E/CN.4/2002/97 page 15 gave rise to aboriginal title. Where this title is recognized, indigenous peoples have at least some justiciable right that can be asserted in the domestic legal system.13 Other countries have decided to demarcate indigenous lands, but as Ms. Daes points out, in terms of frequency and scope of complaints, the greatest single problem today for indigenous peoples is the failure of States to demarcate indigenous lands. Ms. Daes concludes: “Indigenous societies in a number of countries are in a state of rapid deterioration and change due in large part to the denial of the rights of the indigenous peoples to lands, territories and resources … The failure of States to implement or enforce existing laws for the protection of indigenous lands and resources is also a widespread problem.”14 43. In Latin America the issue of indigenous land rights and human rights related to agrarian problems is particularly acute. A report prepared for the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) finds that land reforms during the twentieth century “… did benefit indigenous people, allowing them to recover a part of the land which they claimed, but the programs did not recognize their ethnic and cultural specificity so that the indigenous populations were considered simply as farmers … The convenience of introducing legal reforms that would grant the indigenous a greater degree of autonomy and/or participation in the management of economic, social, political and cultural processes on their lands and/or territories … is a central demand of the indigenous peoples and their organizations at the current time … and it should not be ignored by States.”15 44. Land rights issues also affect indigenous communities in other parts of the world. A case in point is that of the Orang Asli in Malaysia, where, as one specialist reports, “… the greatest threat today to Orang Asli culture and identity is their dispossession from their traditional homelands”.16 In Cambodia, a major development constitutes the recent land law, passed in August 2001, article 26 of which states that ownership of land “is granted by the State to the indigenous communities as collective ownership. This collective ownership includes all of the rights and protections of ownership as are enjoyed by private owners”. The land law also provides for demarcation of indigenous lands “according to the factual situation as asserted by the communities in accordance with their neighbours”. (See the addendum.) 45. Indigenous communities and human rights organizations are working together to protect the lands to which they have a claim according to international and national legal standards. A landmark case in this direction is the decision of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in favour of the Awas Tingni indigenous community in Nicaragua. After a lengthy process, the Court decided in August 2001 that the State had violated the right to judicial protection and the right to property as contained in the American Convention on Human Rights of the members of the Awas Tingni community, and also decided that: “the State must adopt within its domestic legal system, in conformity with article 2 of the American Human Rights Convention, measures of a legislative, administrative and whatever other character necessary to create an effective mechanism for official delimitation, demarcation and titling of the indigenous communities’ properties, in accordance with the customary law, values, usage and customs of these communities” and that “the State shall officially recognize, demarcate, and issue title for those lands belonging to the members of the Mayagna (Sumo) Community of Awas Tingni and cease, until this official delimitation, demarcation, and titling is effectuated, acts which could cause agents of the State, or third parties acting with its acquiescence or tolerance, to affect the