Rights of Indigenous Peoples

A/RES/73/156No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 71aRights of indigenous peoples, published in 2019.

What other versions does this mandate have?

15 versions · 2012–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/191

2025A/RES/80/191Rights of indigenous peoplesLatestCompare with previous version
2024A/RES/79/159Rights of indigenous peoplesCompare with previous version
2023A/RES/78/189Rights of indigenous peoplesCompare with previous version
2023A/RES/77/203Rights of indigenous peoplesCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/76/148Rights of indigenous peoplesCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

5 topics

Conferences Human Rights Human Rights Advancement Indigenous Peoples International Years

What does this mandate say?

35 operative paragraphs

Notes with appreciation the work of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, takes note of the report of the Special Rapporteur, and encourages all Governments to respond favourably to her requests for visits;

Urges Governments and the United Nations system, in consultation and cooperation with indigenous peoples through their representatives and institutions, to continue to implement, when appropriate, measures at the national level, including legislative, policy and administrative measures, to achieve the ends of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples6 and to promote awareness of it among all sectors of society, including members of legislatures, the judiciary and the civil service, as well as among indigenous peoples, and invites international and regional organizations, within their respective mandates, national human rights institutions, where they exist, civil society, including non-governmental organizations, and other relevant actors to contribute to those efforts;

Underscores the importance of implementing the outcome document of the high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly known as the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples,7 and reiterates the commitment of Member States 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 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;

Encourages the leadership of the Secretary-General and of the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, as the responsible senior official of the United Nations system, in overseeing the implementation of and following up on the system-wide action plan to ensure a coherent approach to achieving the ends of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, raising awareness of the rights of indigenous peoples and increasing the coherence of the activities of the system in this regard, and encourages the funds, programmes and specialized agencies of the United Nations system, resident coordinators and United Nations country teams to implement this plan in full alignment with national development needs and priorities;

Encourages Member States, resident coordinators and United Nations country teams, within their mandates and in coordination with the Governments concerned, to involve indigenous peoples regarding issues affecting them in the preparation of the United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks and country programme action plans;

Encourages Member States to work towards achieving the ends of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;

Encourages those States that have not yet ratified or acceded to the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), of the International Labour Organization to consider doing so;

Urges Governments and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to continue to contribute to the Trust Fund on Indigenous Issues, the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations Indigenous Peoples’ Partnership, invites indigenous organizations and private institutions and individuals to do likewise, and notes the importance of accessibility, accountability, transparency and balanced geographical distribution in the management of these funds;

Decides to continue to observe the International Day of Indigenous Peoples every year on 9 August, and requests the Secretary-General to support the observance of the Day from within existing resources;

Encourages Member States and all organizations and bodies of the United Nations system and other international and regional organizations, the private sector and academia, as well as civil society, including non-governmental organizations, to observe the International Day of Indigenous Peoples in an appropriate manner, including through educational and public awareness-raising activities;

Encourages Member States to give due consideration to all the rights of indigenous peoples in fulfilling the commitments undertaken in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development8 and in the elaboration of national action plans and programmes as well as international and regional programmes, applying the pledge to leave no one behind and to endeavour to reach the furthest behind first;

Encourages States to consider including in their voluntary national reviews for the high-level political forum on sustainable development and their national and global reports information related to indigenous peoples on the progress made and challenges in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, bearing in mind paragraphs 78 and 79 of the 2030 Agenda, and also encourages States to compile disaggregated data to measure progress and to ensure that no one is left behind;

Also encourages States, according to their relevant national context and characteristics, to collect and disseminate data disaggregated by ethnicity, income, gender, age, race, migratory status, disability, geographic location or other factors, as appropriate, in order to monitor and improve the impact of development policies, strategies and programmes aimed at improving the well-being of indigenous peoples and individuals, to combat and eliminate violence and multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination against them and to support work towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda;

Encourages the Secretary-General to include information pertinent to indigenous peoples in the forthcoming annual reports on progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals;

Stresses the need to strengthen the commitment of States and the entities of the United Nations system to mainstream the promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples into development policies and programmes at the national, regional and international levels, and encourages them to give due consideration to the rights of indigenous peoples in achieving the goals of the 2030 Agenda;

Also stresses the need for indigenous peoples of all regions to contribute to the high-level political forum on sustainable development, and encourages States to engage with indigenous peoples at the local, national and regional levels in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals;

Invites the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples to give due consideration, within their mandates, to the rights of indigenous peoples as related to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda;

Encourages the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to continue to provide inputs on indigenous issues to the high-level political forum on sustainable development for consideration in its thematic reviews;

