A/HRC/21/54 community, including information and capacity building, will, in the opinion of some States, significantly benefit and improve implementation. 82. To attain the goals of the Declaration, States promoted capacity-building for indigenous peoples. Further, States encouraged efforts to strengthen indigenous peoples’ institutions, non-governmental organizations and self-government structures. There was also a recognized need to provide opportunities for indigenous peoples to participate as equal partners in the development process of the entire country. Australia pursues a policy of focusing on addressing indigenous disadvantage in areas such as education, health services, community development and community safety. 83. States also identified best practices in the area of education and promoting indigenous peoples’ languages and cultures. It is important to include indigenous languages within the education system. This includes developing strategies for implementing bilingual and intercultural education, which includes indigenous peoples’ participation. In addition, cultural centres can be created to promote indigenous cultures. Finally, some States recognized indigenous languages as official languages. 84. To attain the goals of the Declaration, some States indicated that a special budget for consultation with indigenous peoples was created. Other States provided funds to address issues facing urban indigenous peoples and undertake studies on employability. To this end, States indicated that international financial institutions will need to aid developing countries throughout the implementation process. IV. Concluding comments 85. The Expert Mechanism very much appreciates States’ responses to its questionnaire, especially because the responses can provide inspiration to creatively devise strategies to implement the Declaration. However, the Expert Mechanism is disappointed with the low number of responses to its questionnaire overall and is concerned that it could reflect a broader lack of political will on the part of States to implement the Declaration. The Expert Mechanism would therefore like to request the Human Rights Council to extend the timeframe to enable states to respond to the questionnaire so that the Expert Mechanism can prepare a more comprehensive report in 2013. 86. The majority of responses received provided information at a very general level. In particular, there was almost no information provided indicating the effectiveness of the measures taken. Most States only provided positive answers to questions. Negative answers would also provide greater context for understanding the challenges States face when implementing the Declaration. 87. While not explicitly stated in the responses to the questionnaire, some States appear to perceive there to be a struggle to balance the recognition and implementation of the rights of indigenous peoples as articulated in the Declaration and the principle of equality. Equality continues to be interpreted by some States to prohibit specialized programmes aimed at achieving the goals of the Declaration. The Expert Mechanism stresses that substantive equality can require treating indigenous peoples as distinct groups facing unique circumstances 88. One challenge raised by Guyana was that there are “attempts by a few persons and NGOs to undermine the land titling and demarcation process by advising Indigenous peoples to claim more lands than they traditionally occupy, reject the process of titling and demarcation and or to make no request for such demarcation”. Such frustration indicates that a tension may exist between States and indigenous 14