A/HRC/60/29 47. Regardless of the chosen approach, it is essential that Indigenous Peoples are formally recognized as distinct peoples with the right to self-determination, that the specific historical injustices that they suffered are acknowledged and that provisions are adopted for restitution, remedy and reparation. Recognition should guarantee effective governing and representative institutions for Indigenous Peoples. As the cultural identity of Indigenous Peoples passes through their own institutions, States should legally recognize and support effective institutions for self-governance, decision-making and representation, as stipulated in the Declaration.43 48. States may recognize Indigenous Peoples through their constitutions, treaties, statutes, sectoral laws, regulations or policies. Recognition at a higher level of the legal hierarchy generally results in broader and stronger protection of Indigenous Peoples. 3. Identification of Indigenous Peoples 49. States’ recognition of Indigenous Peoples should also involve an effective process for constructively identifying the specific peoples within the relevant jurisdiction. Such localized and contextualized identification allows States to fulfil their duty to prevent cultural assimilation of Indigenous Peoples or any action that has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnic identities. 44 The specific identification process also allows a State to develop appropriate measures, such as the delivery of public services to Indigenous Peoples in an effective manner, while safeguarding their identity from pretenders or fraudsters. 50. However, such a process of identifying the specific Indigenous Peoples with respect to whom they have obligations does not give States the right to define Indigenous Peoples or determine their rights. Rather, States must abide by the fundamental principle of selfidentification as a core criterion. As specified in the Declaration, Indigenous Peoples have the right to determine their own identity or membership in accordance with their customs and traditions. 45 In a similar vein, the ILO Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), under article 1 (2), requires that self-identification as Indigenous be regarded as a fundamental criterion for determining the groups to which the provisions of the Convention apply. 51. Furthermore, the norm of “self-identification” is a means of restoring Indigenous Peoples’ self-esteem and confidence, counteracting centuries of marginalization, including in decisions about their own destiny. It also provides for Indigenous Peoples to assume greater control over their own future. 52. An effective process of identification of specific Indigenous Peoples by States should therefore be based on the fundamental right of Indigenous Peoples to determine their own identity (self-identification), combined with the objectively distinguishing characteristics (criteria), understood as the historical injustices the peoples concerned suffer and continue to suffer. The ILO Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), in its article 1, lists additional objective characteristics that can guide States to clearly identify Indigenous Peoples, including descent from the populations who inhabited the country, or a geographical region to which the country belongs, at the time of conquest or colonization or the establishment of present State boundaries and who, irrespective of their legal status, retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions. 53. A State may request supplementary information from Indigenous Peoples during registration processes; however, any such information should be available to Indigenous Peoples and the decisions by the State in any identification process must remain open to judicial review and legal challenge. Such specific identification processes must be inclusive of those Indigenous Peoples who may have lost access to ancestral lands or languages or whose traditional institutions have been undermined. Indigenous individuals in urban areas, therefore, must also have access to protection. 43 44 45 10 Ibid., art. 5. Ibid., art. 8 (2) (a). Ibid., art. 33 (1). GE.25-12002