A/HRC/27/64 VII. Study and advice on access to justice in the promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples: restorative justice, indigenous juridical systems, and access to justice for indigenous women, children and youth and persons with disabilities 57. Mr. Titus introduced the follow-up study on access to justice with a focus on restorative justice, indigenous juridical systems and access to justice for indigenous women, children and youth and persons with disabilities. Before providing an overview of the study’s contents, he expressed the Expert Mechanism’s gratitude to the University of Auckland and OHCHR for jointly organizing the expert seminar on the topic of the study, which took place in Auckland, New Zealand, on 17 and 18 February 2014, as well as to the experts who participated in the seminar, for their invaluable contributions. He also thanked the States, the indigenous peoples’ organizations and the national human rights institutions that had contributed to the study through written submissions. 58. International Chief Littlechild emphasized the need to refer to the Expert Mechanism’s advice on access to justice in the lead-up to the World Conference and the finalization of its outcome document. 59. Mr. Tsykarev referred to the positive practice of there being indigenous rights ombudsmen, as was the case in the Russian Federation, and as mentioned in the report of the sixth session of the Expert Mechanism and the report of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues on its thirteenth session. However, he urged all actors to ensure that this “good practice” was fully and widely implemented before presenting it at the international level. Mr. Tsykarev called on all stakeholders to ensure that there was no regress in the implementation of positive practices, and that all measures had a systemic character, rather than a one-off nature. He also highlighted the important role that human rights defenders played in supporting indigenous peoples’ access to justice, stressing that it was unacceptable to intimidate and illegally detain human rights defenders. 60. State delegations and indigenous peoples’ representatives gave generally positive statements regarding the follow-up report on access to justice, noting in particular its emphasis on indigenous women, children and youth and persons with disabilities, and on the right of indigenous peoples to exercise their traditional justice systems. Participants also commended the Expert Mechanism for emphasizing the fact that a holistic approach to access to justice was necessary. The New Zealand Human Rights Commission, for example, illustrated how, in New Zealand, the interlinked issues of crime, vulnerable families and victims of crime were being addressed in partnership with indigenous community leaders. In several regions of the country, a Community Justice Panel, made up of Maori leaders and elders, meets with offenders to agree on a way to repair harms caused and to deal with factors that led to the offending. In addition, participants agreed with the study’s emphasis on the fact that indigenous juridical systems needed to be properly resourced and funded if they were to be effective and sustainable in facilitating indigenous peoples’ access to justice. 61. Interventions from the floor brought up certain barriers to accessing justice that had either been omitted from the study or had not been addressed sufficiently. These included environmental justice and access to justice over issues relating to land and natural resources, situations in which indigenous peoples were not recognized as such, the link between self-determination and access to justice, and discrimination in accessing justice based on sexual orientation and gender identity. 14