A/HRC/45/35 (i) Indigenous peoples have the right to practise and revitalize their cultural traditions and customs. This includes the right to maintain, protect and develop the past, present and future manifestations of their cultures, such as archaeological and historical sites, artefacts, designs, ceremonies, technologies and visual and performing arts and literature. (ii) States shall provide redress through effective mechanisms, which may include restitution, developed in conjunction with indigenous peoples, with respect to their cultural, intellectual, religious and spiritual property taken without their free, prior and informed consent or in violation of their laws, traditions and customs. Article 12 (i) Indigenous peoples have the right to manifest, practise, develop and teach their spiritual and religious traditions, customs and ceremonies; the right to maintain, protect, and have access in privacy to their religious and cultural sites; the right to the use and control of their ceremonial objects; and the right to the repatriation of their human remains. (ii) States shall seek to enable the access and/or repatriation of ceremonial objects and human remains in their possession through fair, transparent and effective mechanisms developed in conjunction with indigenous peoples concerned. Article 31 (i) Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies and cultures, including human and genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions, literatures, designs, sports and traditional games and visual and performing arts. They also have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions. (ii) In conjunction with indigenous peoples, States shall take effective measures to recognize and protect the exercise of these rights. 30. In 2014, the international community reaffirmed its support for the Declaration at the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples. In the outcome document of that Conference, the General Assembly explicitly addressed the issue of repatriation (General Assembly resolution 69/2, para. 27). 31. At its seventeenth session, held in 2018, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues encouraged States, indigenous peoples and other stakeholders to continue to engage in active dialogue aimed at achieving recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples to repatriation of their human remains and sacred items, and reiterated its call for a new United Nations mechanism for international repatriation (E/2018/43-E.C/19/2018/11, para. 57). 32. The Expert Mechanism also addressed that issue in its 2015 study on indigenous peoples and the right to cultural heritage, identifying some of the challenges inherent in the repatriation of ceremonial items and human remains, as well as some promising developments at the national and international levels (A/HRC/30/53, paras. 69–73 and annex, paras. 8 and 19–20). 33. The Recommendation concerning the Protection and Promotion of Museums and Collections, their Diversity and their Role in Society, adopted by UNESCO in 2015, sets out global guidelines for the protection and promotion of museums and collections, and outlines their responsibilities in protecting heritage in all its forms. In paragraph 18, it deals specifically with the cultural heritage of indigenous peoples and relationship-building between museums and indigenous peoples. 34. The UNESCO policy on engaging with indigenous peoples, published in 2018, includes the right to repatriation of human remains and ceremonial objects as one of the policy provisions emanating from the Declaration that UNESCO commits to respect, protect and promote. 35. The Code of Ethics of the International Council of Museums provides that “museums should be prepared to initiate dialogue for the return of cultural property to a country or 7