E/CN.4/2006/78 page 7 indigenous people have increasingly participated in electoral politics, in accordance with the circumstances in each country. For example, in the September 2005 elections the Maori Party won four seats in the New Zealand Parliament. The Pachakutik indigenous party participated for a few months in the Government of Ecuador. And in December 2005, for the first time in its history, Bolivia elected an Aymara president by a large majority. 16. However, the level of participation of indigenous people in their countries’ political life continues to be low. Despite their presence in some national parliaments and provincial legislatures, the indigenous peoples’ concerns do not find adequate expression in the work of the legislative bodies, partly because of their marginalization from the electoral processes. Hence, in some cases measures have been taken to ensure the representation of indigenous people in legislative bodies through representation quotas (for instance in Colombia, Venezuela and New Zealand). 17. Being in the minority, indigenous people often have to negotiate with other interest groups, which means that their own claims are diluted in parliamentary activities and they cannot always sit on all relevant parliamentary committees. This situation is described as one of the main obstacles to indigenous peoples’ agendas being taken into account in legislative processes. Inconsistency between laws and institutional impediments 18. It has been pointed out that in many countries there is a gap between international standards and principles regarding the human rights of indigenous people and domestic legislation. International standards, even when ratified, do not always and automatically become part of domestic law. They are sometimes ignored by public officials as well as in the case law of the courts. Another problem reported is the lack of consistency between different laws, such as those relating to mining or natural resources management, and indigenous or human rights legislation. 19. The problem of inconsistency among laws, the failure to enforce those laws, and unintentional or intentional disregard of international standards is manifest at various levels and in different forms; for example, the lack of training of specialized personnel because of a lack of resources or the absence of secondary laws or regulations, depriving the public administration of the legal and practical means needed to comply with general legislation or international standards. 20. In Ecuador, faced with these lacunae, the indigenous peoples have opted for self-advancement in the matter of justice, via their own familiar bodies, the traditional cabildos and community assemblies. However, there are instances of conflicts of jurisdiction between ordinary justice and the indigenous jurisdiction, which are adjudicated by the Supreme Court. There are typical cases of lack of consistency between indigenous legislation and various sectoral laws (on mining, water, fishing, forests, etc.), whose application could seriously affect the rights of indigenous communities in, for example, Chile and the Philippines. A case in point is the Diaguita community of Huasco Alto in Chile, whose territorial rights are threatened by a mining project involving the removal of glaciers that feed the waters of the river they use for farming purposes. However, one positive measure was a Supreme Court ruling (2005) in favour of the indigenous Atacameño community of Toconce, recognizing that community’s rights to ancestral waters and rejecting the claims of a private company.