E/2009/43 E/C.19/2009/14 The legal character of the Declaration 6. The Declaration is the most universal, comprehensive and fundamental instrument on indigenous peoples rights. It is the legal framework of the Forum, together with resolution 2000/22 of the Economic and Social Council. The Declaration is not a treaty and it accordingly does not have the binding force of a treaty. However, this does not at all mean that the Declaration is without any legally binding effect. The adoption of any human rights instrument by the United Nations aspires to some binding force. The binding value of the Declaration must be seen in the wider normative context of the innovations that have taken place in international human rights law in recent years. 7. The Declaration forms a part of universal human rights law. The basic principles of the Declaration are identical to those of the main human rights covenants. In this way the Declaration affirms, in its article 3, the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination, in terms that restate the common provisions of article 1 of the two 1966 international covenants. The human rights treaty bodies will need to refer to the Declaration, as their practice already indicates, whenever dealing with indigenous rights. The Declaration is not the instrument of a specialized agency that binds only the State parties, but is a general instrument of human rights. 8. The Declaration is a human rights standard elaborated upon the fundamental rights of universal application and set in the cultural, economic, political and social context of indigenous peoples. It should be applied on this basis regardless of how each State voted in the General Assembly or their subsequent position. One may debate how many of the specific rights in the Declaration are human rights according to the core human rights instruments. The human rights nature of the Declaration, seen as a whole, is certainly so marked; this should be a main element when interpreting the document and when deciding the working methods of the Forum in the context of article 42. 9. The Declaration is an instrument having been drafted through a procedure that has conferred upon it a special status as a declaration. It was developed during a decade of negotiations between representatives of States and representatives of indigenous peoples, “negotiations” being a word used several times by State representatives. This long-lasting procedure resulted in a document expressing a broad common ground, which has now also been endorsed by the General Assembly. Even though it is not formally an agreement, in reality, the document is by way of its creation an instrument almost universally agreed upon. In this way, the Declaration is part of a practice that has advanced a growing “rapprochement” between declarations and treaties. 10. The various articles may be part of binding international law, based on other instruments or customs, independent of their inclusion in the Declaration. The human rights envisaged in the Declaration are the same human rights that have been recognized for the rest of humankind, but there has been no need to produce a special declaration on the rights of non-indigenous peoples. A number of the articles are based on the human rights covenants and other conventions, or they may already today have the quality of customary law by virtue of policies implemented in national jurisdictions. As expressions of international customary law, they must be applied regardless of the nature of the document in which they are stated or agreed. 20 09-36351