A/HRC/15/37/Add.5 Political participation and self-governance 88. Generally, indigenous peoples are underrepresented in State institutions at the federal and regional levels. To address this, steps should be taken to strengthen and further develop official mechanisms to ensure that indigenous people receive adequate opportunity for political participation, and legislation should be enacted to ensure that indigenous people are consulted, in accordance with international standards, when legislative, policy or administrative decisions affecting them are undertaken. Federal and regional Governments should provide encouragement and support for the creation of indigenous civil society organizations to improve their participation in all aspects of society. 89. The federal and regional Governments should consider establishing indigenous parliamentary councils or assemblies to represent indigenous peoples and participate in ongoing legal and policy developments, as has already been done at least to some extent in some regions. Traditional leadership structures and customary law, to the extent that they are experiencing a revival and growth, should be effectively recognized in developing mechanisms to ensure indigenous participation and local self-governance. 90. Governing institutions at every level should demonstrate a respect for indigenous peoples’ right to develop and be governed by their own customary law and decision-making institutions, and enable customary law to be considered by courts in adjudicating disputes when indigenous people or issues are involved. Legal protections for the effective exercise of indigenous local self-governance should be strengthened. Economic development 91. In light of the scope of indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination with regard to their economic development, it is necessary to ensure an overall legal and policy regime that is forward looking, taking into account the evolving nature of indigenous cultures, land use patterns and economic relationships. A number of important protections for reindeer herding and other traditional economic activities are in place, and these should be strengthened and effectively implemented. The federal and regional Governments should also consider providing encouragement and support for indigenous entrepreneurship in economic activities not necessarily limited to smaller-scale traditional activities, as a way of strengthening communities and enabling self-governance, job creation and self-sufficiency. Education and language 92. Further efforts should be made to strengthen educational opportunities for indigenous people, who as a whole in Russia have higher levels of illiteracy than other members of the population. The federal and regional Governments should support indigenous peoples’ efforts to establish educational institutions that best suit their communities. The Governments, together with indigenous peoples, should continue to experiment with new models of education more suited to indigenous peoples’ needs and priorities and also continue to improve the boarding school model. Mechanisms should be developed to enable indigenous communities, especially parents, to have greater and more regular input in curriculum decisions for schools, and allow sufficient flexibility for parental participation in decisions regarding subjects that are taught, the language in which these subjects are taught and other matters. 93. Reports of school closings and the negative effects of these on small indigenous communities should be thoroughly investigated and remedied, and any government GE.10-14779 21