A/HRC/9/11 page 3 III. PERMANENT FORUM ON INDIGENOUS ISSUES 4. OHCHR gives high priority to the work of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and participated at its seventh session held in New York from 21 April to 2 May 2008. The theme of the session was “Climate change, bio-diversity and livelihoods: the stewardship role of indigenous peoples and new challenges”; the Office contributed to an inter-agency paper on climate change, indigenous peoples and the United Nations system. The Office also drew attention to the ongoing study requested by the Human Rights Council on the human rights impact of climate change and solicited the active involvement of the Permanent Forum members and indigenous representatives. As requested by the Forum, the Office assisted the participation of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people and the Special Rapporteur on the right to education as part of its efforts to strengthen cooperation between the Forum and international human rights mechanisms. The Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations provided assistance to 78 representatives of indigenous organizations to enable them to participate in the Forum. IV. INTER-AGENCY COOPERATION 5. The annual meeting of the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Issues (IASG) was hosted in Montréal by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (17-19 September 2007). The IASG is constituted of the focal points on indigenous issues from some 30 intergovernmental organizations with the purpose of enhancing cooperation among United Nations agencies on indigenous issues including through participation in the Permanent Forum. At the request of the United Nations Development Group (UNDG), the IASG was asked to prepare guidelines for the integration of indigenous issues into United Nations country programmes. OHCHR and ILO elaborated the normative framework for the guidelines based on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and ILO Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples. The UNDG approved the Guidelines on Indigenous Peoples’ Issues in February 2008 and since then they have been sent to all Resident Coordinators as well as to all OHCHR field presences. Copies of the Guidelines in English and Spanish are available on the OHCHR website. In August 2008, a workplan to implement the Guidelines was agreed upon and OHCHR forms part of the management committee. V. VOLUNTARILY ISOLATED INDIGENOUS PEOPLES 6. In the Programme of Action for the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People (A/60/270), the General Assembly recommended that a global mechanism be established to monitor the situation of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation. OHCHR has taken leadership in the United Nations system for responding to the recommendation and organized an expert seminar on voluntarily isolated indigenous peoples in the Amazon and Gran Chaco regions in Santa Cruz, Bolivia in cooperation with the Government of Bolivia, the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia (CIDOB) and the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) in November 2006. The seminar heard case studies drawn from the region and elaborated a common platform and recommended inter alia that OHCHR elaborate, in cooperation with States in the region and other interested parties, guidelines to assist public policy on the issue. Since that seminar a further workshop supported by OHCHR was organized in Quito (19-20 October 2007). Comments have also been received on the draft guidelines elaborated by the Office; a further workshop is planned in November 2008 to finalize them.