A/HRC/9/9 page 24 V. CONCLUSIONS 85. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples represents an authoritative common understanding, at the global level, of the minimum content of the rights of indigenous peoples, upon a foundation of various sources of international human rights law. The product of a protracted drafting process involving the demands voiced by indigenous peoples themselves, the Declaration reflects and builds upon human rights norms of general applicability, as interpreted and applied by United Nations and regional treaty bodies, as well as on the standards advanced by ILO Convention No. 169 and other relevant instruments and processes. 86. Accordingly, the Declaration does not attempt to bestow indigenous peoples with a set of special or new human rights, but rather provides a contextualized elaboration of general human rights principles and rights as they relate to the specific historical, cultural and social circumstances of indigenous peoples. The standards affirmed in the Declaration share an essentially remedial character, seeking to redress the systemic obstacles and discrimination that indigenous peoples have faced in their enjoyment of basic human rights. From this perspective, the standards of the Declaration connect to existing State obligations under other human rights instruments. 87. For the Declaration to be fully operative, States must pursue a range of affirmative, special measures that engage the various institutions of law-making and public administration. This involves a complex process of legal and institutional reform, judicial action, specific policies, and special reparations procedures. It is a process that requires States’ full political engagement and financial commitment, and which is not free from obstacles and difficulties of all sorts. 88. The United Nations system, including human rights bodies and mechanisms, specialized agencies and mechanisms with indigenous-specific mandates (the Permanent Forum, the Expert Mechanism and the Special Rapporteur), plays a central role in promoting the implementation of the Declaration at the local level. The principles and rights affirmed in the Declaration constitute or add to the normative frameworks for the activities of United Nations human rights institutions, mechanisms and specialized agencies as they relate to indigenous peoples, including with regard to development cooperation targeted for the benefit of indigenous peoples and other activities that may in some way affect indigenous interests. 89. Because implementing the Declaration depends on the establishment of strong partnerships between States and indigenous peoples, in which both must assume responsibilities, indigenous peoples invariably are crucial actors in the operationalization