A/HRC/18/35/Add.5 indigenous communities in designing health services that respond to their unique needs. The World Health Organization (WHO) should play a key role in advancing this agenda. 75. While the Government has taken important steps to improve indigenous health, it should strengthen efforts to ensure that indigenous peoples have equal access to primary health care and that the basic health needs of indigenous communities are met, especially in remote areas. Further efforts should be made by the Ministry of Health, in consultation with UNICEF and WHO, to improve the delivery of health services to indigenous peoples in a culturally appropriate manner, with attention to the special health needs of indigenous women and children. Every effort should be made to enhance indigenous peoples’ participation in the formation of health policy and delivery of services. The Government should ensure and strengthen support for health-care initiatives by indigenous communities and organizations as a matter of priority. All medical professionals should be provided with comprehensive, culturally appropriate medical training, and health services in the language of the community should always be available. 76. With regard to education, the Special Rapporteur notes the positive impact that the ORA schools (para. 24) have had in providing indigenous students better access to education in certain places, and he encourages building on the ORA model. At the same time, the Special Rapporteur notes that the final goal of the ORA programme is the integration, after a three-year transition period, of indigenous students into the regular national school system. The Special Rapporteur thus observes that while the ORA schools are an important first initiative, similar initiatives that apply after the three-year transition period are required. Further, measures should be taken to increase involvement of indigenous communities in educational programming, and to incorporate indigenous methods of teaching, cross-cultural curricula, bilingual instruction, and due regard for the indigenous calendar of subsistence activities and other cultural patterns. 77. Given the multifaceted needs of indigenous peoples with regard to development, and acknowledging the goal of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to mainstream the rights of these peoples in United Nations programming, the Special Rapporteur observes that the United Nations country team in Congo should consider employing an indigenous peoples’ rights focal point in order to better incorporate the specific needs of indigenous people into its general programming. This should be done with priority given to including indigenous staff in the United Nations country team. Rights over lands and resources 78. As with indigenous peoples elsewhere, secure rights to traditional territories are crucial to the cultural and physical survival of indigenous peoples in Congo. The new Indigenous Rights Law affirms indigenous peoples’ rights to lands and natural resources on the basis of traditional patterns of use and occupancy (art. 31), and provides for demarcation and specific recognition of the lands that belong to indigenous peoples according to customary tenure (art. 32). The Special Rapporteur emphasizes that the necessary task of implementing these provisions of the law and relevant international standards, will require a significant, coordinated effort. 19