E/CN.4/2006/78 page 18 71. As these cases show, the inter-American regional human rights system has become progressively involved in the field of indigenous human rights in recent years and, with its decisions and judgements, has built up a substantial body of case law for the protection of those rights pursuant to the pertinent international legislation. Although the system’s activity in this area is recent, the Special Rapporteur considers that its contributions form part, beyond its regional sphere, of emerging international human rights law and can therefore be also relevant in other regions. In this regard, an important example is the petition by the Inuit Circumpolar Conference to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (December 2005) seeking remedy for the persistent violation of the human rights of the Inuit in the Arctic region through increasing global warming, responsibility for which they attribute mainly to the United States of America and its environment policy. 72. The Court’s decisions constitute per se a claim for the human rights of the indigenous peoples. However, these achievements cannot suffice if the States that the object of those decisions fail partially or entirely to comply with the judgements. There is still a need for the inter-American human rights system - as for the international system as a whole - to find a way of making its decisions binding and to succeed in establishing sanction mechanisms to be applied to States that persist in ignoring them. 73. It has been a relatively new experience for the indigenous peoples to be able to appeal to the international commissions, committees and courts in order to defend their rights. It is necessary to expand and strengthen that protection measure and bring into operation mechanisms for consolidating the actions of indigenous organizations and human rights bodies in the international protection system. 74. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights is taking an increasing interest in the situation of the indigenous peoples of the African continent. An extensive study of the question, adopted by the Commission in 2005, indicates the main problems facing the region’s indigenous peoples. From a number of subjects, the Special Rapporteur would like to underscore the following points made in that study. 75. The indigenous peoples of Africa comprise for the most part herdsmen and hunter-gatherers in different regions of the continent they have inhabited since time immemorial. In recent decades they have been the victims of a process of loss of their lands and resources. The Commission notes that some of these peoples, such as the Hadzabe and Batwa, are in danger of extinction. The plundering of their lands and resources endangers these communities’ economic, social and cultural survival. Generally speaking, they are victims of different forms of discrimination in the countries in which they live. They do not have the same access to justice as the rest of the population. They also suffer from high levels of poverty and low levels of social development (education, health, housing and social services). The foregoing is part of a widely documented picture of violations of the human rights of the indigenous peoples of Africa and, according to the Commission, they breach the provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. 76. By and large, African States deny the existence of indigenous peoples, who are not constitutionally recognized, and they are barely taken into account in domestic legislation. The