E/CN.4/2006/78 page 11 37. There are often difficulties regarding the effective recognition of indigenous law, even in those countries where legal pluralism is officially recognized. There are reports of cases in which national courts have overturned rulings previously handed down by the indigenous authorities. Even when the courts find in favour of the rights of a given indigenous community, the Executive and the Legislature may fail to take the measures needed to implement or reinforce these advances, obliging the interested parties to appeal again to the courts, at considerable cost in terms of money and time they can often ill afford. 38. In the Canadian province of British Columbia, the Government refused to recognize aboriginal land titles. The courts ruled, however, that the original titles had not been extinguished. After years of negotiation, a law on the subject, the Treaty Commission Act, was adopted. One of the indigenous groups involved complains that British Columbia is not negotiating in good faith when it places various obstacles in the way of this community’s exercise of its rights and recognizes a mere 8 per cent of the claimed traditional territory. The community complains that the negotiations are useless when it comes to compensation for prior violations committed against it. 39. Considerable obstacles are also encountered in cases in which, despite a favourable ruling by the courts of justice in favour of the rights of a given indigenous community, tribe or people, the Executive and the Legislature do not take the measures needed to implement or reinforce those advances, obliging the interested parties to appeal again to the courts, at considerable cost in terms of money and time they can often ill afford. 40. Important constitutional changes have not been accompanied by the necessary updating of criminal law. In Moyabamba (Peru), a court imprisoned members of campesino patrols (community groups organized to prevent crime and maintain law and order in indigenous communities) on charges of seizing and usurping authority, because they had detained, in exercise of their recognized powers, four persons accused of major crimes. However, the Supreme Court of Justice, recognizing the special jurisdiction established in the Constitution, acquitted them. Over a decade after the 1993 constitutional reform, the Supreme Court is opening the way for what may be the beginning of pluralist case law in the country. Some detractors accuse the campesino patrols of human rights violations, but these cases demonstrate the lack of intercultural procedural mechanisms for settling alleged excesses or possible violation of individual rights by the special indigenous community or patrol jurisdiction. 41. In the State of Guerrero (Mexico) indigenous communities created their own community police that came up against problems similar to those of the Peruvian patrols, but, unlike the latter, the community police has not been formally recognized in law. Nevertheless, it bases its work on the Federal Political Constitution and on ILO Convention No. 169. In some Indian communities in Chiapas similar institutions are at work, establishing a de facto special jurisdiction, although they are not yet recognized in national legislation (see E/CN.4/2004/80/Add.2). 42. The Constitutional Court in Colombia has constructively interpreted the Constitution regarding indigenous rights. Over the past few years the Court has handed down numerous rulings favourable to the rights of indigenous peoples, thereby helping to consolidate the ideal of legal pluralism and the special jurisdiction of the indigenous peoples.