A/HRC/12/34/Add.2 page 12 III. LAND AND RESOURCE ISSUES OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES A. Protecting indigenous lands and resources 36. It is evident that secure rights to land and natural resources are essential to the survival and development of indigenous peoples in Brazil, and hence to their exercise of self-determination. Under the 1988 Constitution, indigenous peoples are entitled to the “permanent possession” of the lands they traditionally occupy and “have the exclusive usufruct of the riches of the soil, the rivers and the lakes existing therein” (art. 231), while at the same time the Constitution deems these lands to be inalienable property of the Union (art. 20). 37. Indispensible to securing indigenous peoples’ rights to their traditional lands are the demarcation and official registration of those lands called for in article 231 of the Constitution. Because the indigenous land rights under the Constitution are deemed to be “original” - meaning they originate in the indigenous presence and not in a grant from the State - the acts of demarcation and registration are acts of recognition of the rights rather than being constitutive of them. 38. FUNAI reports that there are 611 indigenous land areas that are at different stages of the formal registration process. Of these, 488 are, at a minimum, at the surveying stage of the demarcation process, including 398 that have already been demarcated and registered. The 488 indigenous lands cover 105,673,003 hectares, approximately 12.41 per cent of the national territory. Undoubtedly, Brazil has distinguished itself as a leader worldwide in this regard. 39. The Supreme Federal Tribunal’s decision in the case of Raposa Serra do Sol, adopted on 19 March 2009, articulated 19 conditions that, in the view of the majority of the justices of the high court, shape the content of the constitutional recognition and protection of indigenous lands, including demarcated and registered lands. These conditions go far beyond the specific wording of the Constitution or of any applicable legislation, in what the federal Attorney General and some observers have deemed a questionable exercise of the court’s authority as a judicial, rather than a legislative, organ. Some of the 19 conditions confirm protections for indigenous lands, for example, exemption from taxation and prohibition of non-indigenous hunting, fishing and gathering activities. Several of the other conditions, however, limit constitutional protections by specifying State powers over indigenous lands on the assumption of ultimate State ownership. A number of conditions affirm the authority of the federal Union, through its competent organs, to control natural resource extraction on indigenous lands, install public works projects, and to establish on these lands, without having to consult the indigenous groups concerned, police or military presence. Other provisions authorize specific Government institutions to exercise certain monitoring powers over indigenous lands, in particular for conservation purposes and to regulate entry by non-indigenous individuals. 40. Brazil’s progressive constitutional provisions on indigenous peoples should be interpreted to conform to relevant international standards. Article 27 of the United Nations Declaration affirms the right of indigenous peoples to “own, use, develop and control the lands, territories and resources” they traditionally occupy; for its part, ILO Convention 169 declares in its article 14, “The rights of ownership and possession of the peoples concerned over the lands