E/CN.4/2003/90/Add.3 page 12 23. The Special Rapporteur is of the view that priority should be accorded to the rights of indigenous peoples, as stipulated in IPRA, and as recognized in both long-standing indigenous occupation and government practice and legal precedent. The legislative intent of IPRA regarding the rights of indigenous peoples to ancestral lands and natural resources found therein is surely of more substantial primacy than the concessions that private businesses obtained from previous governments without regard to indigenous rights. This tension-fraught situation must be resolved through negotiations with the participation of all interested parties, and the full consent of the indigenous peoples, as well as in the courts, if future conflict is to be avoided and indigenous peoples rights are to be truly protected. E. Indigenous customary law 24. In cases of conflicting interests regarding claims within ancestral domains, IPRA stipulates that indigenous customary laws, traditions and practices should apply first, and that any doubt or ambiguity in the application and interpretation of laws shall be resolved in favour of the indigenous peoples.12 Indigenous organizations have complained to the Special Rapporteur that legal practitioners and judges are not usually inclined to refer to indigenous customary law, perhaps because the national legal system has not contemplated its incorporation. The Special Rapporteur considers that this gap in the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples must be filled and should be addressed consistently by the national judiciary and the Administration. 25. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the initiative of the Philippine Supreme Court to train judges in the rights of indigenous peoples recognized in IPRA, and encourages the Philippine judiciary to adequately address the issue of indigenous customary law in the application and interpretation of law, leading, hopefully, to a shift in the mindset of legal practitioners, including judges and lawyers, in such a way that they recognize indigenous customary law as part of the national legal system, as laid out in IPRA. F. Indigenous knowledge systems and practices 26. As many Philippine indigenous peoples recognize the importance of their traditional knowledge systems and practices in order to preserve cultural diversity, IPRA specifically provides protection for indigenous community intellectual property rights and indigenous knowledge systems. In this regard, the Special Rapporteur welcomes the fact that NCIP has accorded a high priority to the preservation of indigenous knowledge systems and practices in its upcoming work programme. 27. According to chapter VI, section 34, of IPRA, indigenous peoples are entitled to the recognition of the full ownership, control and protection of their cultural and intellectual rights. They shall also have the right to special measures to control, develop and protect their sciences, technologies and cultural manifestations, including human and other genetic resources, seeds, traditional medicines and health practices, vital medicinal plants, animals and minerals, indigenous knowledge systems and practices, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions, literature, designs, and visual and performing arts.