A/HRC/36/53 Annex Expert Mechanism advice No. 10 on indigenous peoples’ businesses and access to financial services 1. States should adopt legal and policy frameworks that recognize, promote and protect rights that allow indigenous peoples, if they so wish, to operate businesses on their lands safely and viably. Such measures should be developed with the effective participation of indigenous peoples, as provided for in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 2. When developing and implementing national action plans to achieve the ends of the Declaration, pursuant to the outcome document of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples (General Assembly resolution 69/2), States should include measures aiming to ensure that no undue obstacles are in place for indigenous peoples to access financial services free of discrimination and pursue business activities if they wish to do so. 3. States should take measures to ensure that indigenous peoples, particularly indigenous persons with disabilities, indigenous women and indigenous youth, do not suffer from discrimination in their attempts to access financial services. Support should also be provided to business activities being undertaken by those groups. 4. Secure land tenure is essential for indigenous peoples to become engaged in business activities and access financial services. States should therefore ensure protection for indigenous peoples’ rights to their lands, territories and resources and take measures to protect and promote indigenous peoples’ economic activities, recognizing that those activities are constitutive elements of their rights to lands and resources. States should not turn to “privatization” regimes, but rather ensure that indigenous legal traditions regarding land, governance and business are recognized within the national legal framework. 5. States should take measures to protect indigenous peoples’ rights relating to culture and traditional knowledge-related activities. That should include both facilitating indigenous peoples’ involvement in economic activities linked to the arts and tourism, and protecting indigenous peoples from the misuse or misappropriation of their cultural heritage and traditional knowledge. In that regard, States, in partnership with indigenous peoples, should continue to pursue the development of international instruments that ban cultural appropriation. 6. Laws that prohibit or limit sustainable indigenous hunting, fishing, traditional farming or gathering traditions should be revised or amended in order to facilitate the development by indigenous peoples of locally based businesses in those sectors. 7. States should recognize indigenous peoples’ contributions to development, and combat frequently held prejudices and stereotyped views of indigenous peoples as representing an obstacle to development. That is particularly crucial in cases where such views are used to justify land dispossession and economic marginalization. Furthermore, State policies and actions should recognize the important role that indigenous economies and business models can play in promoting sustainable development practices. 8. States should consider targeted measures to encourage and facilitate indigenous peoples’ involvement in business and their access to financial services. Those measures can include tax incentives, programmes to facilitate access to credit, programmes to promote financial literacy, and subsidies or cash transfers to promote traditional economic activities. However, States should not misuse that financial support in order to put pressure on or interfere with the decision-making processes of indigenous communities. 9. States should provide safety net measures for indigenous businesses, including protection against hostile competition. 21