A/60/358 and to consolidate what aboriginal peoples have achieved so far on issues concerning access to land and natural resources. 17. The Special Rapporteur visited South Africa from 28 July to 8 August 2005 with a view to expanding his knowledge of the situation of indigenous people in the country and learning about the Government’s policies to promote and protect the rights of indigenous communities in South Africa. Although all indigenous people in South Africa were brutally oppressed under the colonial system and the apartheid regime up to 1994, it was the Khoi-San in particular, considered the descendants of the earliest inhabitants of the country, who were dispossessed of their lands and territories and whose communities and cultures were destroyed. Bearing in mind that the democratic Government of South Africa is striving to compensate for the great injustices inherited from the old regime and that the tragic consequences of apartheid cannot be corrected overnight, the Special Rapporteur, in his conversations with authorities and communities, obtained extensive information about the challenges these communities face, including their long-standing demands for land and access to its resources, constitutional recognition, respect for their different cultural identities and full access to basic social services such as education, health care, housing and water. All the documentation collected during the mission will be carefully analysed and evaluated and will be included in the report to be submitted to the Commission on Human Rights at its sixty-second session. 18. Finally, the Special Rapporteur wishes to inform the General Assembly that he has received copious documentation from the Governments and indigenous communities of the countries he has visited about the efforts under way to put his recommendations into practice. In Mexico and Guatemala, work has begun on the implementation of a specific project designed in consultation with communities and promoted by OHCHR and the Governments of both countries, with substantial financial support from the European Union. III. Cooperation and coordination with other international and regional mechanisms 19. Since his appointment, the Special Rapporteur has maintained contact and discussed means of collaboration with the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Working Group on Indigenous Populations, and has closely followed the deliberations of the working group on a draft United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. 20. While taking part in the fourth session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the Special Rapporteur held an interactive dialogue with the members of the Permanent Forum and the participants in general to examine, inter alia, means of following up the implementation of the recommendations included in his various reports. Mention was also made of the need to increase knowledge of and interest in issues of concern to indigenous people among United Nations country teams. In that context, the experience of the Permanent Forum members and their annual recommendations could be an effective tool. 21. The Working Group on Indigenous Populations, at its twenty-third session, explored ways of strengthening cooperation with regard to indigenous people’s human rights and fundamental freedoms between the Working Group, the Permanent 7