A/HRC/51/28/Add.1 23. The Special Rapporteur was also informed that, although the comprehensive development associations do not have the power to set up their own security bodies, an unlawful security and sanctions body has been established in Cabagra to implement the comprehensive development association’s decisions in the territory. Under indigenous peoples’ right to autonomy, only indigenous authorities themselves may establish their own institutions, including security bodies. 24. Many communities complain that the comprehensive development associations sometimes exercise their power arbitrarily in authorizing the processing of permits for health services, the administration of water and electricity and the award of socioeconomic grants, among other things. This prevents the full enjoyment by members of the indigenous peoples of their economic, social and cultural rights. 25. The Special Rapporteur recalls that recognition of the rights to self-determination and self-government enables indigenous authorities to fulfil their role of freely determining their political status and freely pursuing their economic, social and cultural development, including maintenance of order, balance and harmony within society. Unfortunately, the Special Rapporteur was able to verify that this role had been subverted, particularly in the south of the country, by the imposition of comprehensive development associations, which has weakened the indigenous peoples’ own authorities, creating intracommunity conflict and weakening the social fabric of the community as a whole. 26. The Special Rapporteur explains that, under international human rights law, the definition of “indigenous peoples” is based on individual self-identification and acceptance by the community as one of its members. Based on the principles of self-determination and self-government, only the indigenous people in question may establish the criteria for membership of that people, in accordance with its own law. The Special Rapporteur therefore considers a major step forward the promulgation in 2019 of Decree No. 41903-MP officially approving the database of persons of Terraba/Bröran ethnicity as a means of identifying genealogical patterns in the Bröran people and declaring it to be in the public interest, a joint initiative undertaken by the people’s council of elders and the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. 27. The Special Rapporteur was informed that the National Commission on Indigenous Affairs, which is responsible for protecting indigenous peoples’ interests, is another institution imposed on indigenous peoples by the State and is ineffective. 28. Over the years, representatives of the indigenous peoples have submitted various, unsuccessful, proposals for a legal reform that would protect indigenous territories and recognize and protect the indigenous peoples’ own self-government authorities. For example, the bill on the autonomous development of indigenous peoples was submitted in 1994 to address the issue of governance and land in a manner consistent with international standards. Enactment was delayed owing to a lack of political will and to private sector opposition. In addition, the political debate was marked by tensions that culminated, in August 2010, in the forcible removal of a group of indigenous persons from the Legislative Assembly during a peaceful protest in favour of enactment of the bill. Several human rights mechanisms, such as the universal periodic review mechanism and the Special Rapporteur,7 have recognized the centrality of the issue of indigenous governance and urged Costa Rica to enact the bill, which was shelved in 2018. 29. The Special Rapporteur was able to verify the scant representation of indigenous peoples in national and local State institutions. For example, no indigenous person has ever been appointed to a senior role in the judiciary or the legislature. Positive measures must be taken to ensure the inclusion, representation and participation of indigenous peoples, at all levels, in State institutions and political parties. B. Right to lands, territories and natural resources 30. Notwithstanding the legislative stride represented by the Indigenous Act (Act No. 6172), which recognizes indigenous territories as “inalienable and imprescriptible, non- 7 6 A/HRC/18/35/Add.8, para. 48; and CERD/C/CRI/CO/18, para. 9. GE.22-11025