UN VOLUNTARY FUND FOR INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS CRITERIA FOR THE SELECTION OF BENEFICIARIES

1. According to General Assembly resolution 40/131, the only beneficiaries of assistance from the Fund shall be representatives of indigenous populations' organizations and communities:

i) who are so considered by the Board of Trustees;

ii) who would not, in the opinion of the Board, be able to attend the sessions of the Working Groups or the Permanent Forum without the assistance provided by the Fund;

iii) who would be able to contribute to a deeper knowledge on the part of the Working Groups or the Permanent Forum of the problems affecting indigenous populations and who would secure a broad geographical representation.

2. In addition, the Secretary-General approved the following criteria upon recommendation by the Board:

(a) A travel grant approved by the Secretariat is given on an individual basis. An organization or beneficiary cannot request that a beneficiary be replaced by another one, except under exceptional circumstances, time permitting and upon approval by the Secretariat;

(b) The representatives and the organizations applying for a grant should be indigenous;

(c) The Board does not consider applications which do not provide a letter of recommendation signed by an executive of their indigenous organization. The Board will not examine a letter signed by the applicant herself/himself;

(d) The Board only considers a maximum of 2 applicants per organization;

(e) Applicants are requested to submit application forms and recommendation letters in the working languages of the Board's secretariat (English, French or Spanish); Applications in other languages will not be considered by the Board of Trustees.

(f) The Board selects both, representatives who have never participated in a session of a Working Group or the Permanent Forum and representatives who already participated and could develop specialized capacity and strengthen the core group of participants in a Working Group or the Permanent Forum;

(g) The Board encourages indigenous organizations and communities to consider gender balance and, if possible, propose one woman and one man;

(h) The Board encourages indigenous organizations and communities to consider nominating young persons;

(i) The Board encourages the former beneficiaries of the OHCHR Indigenous Fellowship Programme to apply for grants to represent their indigenous organization or community at sessions of the Working Groups or Permanent Forum by sending duly filled in application forms and meeting all the criteria for selection;

(j) Applicants are requested to indicate their responsibility in their organization or community;

(k) Applicants to the session of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations are requested to refer in their statements to the specific theme of the year.

(l) The Board's recommendation in favour of an applicant to attend a session of the Permanent Forum does not exclude another recommendation to attend the Working Groups and vice-versa.

(m) The Board confirmed its practice according to which it will give priority to applicants living in their own community and country vis a vis applicants living abroad.

3. For the Working Group on the draft United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples (WGDD) only:

According to Commission on Human Rights resolution 1995/32, in order to be able to attend the Commission on Human Rights' Working Groups, organizations must in addition have the ECOSOC consultative status or be authorized by the ECOSOC Committee on Non- Governmental Organizations.

4. For the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues only:

In accordance with ECOSOC resolution 2000/22 "…non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Council may participate as observers; organizations of indigenous people may equally participate as observers in accordance with the procedures which have been applied in the Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protections of Human Rights".

According to the ECOSOC resolution 2000/22, the Permanent Forum has a mandate to discuss indigenous issues within the mandate of the Council relating to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights. Applicants must therefore refer in their statements to these issues.

• LIST OF BENEFICIARIES OF A TRAVEL GRANT IN 2007 TO ATTEND:

- the Permanent Forum
- the Working Group on Indigenous Populations