A/HRC/12/34/Add.3 page 10 amended to include a quota (reservation) system that provides that out of the 45 per cent of new recruitments reserved for various under-represented groups, 27 per cent are allocated to “ethnic groups”. Similar amendments were also made in 2007 to the Police Regulation and to the Armed Police Regulation, in order to make the police force more inclusive. The Ordinance on Inclusion in Public Service likewise demonstrates attention to the problem of under-representation by providing for a quota system that benefits indigenous peoples, but it has been criticized for not adequately differentiating among groups. 29. Some indigenous communities, such as the Mustang in the mountain region, still preserve their traditional courts and social institutions, which are de facto respected by Government officials. The Yolmo also have a prevailing system of traditional authority, organized around the lama monasteries. However, within Nepal’s unitary system of law, there is no formal recognition of the traditional legal and political systems practised by those communities. 2. Land and natural resources 30. As a result of a number of legal and institutional dynamics, indigenous communities around the country have been historically deprived of the lands and territories they have traditionally occupied or used, often without compensation. A major turning point in this process was the 1964 Land Reform Act, which nationalized land and terminated traditional collective land tenure systems such as the kipat. The Act paved the way for the allotment and distribution of indigenous ancestral lands and, consequently, to the loss of Adivasi Janajati’s traditional land base. These dynamics were particularly dramatic in the southern plains, where lands traditionally controlled by indigenous communities were lost to migrants from the hill districts in the 1950s and 1960s. 31. Without protection for communal lands, individual land holdings gradually were lost due to the absence of or insecure titles, abuse and corruption, lack of access to the justice system, and indebtedness. The high degree of illiteracy among many indigenous groups, in particular the Tharus in the Terai, made them vulnerable to abusive practices and deceit related to land titles. Forced displacement was also a cause of land loss during the armed conflict. While article 35 (4) of the Interim Constitution protects the land tenure of “local communities”, no specific legal mechanism was previously in place to afford special protection to indigenous lands, including their cultural and spiritual relationships with them. The Government has recently formed a high-level Land Reform Commission, following a four-point agreement with the National Land Rights Forum, which represents landless people. There is one indigenous representative on the Commission. Currently the terms of reference for the Commission lack a mandate to address specificities related to lands currently or previously inhabited by indigenous peoples. 32. Lack of access to natural resources exacts a particularly heavy toll on those indigenous communities that rely on traditional hunting and gathering practices for subsistence. Pursuant to the 1993 Forest Act, indigenous peoples were displaced from their traditional forests, which were transferred primarily to non-indigenous community forest user groups. Communities that have traditionally relied on the forests but that were not in possession of titles, or lacked resources to compete with private contractors, have lost access to their traditional forest lands. Fishing in rivers and lakes, as well as access to water resources, are subject to a similar system of concessions, leaving communities that in many instances had access to these resources for their