A/HRC/24/41/Add.3 that all laws and administrative practices related to lands and natural resources align with international standards concerning indigenous peoples’ rights to lands, territories and resources. To this end, the Governments should establish mechanisms to comprehensively review at the national level all such laws and related institutions and procedures, and implement necessary reforms. 45. Where they have not done so already, States should enact and effectively implement legislation recognizing indigenous peoples’ customary tenure rights over lands and resources. This legislation should provide for demarcation of indigenous peoples’ territories in a manner that is efficient and not burdensome on the groups concerned, and ensure that respect for indigenous peoples’ authorities and customary laws and practices is a paramount consideration. These mechanisms should also provide for restitution and compensation for lands taken from indigenous peoples without their free, prior and informed consent, including lands taken as a result of concessions issued for extractive or other projects or the establishment of conservation areas such as natural parks 46. States should ensure good-faith consultations with indigenous peoples on extractive activities that would affect them and engage in efforts to reach agreement or consent. In any event, the State remains bound to respect and protect the rights of indigenous peoples and must ensure that other applicable safeguards are implemented as well, in particular steps to minimize or offset any limitation on the rights through environmental and social impact assessments, measures of mitigation, compensation and benefit sharing. The Special Rapporteur reiterates in this regard, recommendations made in his final study on extractive industries and indigenous peoples (A/HRC/24/41). 47. Indigenous peoples should be able to oppose or withhold consent to extractive projects free from reprisals or acts of violence, or from undue pressures to accept or enter into consultations about extractive projects. In no circumstances should States use criminal prosecutions to silence indigenous peoples’ opposition to development projects. 48. Consultation and free, prior and informed consent processes should ensure the effective participation of all affected indigenous groups and guarantee sufficient time and culturally appropriate processes for internal consensus-building. Communities should be protected from interference of government agencies, companies or the military in their internal decision-making processes. Overregulation and bureaucratization of consultation and free, prior and informed consent processes should be avoided. Instead, States should guarantee flexibility so that rights-based consultation processes are consistent with the customary laws and decision-making practices of the indigenous peoples concerned. 49. States in the region should take steps to increase the participation of indigenous peoples in the management of natural parks and other conservation areas, and should minimize any restrictions that prohibit these peoples from carrying out traditional subsistence and cultural activities within these areas. Conflict, peace and physical security 50. With respect to the presence of military forces in indigenous territories, States should by guided by article 30 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which affirms that military activities shall not take place in the lands or territories of indigenous peoples, unless justified by a relevant public interest or otherwise freely agreed with or requested by the indigenous peoples concerned. 13

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