A/HRC/18/35 B. Areas of work 8. While cooperating with other international mechanisms, the Special Rapporteur continued to carry out work in four interrelated areas: promotion of good practices; country reports; communications on specific cases of alleged human rights violations; and thematic studies. 1. Promotion of good practices 9. In accordance with his mandate, the Special Rapporteur continued to advocate for legal, administrative and programmatic reforms at the domestic and international levels to give effect to the rights enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other relevant international instruments. 10. An important aspect area of work was promoting support for the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by those States that did not originally vote in favour of it upon its adoption by the General Assembly in 2007.1 In the past year, the Special Rapporteur has welcomed the statements of support for the Declaration by the Governments of Canada and of the United States of America, statements that have made their opposition to the Declaration a thing of the past. The outstanding challenge is still to implement the Declaration’s provisions through concerted efforts at the domestic and international levels. The Special Rapporteur is committed to working together with States, United Nations agencies, indigenous peoples and other interested parties in order to meet this challenge. 11. In connection with promoting the implementation of the Declaration in the United States, in June 2011, the Special Rapporteur provided testimony at a hearing of the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs entitled “Setting the standard: the domestic policy implication of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples”. 12. On an ongoing basis over the past year, the Special Rapporteur provided technical and advisory assistance to Governments as they developed laws and policies to advance the rights of indigenous peoples. For example, at the request of the Government of Suriname, and of indigenous and tribal peoples in that country, the Special Rapporteur provided observations and recommendations on a process to develop legislation to secure indigenous and tribal peoples’ rights to lands and resources in the light of binding judgements issued thereon by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.2 These observations and recommendations were based in part on information gathered during a visit to Suriname by the Special Rapporteur in March 2011. 13. Also during the past year, the Special Rapporteur provided comments on various drafts of legislation currently under consideration by the National Assembly of Ecuador to coordinate indigenous customary justice systems with the national justice system. In this connection, in June 2011, the Special Rapporteur participated in a videoconference with the National Assembly of Ecuador, during which he addressed specific questions and concerns regarding the proposed legislation. Furthermore, over the course of several weeks in February 2011, the Special Rapporteur provided observations on the initiative of the Government of Guatemala to regulate a procedure for consultation with indigenous peoples. 14. Other activities relating to the promotion of best practices include providing guidance and orientation to numerous United Nations programmes and agencies, multinational organizations and other groups on the rights of indigenous peoples in various contexts. This has included the following activities: 1 2 General Assembly resolution 61/295. See A/HRC/18/35/Add.7. 5