A/HRC/12/34 page 15 is aimed at reversing the historical pattern of exclusion from decision-making, in order to avoid the future imposition of important decisions on indigenous peoples, and to allow them to flourish as distinct communities on lands to which their cultures remain attached. 42. As a general matter, decisions of the State should be made through democratic processes in which the public’s interests are adequately represented. Procedures for notice to and comment by the general public often appropriately reinforce representative democratic processes for State decisions. However, special, differentiated consultation procedures are called for when State decisions affect indigenous peoples’ particular interests. Such special procedures are justified because of the nature of those particular interests, arising as they do from indigenous peoples’ distinctive cultural patterns and histories, and because the normal democratic and representative processes usually do not work adequately to address the concerns that are particular to indigenous peoples, who are typically marginalized in the political sphere. The duty of States to consult with indigenous peoples and its various normative components are premised on widespread acknowledgment, as manifested in the Declaration, of indigenous peoples’ distinctive characteristics and the need for special measures to address their disadvantaged conditions. B. Situations in which the duty to consult applies 43. It would be unrealistic to say that the duty of States to consult directly with indigenous peoples through special, differentiated procedures applies literally, in the broadest sense, whenever a State decision may affect them, since almost all legislative and administrative decisions that a State adopts may affect the indigenous peoples of the State along with the rest of the population in one way or another. Rather, a purposive interpretation of the various relevant articles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in light of other international instruments and related jurisprudence, leads to the following assessment of the scope of application of the duty to consult: it applies whenever a State decision may affect indigenous peoples in ways not felt by others in society. Such a differentiated effect occurs when the interests or conditions of indigenous peoples that are particular to them are implicated in the decision, even when the decision may have a broader impact, as in the case of certain legislation. For example, land or resource use legislation may have broad application but, at the same time, may affect indigenous peoples’ interests in particular ways because of their traditional land tenure or related cultural patterns, thus giving rise to the duty to consult. 44. The duty to consult is not limited to circumstances in which a proposed measure will or may affect an already recognized right or legal entitlement. The Special Rapporteur notes with concern that some States have effectively or purposefully taken the position that direct consultation with indigenous peoples regarding natural resource extraction activity or other projects with significant environmental impacts, such as dams, is required only when the lands within which the activities at issue take place have been recognized under domestic law as indigenous lands. Such a position is misplaced since, commensurate with the right to self-determination and democratic principles, and because of the typically vulnerable conditions of indigenous peoples, the duty to consult with them arises whenever their particular interests are at stake, even when those interests do not correspond to a recognized right to land or other legal entitlement. In this regard, a tripartite committee of the ILO Governing Body has expressly affirmed: “The consultations referred to in article 15, paragraph 2, are required in respect of resources owned by the State pertaining to the lands that the peoples concerned occupy or