A/HRC/18/35/Add.5 86. Advancing indigenous participation in decision-making also requires dedicated effort to confronting and overcoming barriers to indigenous peoples and individuals being part of the State’s political processes and governing institutions. Measures should be taken to ensure full and adequate opportunities for indigenous participation in legislative processes and Government institutions at all levels. There is no one way to facilitate increased indigenous participation in these arenas, but all efforts to develop programmes appropriate to the Congolese context should be done in consultation with indigenous peoples themselves. 87. Similarly, concerted and targeted attention is required for the development of means to recognize, strengthen and accommodate indigenous peoples’ own decisionmaking authority over their internal affairs and their customary dispute resolution institutions, in accordance with article 11 of the Indigenous Rights Law and international standards. Specific steps will have to be taken to overcome the history of persistent disregard for indigenous authorities and customary law by the dominant legal structures and social forces, including steps to ensure that the legal system of Congo accommodates indigenous autonomy over internal decision-making and acknowledges indigenous traditional dispute resolution as a legitimate form of justice. Again, it is essential to ensure that indigenous peoples are fully consulted and invited to participate in determining the specific relevant arrangements. 88. Given that exclusion often stems from discriminatory attitudes directed towards indigenous peoples, any programme aimed at strengthening indigenous decision-making institutions and increasing their participation in all spheres of social, economic and political life will also necessarily need to form an integrated part of the national campaign to combat discrimination. The national sensitization campaign will in turn need to ensure that dominant ethnic groups who currently control decisionmaking processes understand, accept and welcome the rights of indigenous peoples to participate in, and have control over, decision-making processes. 89. Education plays a key role in empowering indigenous peoples to take control of decisions affecting their lives. Thus, emphasis must be placed on developing culturally appropriate educational programmes that encourage indigenous peoples in their educational pursuits, and give them the necessary skills to become leaders of their own communities, effectively engage in consultation procedures and participate in State legislative and administrative processes at all levels. 90. Indigenous peoples themselves should endeavour to strengthen their capacities to control and manage their own affairs and to participate effectively in all decisions affecting them, in a spirit of cooperation and partnership with government authorities and NGOs with which they chose to work. 91. The Special Rapporteur observes that the final two focus areas of the National Action Plan are geared towards building the capacities of indigenous organizations, and in particular building the capacity of RENAPAC, the national network of indigenous peoples’ organizations. While the Special Rapporteur acknowledges the role that such networks can play in strengthening local indigenous organizations, he cautions against Government or international support for RENAPAC that might simply empower individual leaders of the network, without any or adequate direct benefit flowing to indigenous peoples’ communities and organizations at the local level. Moreover, it is important that the network be representative of a broad range of indigenous peoples’ organizations throughout the Congo, and that RENAPAC and its leadership remain accountable to that network. 92. Thus, the relevant focus areas of the National Action Plan must be engaged with a view to ensuring the broader goals of strengthening all indigenous peoples’ 21