A/66/288 with such principles, the duty of States to consult with indigenous peoples in decisions affecting them is aimed at reversing the historical pattern of excluding indigenous people from decision-making processes in order to avoid imposing important decisions on them in the future and to allow them to flourish as distinct communities on lands to which their cultures remain attached. 80. As a general matter, decisions of the State should be made through democratic processes in which the public’s interests are adequately represented. However, these normal democratic and representative processes usually do not work adequately to address the concerns that are particular to indigenous peoples, who are typically marginalized from the political sphere. The duty of States to consult with indigenous peoples and its various normative components are premised on widespread acknowledgment, as manifested in the Declaration, of indigenous peoples’ distinctive characteristics and specific rights and on the need for special measures to address their disadvantaged conditions. 2. The duty to consult and the objective of obtaining consent 81. The duty to consult is a procedural obligation that arises whenever indigenous peoples’ substantive rights stand to be affected by a particular action. It should be noted that the duty to consult is not limited to circumstances in which a proposed measure will or may affect an already recognized right or legal entitlement at the national level, for example, rights over traditional lands and territories. 82. The specific characteristics of the consultation procedure that is required by the duty to consult will necessarily vary depending on the nature of the proposed measure and the scope of its impact on indigenous peoples. For example, constitutional or legislative reform measures that concern or affect all the indigenous peoples of a country will require appropriate consultation and representative mechanisms that will in some way be open to and reach all indigenous peoples. By contrast, measures that affect particular indigenous peoples or communities, such as initiatives for extracting natural resources in their territories, will require consultation procedures focused on the interests of and engagement with the affected groups. 83. The character of the consultation procedure and its object are also shaped by the nature of the right or interest at stake for the indigenous peoples concerned and the anticipated impact of the proposed measure. Necessarily, the strength of the objective of achieving consent varies according to the circumstances, the indigenous peoples’ rights and the interests involved. A significant, direct impact on indigenous peoples’ lives establishes a strong presumption that the proposed measure should not go forward without indigenous peoples’ consent. In certain contexts, that presumption may harden into a prohibition of the measure or project in the absence of indigenous consent. 84. The Declaration identifies two situations in which it is necessary to obtain the consent of the indigenous peoples concerned prior to moving forward with the proposed initiative: situations involving the removal of an indigenous group from its traditional lands (art. 10) and situations involving the storage of hazardous materials in indigenous peoples’ lands (art. 29). The Special Rapporteur would add situations involving the establishment of natural resource extraction projects within indigenous peoples’ lands and other situations in which projects stand to have a 16 11-44942