A/HRC/11/11 page 8 noting are the activities of the Sectoral Group for Indigenous Peoples’ Rights as part of the Partners for Bolivia Group (GRUS), which is the coordinating body for the donor community in Bolivia. V. THE HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES A. Indigenous participation and autonomy 23. Indigenous political participation, encouraged by indigenous organizations’ efforts at mobilization since the beginning of the 1990s, has been a key factor in the gradual recognition of these peoples’ political structures in the various organs of the State. One very important legal instrument in this process is the 1994 Popular Participation Act (No. 1551), which recognized the legal status of “grassroots organizations”, including those of the indigenous peoples, and distributed powers and budgetary resources to the municipalities. This Act enabled many leaders of indigenous organizations and communities to gain access to political office at the local level. 24. The election of the first indigenous President in 2005, after a campaign that had the support of the main indigenous organizations in the country, has become an important symbol of the indigenous peoples’ participation in the country’s political, economic, social and cultural life. The current Government has taken a variety of measures to strengthen indigenous political participation at all levels, including the appointment of senior officials of indigenous origin. Similarly, innovative forms of indigenous participation in local governance have been implemented, as illustrated by the administration of the indigenous district of Kaami in the municipality of Camiri or by the decentralization policy of the Oruro prefecture, which takes ayllu groups into account as traditional forms of supracommunity organization in the highlands. In the departments of the lowlands, indigenous representatives participate (with a voice, but not a vote) in departmental council meetings. 25. The new constitutional text has once again highlighted the question of indigenous autonomy within a broader debate regarding the State model. The draft text recognizes indigenous autonomous areas, which include the “indigenous, native, peasant” territories, municipalities and territorial regions, configured according to the indigenous peoples’ own rules and forms of organization (arts. 290-297). Indigenous autonomy is not exclusive and is coordinated with other forms of constitutionally recognized autonomy (municipal, regional and departmental), which must be regulated by means of secondary legislation. It should be noted, however, that these proposals for autonomy do not yet command a consensus among all political actors in the country. B. Indigenous justice and law 26. The draft constitutional text strengthens the concept of indigenous community-based justice already recognized in the current Constitution (art. 171) and provides for a plurinational constitutional court whose composition ensures that judges from the ordinary courts and judges from the indigenous justice system are represented equally. A bill on the administration of justice of indigenous native peoples and peasant communities was submitted to Congress in 2007. The constitutional draft is careful to subordinate traditional community-based justice, which is, in fact, practised in many communities, to respect for the right to life and to the other constitutional rights and international human rights standards.