A/62/286 racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Doudou Diène, and two experts from the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in order to provide technical assistance to OHCHR in Nepal in the design of its country-level policies on discrimination, with special emphasis on the situation of indigenous peoples, Dalits and other minorities, and to collect information on the human rights situation of the various indigenous groups. 34. Nepal is an extremely heterogeneous and culturally diverse country. However, its diversity has not been recognized by the State, which, from the outset, was constructed on an exclusionary model based on the language, culture and identity of the minority elite who have dominated Government structures and public life for more than two centuries. The fight against the structural discrimination caused by the State’s exclusionary model is one of the greatest challenges for the country’s current transition to democracy, which began with the people’s movement of April 2006. 35. Indigenous peoples, known in Nepal as Adivasis or Janajatis (“nationalities”), account for 37 per cent of the country’s population. Under the umbrella of the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN), they are, collectively, one of the main players in the current democratic transition process and are calling for the recognition of a new multi-faith, multi-ethnic, multilingual and multicultural State model. Indigenous peoples have also called for a far-reaching reform of the unitary State structure, including the creation of autonomous regions with the power to draft and implement standards and public policies on issues affecting them. 36. With a view to strengthening the mechanisms designed to safeguard indigenous peoples’ rights, the Nepalese Parliament began the process of ratifying International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 169 concerning indigenous and tribal peoples in independent countries. Ratification of that Convention, which, at the time of writing, was still pending before the Government, would be a significant step forward because it would ensure that the adoption of new standards and public policies was informed by progress made with regard to the protection and promotion of the rights of indigenous peoples at the international level. 37. In February 2007, two important meetings were held in Cambodia. The first was a seminar on indigenous peoples and access to land in Cambodia, organized by ILO, the Cambodian NGO Forum and OHCHR and attended by officials from various ministries dealing with the status of indigenous communities’ land, as well as by representatives of those communities, international organizations and NGOs. The second meeting was the first Asian regional consultation with the Special Rapporteur. It was organized by the Tebtebba Foundation and the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact Foundation (AIPP), with the support of IWGIA and the Regional Initiative on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Development in the Asia Pacific (RIPP) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The consultation was attended by representatives of many organizations and indigenous experts from Asia, who gave the Special Rapporteur a comprehensive account of the main human rights issues affecting indigenous peoples in the region. The presentations and constructive debate that took place during the regional consultation, the first event of this type to be organized by the Special Rapporteur, contributed significantly to the identification of priorities for his future activities relating to Asia. 07-48664 9