A/HRC/45/34/Add.1 three indigenous communities and met with indigenous peoples from another four communities and local civil society representatives. She met separately with indigenous women to discuss issues specifically affecting them and young girls. 7. The indigenous peoples of the Congo, which constitute 1.2 per cent 4 of the population, are traditional hunter-gathers living a semi-nomadic lifestyle, moving camps over vast territories in the forest to access its resources, including by harvesting caterpillars, honey, fruits and vegetables and by hunting game. Long-standing discrimination, exploitation and continuing attempts to integrate them into the sedentary majority population have led many communities to leave the forest and settle in Bantu villages or urban areas where they often face further discrimination and insecurity. The Mbendjele (in Kabo and Pokola) and the Mikaya (in Ouesso) that the Special Rapporteur met in Sangha typically spent the dry season in the forest and returned to villages for a few months during the rainy season. Some communities reportedly still live exclusively in the forest. II. Legal and institutional framework since 2010 A. Law No. 5-2011, on the promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples, and its implementation decrees 8. The Special Rapporteur congratulates the Government for adopting a solid legal framework, while emphasizing that significant work remains to be done to ensure it is implemented in practice. Law No. 5-2011, on the promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples, was adopted shortly after the visit of her predecessor and sets out a sound legal foundation for indigenous peoples to claim their rights, protect their culture and livelihood, gain access to basic social services and protect their civil and political rights. In 2015, the need to promote and protect indigenous peoples’ rights was given constitutional recognition in article 16 of the new Constitution. 5 In July 2019, six of the eight proposed draft decrees were adopted to implement Law No. 5-2011 by providing special measures to facilitate civil registration and access to basic social services and education. The decrees also provided guidance on holding consultations with a view to obtaining the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples in the context of socioeconomic projects and development programmes and to protecting indigenous cultural, intellectual, spiritual and religious property and knowledge. They established an interministerial committee to guide the Government’s actions for indigenous peoples, in particular its implementation of national action plans to improve the quality of life of indigenous peoples. 9. By Decree No. 2017-260 of 25 July 2017, the lead role for the promotion of the rights of indigenous peoples was transferred from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Humanitarian Action to the Ministry of Justice, Human Rights and the Promotion of Indigenous Peoples, which has, since then, had a dedicated directorate-general for the promotion of indigenous populations. The directors of that directorate-general’s local offices, present in all 12 departments, had been in post a few months as at the time of the visit. 10. The above-mentioned directorate-general is composed of four divisions, each staffed by a director, two chiefs and an administrative staff. The directorate-general is tasked with the practical implementation of the Government’s policies on the promotion of indigenous peoples’ rights and will act as a permanent secretariat for the interministerial committee when it is in place. The directorate-general’s annual budget is approximately US$ 250,000. The departmental directors, who each have an annual budget of US$ 4,000, had been tasked at the time of the visit with following up on the civil registration process, preparing for the census of indigenous peoples and responding to individual cases. 11. Two of the proposed draft decrees – one for the administrative recognition of indigenous villages and the other regarding the modalities for sharing the benefits arising from the use and exploitation of indigenous traditional knowledge – are still pending 4 5 4 See www.cnsee.org/pdf/rgph2007pd.pdf (in French). The Constitution was adopted by referendum on 25 October 2015.