A/HRC/21/53 17. Courts and commissions on human rights at the regional level have supported robust indigenous peoples’ rights to their cultures and languages. Notably, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights have firmly established that States should create effective mechanisms for titling and demarcating indigenous peoples’ lands, territories and resources in accordance with their customs, cultures and traditions.15 The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, following the Inter-American Court, has drawn similar conclusions. 18. The United Nations special procedures and, in particular, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples and the Independent Expert in the field of cultural rights, have examined cultural and language rights in depth as they relate to indigenous peoples. The Independent Expert notes that cultural rights relate to a broad range of issues, including: “expression and creation, including in diverse material and non-material forms of art; information and communication; language; identity and belonging to multiple, diverse and changing communities; development of specific world visions and the pursuit of specific ways of life; education and training; access, contribution and participation in cultural life; the conduct of cultural practices and access to tangible and intangible cultural heritage.”16 19. The international legal framework for the protection of indigenous peoples’ traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions and genetic resources has been an area of significant development recently, especially under the Convention on Biodiversity and within the World Intellectual Property Organization. III. Cultures and languages and their relationship to indigenous peoples’ self-determination and rights to lands, territories and resources 20. The close relationship between indigenous peoples’ cultural rights and the right to self-determination is reflected in article 3 of the Declaration, which states that by virtue of indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination, they may freely pursue their cultural development. An integral part of the right to self-determination is the promotion and protection of all rights necessary for indigenous peoples to pursue their cultural development, underlining the indivisibility, interdependence and interrelation of indigenous peoples’ rights. Cultural and language rights are inherent in the array of rights set out in the Declaration and, as such, are critical to the overall implementation of the Declaration. 17 21. The right to culture in the context of indigenous peoples includes their right to selfdetermine their own culture and languages as an internal matter as well as to practise and celebrate their cultures and languages in the wider public domain. 18 Indigenous peoples’ cultures include their justice systems and the practice thereof, as well as their “right to maintain and strengthen their distinct political, legal, economic, social and cultural institutions, while retaining their right to participate fully, if they so choose, in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the State.” (art. 5). 22. Languages are an important element and expression of indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination and can facilitate the practice of indigenous peoples’ self-determination. Languages contain within them the tools to express indigenous collective juridical and 15 16 17 18 6 The Mayagna (Sumo) Awas Tingni Community v. Nicaragua (2001). A/HRC/14/36. http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/usg/statements/year-rapprochement-cultures.shtml. Submission from Panama.