E/CN.4/2003/90/Add.2 page 17 44. As for the other matters covered by the Peace Agreements, a Bipartite Commission on reform and participation at all levels was established for these questions and worked on the preparation of broad-based constitutional reform. The electoral reforms and later the constitutional reforms of 1999, however, eventually took the form of negotiations between the political parties, at some remove from the proposals of the Bipartite Commission and the Maya movement represented in them. The constitutional reform was not approved in the referendum. The laws on decentralization and the (re-)establishment of the Development Committees - which to some extent are directed at strengthening local structures for the organization and exercise of authority - took only some of the proposals of the Bipartite Commission into account. 45. During his visit, the Special Rapporteur was repeatedly informed that although the Civil Self-Defence Patrols had been formally dissolved, they continued to operate in many indigenous regions as local power groups, that their presence hampered the restructuring of traditional forms of organization and the restoration of social peace, and that much of the antagonism currently regarded as a problem of crime and social breakdown - including a number of lynchings, of which much has been made by the mass media - is a result of the tensions generated by their presence. The Special Rapporteur was informed of various cases and conflicts bringing the traditional indigenous authorities (indigenous mayors and community assemblies) into confrontation with the national or departmental authorities for various reasons, notably those concerning control of access to community property (principally forests and water) and the handling and settlement of local conflicts. On occasion, the State authorities take action to eliminate or co-opt the indigenous authorities, as in the case of the indigenous mayor of Sololá and the community mayors of Totonicapan. The aim appears to be to deprive these traditional authorities of their force, presence and impact, in breach of Convention No. 169 and other domestic and international instruments. 46. Although some indigenous leaders view the establishment of the Development Committees as an opportunity for improving their impact on decision-making in matters that directly concern them, the Rapporteur observed in several cases that for indigenous people this participation was diminished by the lack of means to implement it (transport or technical assistance, for example). Some institutions established for the purpose of facilitating indigenous participation, such as the Office for the Defence of Indigenous Women, the Guatemalan Fund for Indigenous Development and the Academy of Mayan Languages, do not in fact have the independence granted to them by law nor do they have adequate resources. The indigenous representatives of the department of Sololá informed the Special Rapporteur, of the following: “One of the most important and invisible issues is the participation of indigenous women. [...] Women are second-rate citizens [...]. For indigenous women, access to justice is doubly difficult. Women are faced with double discrimination and are totally unprotected, while no recourse is offered to them through the system of justice. [...] The department of Sololá has the second highest rate of maternal mortality in Guatemala.”