A/HRC/4/32 page 6 13. The international organs’ judgements and rulings on the rights of indigenous people also suffer from an implementation gap. The rights of the Awas Tingni community were violated by the failure to implement the Judgement of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (E/CN.4/2006/78, para. 68). The situation of the human rights of the Western Shoshone in the United States continues to deteriorate. Despite the fact that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights found in favour of the indigenous people that claimed that their land rights had been violated, the Government of the United States of America considers the Shoshone’s title to their ancestral lands to have been extinguished by judicial and administrative procedures, and now denies them access to those lands and their natural resources. The Government has promoted mining, oil exploration, dumping of toxic and nuclear waste, and the use of Shoshone sacred sites for military purposes. In November 2006 the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination again urged the United States Government to desist from its anti-Shoshone activities, and in July 2006 the Human Rights Committee enjoined that country to grant indigenous people the same judicial protection enjoyed by its non-indigenous population (CCPR/C/USA/CO/3/Rev.1, para. 37). B. Continued loss of indigenous territories 14. The trend towards the depletion of the natural resources of the indigenous people is continuing, mainly through expropriation of their lands. Although in recent years many countries have adopted laws recognizing the indigenous communities’ collective and inalienable right to ownership of their lands, land-titling procedures have been slow and complex and, in many cases, the titles awarded to the communities are not respected in practice. At the same time, privatization of traditional lands is on the increase. This measure is claimed to benefit indigenous owners in that it provides legal certainty. The Special Rapporteur has, however, observed that in the long run the indigenous communities tend to lose their traditional lands and territories to the various private economic interests of either firms or individual invaders and settlers who have managed to install themselves in traditional indigenous areas. 15. In Cambodia, despite the 2001 Land Law recognizing indigenous people’s right to collective ownership of their lands, the indigenous highland communities complain of the progressive decline of their forest resources. In the past decade, some 6.5 million hectares of forest have been expropriated through concessions to timber companies, and another 3.3 million hectares were declared protected areas, while the indigenous communities are prevented from using the forest resources necessary for their subsistence. 16. In Canada, the agreements being negotiated by the federal and provincial Governments with the First Nations of British Columbia recognize only a small proportion of these communities’ traditional lands as their reserve, and privatize the remainder to be freely bought and sold. The agreements also establish that, following new negotiations, the indigenous communities must agree to renounce forever any legal recourse in exchange for financial compensation. Of course, many First Nations are resisting these manoeuvres, and the courts have lately begun to rule in their favour. 17. The global economy is increasingly raising the value of the oil and mineral resources to be found in indigenous regions. The Special Rapporteur has received any number of reports and complaints from indigenous communities whose resources have been appropriated and are being