Social security schemes shall be extended progressively to cover the peoples
concerned, and applied without discrimination against them.
Article 25
1. Governments shall ensure that adequate health services are made available to the
peoples concerned, or shall provide them with resources to allow them to design and
deliver such services under their own responsibility and control, so that they may
enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
2. Health services shall, to the extent possible, be community-based. These services
shall be planned and administered in co-operation with the peoples concerned and
take into account their economic, geographic, social and cultural conditions as well as
their traditional preventive care, healing practices and medicines.
3. The health care system shall give preference to the training and employment of
local community health workers, and focus on primary health care while maintaining
strong links with other levels of health care services.
4. The provision of such health services shall be co-ordinated with other social,
economic and cultural measures in the country.
Part VI. Education and Means of Communication
Article 26
Measures shall be taken to ensure that members of the peoples concerned have the
opportunity to acquire education at all levels on at least an equal footing with the rest
of the national community.
Article 27
1. Education programmes and services for the peoples concerned shall be developed
and implemented in co-operation with them to address their special needs, and shall
incorporate their histories, their knowledge and technologies, their value systems and
their further social, economic and cultural aspirations.
2. The competent authority shall ensure the training of members of these peoples and
their involvement in the formulation and implementation of education programmes,
with a view to the progressive transfer of responsibility for the conduct of these
programmes to these peoples as appropriate.
3. In addition, governments shall recognise the right of these peoples to establish their
own educational institutions and facilities, provided that such institutions meet
minimum standards established by the competent authority in consultation with these
peoples. Appropriate resources shall be provided for this purpose.
Article 28
1. Children belonging to the peoples concerned shall, wherever practicable, be taught
to read and write in their own indigenous language or in the language most commonly
used by the group to which they belong. When this is not practicable, the competent