Underlines the need to intensify efforts, in cooperation with indigenous peoples, to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence and discrimination against indigenous women, children, youth, older persons and persons with disabilities and to support measures that will ensure their empowerment and full and effective participation in decision-making processes at all levels and in all areas and eliminate structural and legal barriers to their full, equal and effective participation in political, economic, social and cultural life;

Reaffirms the importance of effective accountability with regard to violence against indigenous women and girls, including sexual violence, abuse and exploitation, and of taking adequate measures to prevent and eliminate such violence;

Invites the Commission on the Status of Women to consider indigenous women’s issues, among others, at the sixty-fourth session of the Commission, to be held in 2020, to coincide with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, and encourages Governments to cooperate with indigenous peoples at all levels on preparations for the 2020 review so as to benefit from their experience and expertise;

Encourages States to consider including in their reports related to indigenous peoples and women information on the progress made and challenges in the implementation of Commission on the Status of Women resolutions 49/7 of 11 March 2005, entitled “Indigenous women: beyond the ten-year review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action”, and 56/4 of 9 March 2012, entitled “Indigenous women: key actors in poverty and hunger eradication”;

Encourages Member States to establish national mechanisms with adequate funding for the successful implementation of the plan for the 2019 International Year of Indigenous Languages in partnership with indigenous peoples, and invites indigenous peoples, as custodians of their own languages, to initiate and develop their own action plans and appropriate measures for the International Year and awareness-raising campaigns to draw attention to the critical loss of indigenous languages;

Invites the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, in active collaboration with other relevant United Nations entities, to organize, as a major event of the 2019 International Year of Indigenous Languages, a high-level event on indigenous languages, aiming to consider an outcome document on the International Year, which would be preceded by regional events or preparatory meetings, with the participation of indigenous peoples, encourages Member States to support their organization, and encourages the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to submit a report on all activities to the General Assembly;

Decides to convene a high-level event during 2019, organized by the President of the General Assembly, for the conclusion of the International Year of Indigenous Languages, and further requests the President of the General Assembly to support initiatives relevant to the successful celebration of the International Year, within existing resources;

Encourages Governments to redouble efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labour, both in legislation and in practice, in the context of respect for the human rights of indigenous children, including through international cooperation, as appropriate;

Also encourages Governments to promote actions to eliminate malnutrition of indigenous children, especially for those living in rural areas, providing them adequate food, water and sanitation, education, health and basic services, and to implement actions for poverty eradication;

Encourages transnational corporations and other business enterprises to respect human rights, including the rights of indigenous children, and to eliminate the worst forms of child labour from their operations;

Underscores the need to ensure equal protection of the law and equality before the courts for indigenous women and girls at all levels and, to that end, the importance of providing systematic gender-sensitivity training, as appropriate, for police and security forces, prosecutors, judges and lawyers, integrating gender considerations into security sector reform initiatives, developing protocols and guidelines and enhancing or putting in place appropriate accountability measures for adjudicators;

Encourages States and entities of the United Nations system to strengthen international cooperation, including to address the disadvantages faced by indigenous peoples, and to increase technical cooperation and financial assistance in this regard;

Encourages the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund and other relevant United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, in accordance with their mandates, to carry out research and evidence-gathering on the prevalence and root causes of suicide among indigenous youth and children and good practices on its prevention and to consider developing, as appropriate, strategies or policies, consistent with national priorities, in cooperation with Member States, to tackle it, including through consultation with indigenous peoples, in particular indigenous youth organizations;

Takes note with appreciation of the work led by the Presidents of the General Assembly at its seventieth and seventy-first sessions in conducting consultations with Member States, indigenous peoples’ representatives and institutions from all regions of the world and existing mechanisms of the United Nations on possible measures to enable the participation of indigenous peoples’ representatives and institutions in meetings of relevant United Nations bodies on issues affecting them, which led to the adoption of Assembly resolution 71/321 and its decision to continue its consideration of possible further measures necessary to enhance the participation of indigenous peoples’ representatives and institutions in relevant United Nations meetings on issues affecting them at its seventy-fifth session, taking into account the achievements in that regard of other bodies and organizations throughout the United Nations system, to be preceded by consultations with indigenous peoples’ representatives and institutions from all regions of the world as an input to the intergovernmental process;

Invites Member States to support the Secretary-General in his efforts or activities to hold regional consultations, including through the regional commissions, as appropriate, before the nineteenth session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, including by hosting such consultations, in accordance with resolution 71/321;

Encourages the United Nations system to strengthen cooperation with the Fund for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, considering its fundamental role in the Latin American and Caribbean region in processes of dialogue and consultation between States and indigenous peoples;

Decides to continue its consideration of the question at its seventy-fourth session, under the item entitled “Rights of indigenous peoples”, and to maintain in the provisional agenda the sub-item entitled “Follow-up to the outcome document of the high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly known as the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples”.

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