E/CN.4/2002/97 page 13 indigenous environment, traditional lifestyle and economy, alternative military service, and protection of traditional cultures and languages. A recent law of April 2001 refers to the territories under traditional nature management by indigenous peoples. 33. Only a handful of African States actually recognize the existence of indigenous peoples on their territory. Ethiopia’s Constitution speaks of the unconditional right to self-determination of every nation, nationality and people in Ethiopia. The Constitution of Cameroon protects the rights of minorities and upholds the rights of indigenous people. The 1996 Constitution of Uganda protects the rights of marginalized groups and is committed to affirmative action policies in their favour. The 1996 Constitution of Algeria recognizes the Amazigh dimension of Algerian culture and Namibia’s Constitution recognizes the Nama language. The democratic Government of South Africa gives recognition to the rights of the San, generally acknowledged as the aboriginal southern Africans. The Constitution promotes the protection of the Khoi, Nama and San languages. Despite a changing legal environment, however, human rights violations of indigenous peoples continue to be reported (see annex I). II. MAJOR HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES CONFRONTING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES 34. In 1953 the International Labour Office published a remarkable study on the living and working conditions of aboriginal populations in independent countries in which it found that: “As a rule the living standard of the aboriginal populations in independent countries is extremely low, and in the great majority of cases is considerably lower than that of the most needy layers of the non-indigenous population.”8 Three decades later, José Martínez Cobo, the Special Rapporteur of the Sub-Commission on the problem of discrimination against indigenous populations, observed that in “many countries they were at the bottom of the socio-economic scale.”9 35. More recently, the World Bank carried out a comparative empirical study on indigenous peoples and poverty in Latin America which finds that “poverty among Latin America’s indigenous population is pervasive and severe [and] the living conditions of the indigenous population are generally abysmal, especially when compared to those of the non-indigenous population”.10 36. These findings are consistent with those of numerous other studies on the situation of indigenous peoples the world over; they tend to show not only that the living conditions of the indigenous people are generally deplorable, but also that this situation is closely related to the discrimination and other human rights abuses of which indigenous peoples are the victims. Despite efforts to improve their conditions, indigenous peoples are still handicapped by low standards of living and face numerous obstacles in their attempts to overcome their situation. 37. While some progress has been achieved over the last two decades, particularly as regards international and national legislation relating to the human rights of indigenous peoples (see Introduction), their overall situation is still a matter of great concern. If we look at different indicators of achievement of social, economic and cultural rights, indigenous people consistently score lower than the rest of the population.