E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.5/2001/2 page 4 11. The best approach appears to be to avoid making an absolute distinction between “new” and “old” minorities by excluding the former and including the latter, but to recognize that in the application of the Declaration the “old” minorities have stronger entitlements than the “new”. 12. The word “minority” can sometimes be misleading in itself. Outside Europe, and particularly in Africa, countries are often composed of a large number of groups, none of which make up a majority. 13. The relevant factors differ significantly between States. What is required is to ensure appropriate rights for members of all groups and to develop good governance in heterogeneous societies. By good governance is here understood legal, administrative and territorial arrangements which allow for peaceful and constructive group accommodation based on equality in dignity and rights for all and which allows for the necessary pluralism to enable the persons belonging to the different groups to preserve and develop their identity. 14. The Declaration sets out rights of persons belonging to minorities mainly in article 2 and spell out the duties of the States in which they exist in articles 1, 4 and 5. While the rights are consistently set out as rights of individuals, the duties of States are in part formulated as duties towards minorities as groups. This is most clearly expressed in article 1 (see below). While only individuals can claim the rights, the State cannot fully implement them without ensuring adequate conditions for the existence and identity of the group as a whole. 15. The rights of persons belonging to minorities differ from the rights of peoples to self-determination. The rights of persons belonging to minorities are individual rights, even if they in most cases can only be enjoyed in community with others. The rights of peoples, on the other hand, are collective rights. While the right of peoples to self-determination is well established under international law, in particular by common article 1 to the two International Covenants on Human Rights, it does not apply to persons belonging to minorities. This does not exclude that persons belonging to an ethnic or national group may in some contexts legitimately make claims based on minority rights and, in another context, when acting as a group, can make claims based on the right of a people to self-determination. 16. Within the United Nations and also within the Organization of American States, a distinction is drawn between the rights of persons belonging to minorities and those of indigenous peoples. The latter have particular concerns which are not properly addressed in the Declaration on Minorities. The main instrument at the global level relating to indigenous peoples is ILO Convention No. 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries, which has been ratified by only a small number of States. The draft declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, adopted by the Working Group on Indigenous Populations and transmitted by the Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities in 1993 to the Commission on Human Rights, is still under consideration by the Commission.