A/HCR//18/42 progress report, the Expert Mechanism noted that several treaties between States and indigenous peoples affirmed the principles of indigenous peoples’ consent as an underpinning of the treaty relationship between States and indigenous peoples.75 13. The right to full and effective participation in external decision-making is of fundamental importance to indigenous peoples’ enjoyment of other human rights. For instance, the right of indigenous peoples to identify their own educational priorities and to participate effectively in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of education plans, programmes and services is crucial for their enjoyment of the right to education.76 When implemented as a treaty right, the right to education can offer a framework for reconciliation. Truth and reconciliation commissions offer a model for improved relations between States and indigenous peoples as well.77 14. The participation of indigenous peoples in external decision-making is of crucial importance to good governance. One of the objectives of international standards on indigenous peoples’ rights is to fill the gap between their rights on the one hand and their implementation on the other hand. 15. Many indigenous peoples remain vulnerable to top-down State interventions that take little or no account of their rights and circumstances. In many instances, this is an underlying cause for land dispossession, conflict, human rights violations, displacement and the loss of sustainable livelihoods. 16. The duty to consult indigenous peoples applies whenever a measure or decision specifically affecting indigenous peoples is being considered (for example, affecting their lands or livelihood). This duty also applies in situations where the State considers decisions or measures that potentially affect the wider society, but which affect indigenous peoples, and in particular in instances where decisions may have a disproportionally significant effect on indigenous peoples.78 17. With regard to the right to self-determination, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples affirms that indigenous peoples, in exercising their right to selfdetermination, have the right to develop and maintain their own decision-making institutions and authority parallel to their right to participate in external decision-making 75 76 77 Ibid. In Canada, treaties 6, 7 and 8 contain provisions on indigenous peoples’ consent. For instance, Treaty No. 6, concluded in 1876, provides that “and whereas the said Indians have been notified and informed by Her Majesty’s said Commissioners that it is the desire of Her Majesty to open up for settlement, immigration and such other purposes … and to obtain the consent thereto of Her Indian subjects inhabiting the said tract” (para. 3). A/HRC/12/33. A/HRC/15/36, para. 11. 25