A/HRC/15/37 that under a corporate approach based on respect for indigenous rights, benefit sharing must be regarded as a means of complying with a right, and not as a charitable award or favour granted by the company in order to secure social support for the project or minimize potential conflicts.62 80. From the standpoint of indigenous rights, benefit sharing must go beyond restrictive approaches based solely on financial payments which, depending on the specific circumstances, may not be adequate for the communities receiving them.63 As pointed out by the participants in the international seminar held by the Permanent Forum in Manila in 2009, “payments to indigenous communities often had negative impacts on the community and were divisive” and could easily lead to the exercise of “undue influence and even bribery”.64 Consideration should be given to the development of benefit-sharing mechanisms which genuinely strengthen the capacity of indigenous peoples to establish and follow up their development priorities and which help to make their own decision-making mechanisms and institutions more effective. IV. Conclusions and recommendations 81. The absence of clarity with respect to corporate responsibility, especially transnational corporate responsibility, in relation to indigenous rights is the source of numerous abuses worldwide. The implementation of corporate activities without taking account of those rights, as they are recognized under international rules, has given rise to highly negative impacts on the environment and the economic, social, cultural and spiritual life of indigenous peoples. Such irresponsible corporate activity, sometimes abetted or simply ignored by the Governments concerned, continues to engender serious social conflicts in areas where indigenous peoples live. 82. These conflicts, which are worsening as new regions of the world get involved in natural resource exploitation or infrastructure building, have given rise to situations of genuine ungovernability, which limit the capacity of States and the companies themselves to carry out projects that fail to take into account indigenous rights. 83. As a result, the international community now holds the expectation, increasingly shared by all the stakeholders directly involved, including business itself, that companies bear certain responsibilities with respect to indigenous rights. Within the conceptual framework drawn up by the Special Representative of the SecretaryGeneral on human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises — protect, respect and remedy — companies have, at the very least, the duty to comply with international standards relating to the human rights of indigenous peoples. 84. As part of their responsibility to respect indigenous rights, companies must exercise due diligence by identifying legal, institutional or other factors that have an impact on the effective enjoyment of the rights of indigenous peoples in the countries in which such companies operate; evaluating effectively the possible negative impact their activities may have on indigenous rights; and ensuring that such activities do not contribute to acts or omissions by States and other stakeholders that might give rise to abuses of those rights. 62 63 64 18 A/HRC/12/34/Add.5, para. 40. E/C.19/2009/CRP.8, para. 16. Ibid., para. 17 (non-official translation). GE.10-15075