A/HRC/9/9 page 11 common understanding of the minimum content of the rights of these peoples as a matter of international law and policy. This common understanding has been further reflected in, strengthened and elaborated by the adoption of international instruments that are specifically focused on the rights of indigenous peoples. B. The International Labour Organization conventions 31. The ILO was historically the first international organization to promote specific international norms and policies regarding indigenous peoples. Following earlier initiatives, the ILO adopted the Convention concerning the protection and integration of indigenous and other tribal or semi-tribal populations in independent countries (No. 107) in 1957. Although it is somewhat a reflection of the paternalistic and assimilation-oriented assumptions of the time, the protective thrust of the Convention nevertheless contributed to signalling the need for international attention and cooperation with regard to indigenous peoples. 32. In the mid-1980s the International Labour Conference decided to revise Convention No. 107 in the form of a new instrument, resulting in the adoption of the Convention concerning indigenous and tribal peoples in independent countries (No. 169) in 1989. This decision reflected the evolving normative understanding concerning the rights of indigenous peoples which at that time was being generated, especially by discussions within the United Nations, to develop an indigenous rights declaration. A momentous step in the consolidation of the contemporary international regime on indigenous peoples, Convention No. 169 provides significant recognition of indigenous peoples’ collective rights in key areas, including cultural integrity; consultation and participation; self-government and autonomy; land, territory and resource rights; and non-discrimination in the social and economic spheres. The norms embodied in the Convention have been subsequently developed through the interpretive practice of the ILO supervisory bodies, notably the Committee of Experts and the Governing Body’s tripartite committees acting under article 24 of the ILO Constitution. 33. Most States of Latin America as well as some States from other regions have ratified Convention No. 169, with a total of 19 ratifications thus far. Despite the relatively small number of ratifications from outside the Western Hemisphere, the general normative underpinning and specific human rights principles of the Convention have acted and still act as a powerful catalyst for the consolidation at the international level of the common normative understanding regarding the rights of indigenous peoples. This is reflected in numerous processes of constitutional, legal and institutional reform at the domestic level - including in States that are not formally part of the Convention - as well as in the development of other international instruments, programmes and policies. C. The character and general content of the Declaration 34. While influenced by discussions within the United Nations around the initiative to develop an indigenous rights declaration, the development of Convention No. 169 in 1989 contributed in turn to the process that led finally to the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on 13 September 2007. The protracted negotiations that stretched over two and a half decades and ended with the adoption of the Declaration engaged States, indigenous peoples and independent experts in an extended multilateral discussion that was central to the emergence, internationally, of a common body of opinion on the rights of indigenous peoples.