Part II Subsidiary Human Rights Organs, 8 The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Subject(s):

Indigenous peoples

This chapter explores the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (PFII), which is the first permanent UN body in which state and non-state nominees hold equal status. The PFII is primarily a product of increasing recognition within the UN system of the need for more focused attention to protect and promote indigenous peoples’ rights—full accommodation of indigenous rights within existing human rights mechanisms and instruments ‘remains elusive’, and indigenous individuals and communities across the world continue to experience significant discrimination and social and economic disadvantage. Since the adoption in 2007 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the first comprehensive and generally applicable international instrument on indigenous rights, the PFII has taken an increasingly rights-based approach across its mandate. The chapter then considers the PFII’s institutional landscape and its strengths and weaknesses as a protector and promoter of human rights, with a focus on implementation of the Declaration.