Utoo Radio, June 22, 2024 - Dennis Francis, UN General Assembly President, urged world leaders and ambassadors to be constructive in dialogue to honour their commitments to Indigenous peoples during the 10th anniversary of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples.

The outcome document supported the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted in 2007, which prescribed minimum standards for the recognition, protection, and promotion of these rights.

Despite these achievements, Indigenous peoples still face extreme poverty, climate change impacts, dispossession, eviction from ancestral lands, unequal access to health and education, and sexual violence among Indigenous women.

The lack of effective participation by Indigenous peoples in development processes remains a major obstacle.

The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) urged countries to establish concrete measures to recognize and ensure the intrinsic and collective rights of Indigenous peoples, including self-determination, autonomy, historical property, and cultural rights.

The Chairperson of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues stressed the importance of including Indigenous peoples in voluntary national reviews on progress towards sustainable development and promoting inclusivity in all forums in the United Nations and multilateral processes.