigenous peoples worldwide.

39. We request the Secretary-General to include relevant information on indigenous peoples in his final report on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

40. We request the Secretary-General, in consultation with the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Peoples’ Issues and Member States, taking into account the views expressed by indigenous peoples, to report to the General Assembly at its seventieth session on the implementation of the present outcome document, and to submit at the same session, through the Economic and Social Council, recommendations regarding how to use, modify and improve existing United Nations mechanisms to achieve the ends of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, ways to enhance a coherent, system-wide approach to achieving the ends of the Declaration and specific proposals to enable the participation of indigenous peoples’ representatives and institutions, building on the report of the Secretary-General on ways and means of promoting participation at the United Nations of indigenous peoples’ representatives on the issues affecting them.

4th plenary meeting 22 September 2014