E/CN.4/2003/90 page 6 “Article 7 “1. The peoples concerned shall have the right to decide their own priorities for the process of development as it affects their lives, beliefs, institutions and spiritual well-being and the lands they occupy or otherwise use, and to exercise control, to the extent possible, over their own economic, social and cultural development. In addition, they shall participate in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of plans and programmes for national and regional development which may affect them directly. “… “3. Governments shall ensure that, whenever appropriate, studies are carried out, in cooperation with the peoples concerned, to assess the social, spiritual, cultural and environmental impact on them of planned development activities. The results of these studies shall be considered as fundamental criteria for the implementation of these activities. “4. Governments shall take measures, in cooperation with the peoples concerned, to protect and preserve the environment of the territories they inhabit.” 10. Numerous international conferences have reaffirmed such rights in one formulation or the other, notably the Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro, (1992) and the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg (2002). The World Bank is in the process of adopting a new operational policy that establishes the need to involve indigenous peoples in development projects that may affect them, and the Inter-American Development Bank has laid down similar guidelines for its own activities. Several States have likewise adopted legislation in the same sense. 11. None have been more concerned with these important issues than indigenous peoples themselves. One recent study reports on “the disproportionate impacts that indigenous peoples suffer from development programmes, so long as their human rights are not fully recognized, and so long as they continue to be marginalized in decision-making affecting their lives”.1 Further, indigenous peoples argue that “as the pressures on the Earth’s resources intensify, indigenous peoples bear disproportionate costs of resource-intensive and resource-extractive industries and activities such as mining, oil and gas development, large dams and other infrastructure projects, logging and plantations, bio-prospecting, industrial fishing and farming, and also eco-tourism and imposed conservation projects”.2 On the specific issue of large dam construction (on which this report will concentrate), the World Commission on Dams finds that: “Large dams have had serious impacts on the lives, livelihoods, cultures and spiritual existence of indigenous and tribal peoples. Due to neglect and lack of capacity to secure justice because of structural inequities, cultural dissonance, discrimination and economic and political marginalization, indigenous and tribal peoples have suffered disproportionately from the negative impacts of large dams, while often being excluded from sharing in the benefits.”3