A/HRC/48/75 concerns about State sovereignty and involved a deeper examination of the term “peoples” and the meaning of self-determination for peoples internally within a State. 6. In the post-cold war environment, the focus on the internal governance of States as a characteristic of self-determination emerged. Following the end of communism, democratic governance was increasingly viewed as a normative rule of the international system and the essential elements of democracy were derived from the right to political participation as established in the Charter of the United Nations, article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 7. As the most controversial and contested right in international law, self-determination posed substantial challenges for the indigenous participants in the 25 years of developing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Despite the right of all peoples to self-determination enshrined in the two Covenants, there were several States that continued to argue that the right to self-determination would lead to secession. Those same States did not accept that decolonization applied to indigenous peoples. Instead, African States insisted that the existing text in article 46 (1) be amended, relying upon the Declaration on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, so as to guarantee the territorial integrity of States. III. Legal framework 8. The fundamental norm of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is the right to self-determination recognized in article 3: “Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.” The right to selfdetermination is manifested in articles 4, 5, 18, 19, 20 and 33 of the Declaration, which expound on its implementation at the domestic level. Without article 3, none of the other rights can be wholly fulfilled. 9. The international history of self-determination is briefly described above. It is also recognized in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and in the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2016. Prior to the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights invoked common article 1 of the Covenants in cases relating to indigenous peoples and in their consideration of State party reports, mainly in the context of indigenous land rights, economic rights, the right to participation and indigenous institutions. 9 However, the challenge for the Human Rights Committee’s jurisprudence is that cases are considered in the context of individual, as opposed to collective, rights. Recently, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination recommended that a State party take steps towards the extraconstitutional recognition of indigenous peoples, including by implementing the fundamental right to selfdetermination of indigenous peoples and the establishment of shared governance. 10 The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has also recommended a constitutional amendment to recognize explicitly the rights of indigenous women, in particular their right to self-determination, in line with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and expressed its concern about the general lack of recognition of the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination in the State party concerned.11 The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has also underpinned indigenous people’s rights, though use of common article 1 of the Covenants in its interpretations of its judgments in cases on indigenous rights.12 9 10 11 12 See CCPR/C/119/D/2668/2015; E/C.12/SLV/CO/3-5; CCPR/C/SWE/CO/7; and CCPR/C/ECU/6. See CERD/C/AUS/CO/18-20; and CERD/C/NZL/CO/21-22. See CEDAW/C/NPL/CO/6. See Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Members of the Saramaka People v. Suriname (case No. 12,338); and Kichwa Indigenous People of Sarayaku v. Ecuador (case No. 12,465). 3