A/HRC/4/34 page 15 and equality. Reference is made in this regard, for instance, to article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which establishes that any person belonging to ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities existing in a given country has the right, in community with other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or to use their own language. The Human Rights Committee has stated that the minority cultural rights articulated in article 27 do not authorize any State, group or person to violate the right to the equal enjoyment by women of any Covenant rights.23 Instead, States are asked to report on measures taken to discharge their responsibilities in relation to cultural or religious practices within minority communities that affect the rights of women. 37. This jurisprudence is consistent with the object and purpose of minority rights, which are meant to give members of minorities the opportunity to effectively realize their individual human rights in the face of majority domination that can be so pervasive that the individual’s right to non-discrimination alone proves to be ineffective and insufficient. Group-specific rights such as those established by article 27 serve to further their bearers’ individual rights, not to further curb the freedom of other members of the marginalized group. This applies even more so vis-à-vis women who are very often confronted with multiple layers of discrimination based on both gender and group membership. 38. Similarly, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, approved in 2006 by the Human Rights Council but not yet adopted by the General Assembly, stipulates that the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all must be respected in the exercise of the extensive group rights recognized by that document. However, this document also fails to make reference to the Convention and the Declaration. The special needs of women are only mentioned along with those of inherently vulnerable groups (children, youth, the elderly and the disabled). Women’s challenges vis-à-vis their own communities, including often alarming degrees of gender inequality, patriarchal oppression and violence,24 are not addressed at all. It remains unclear, for instance, what legal recourse, if any, an indigenous woman would have, who is confronted with a discriminatory decision issued by a male-dominated community council that exercises indigenous people’s “right to autonomy or self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs” (see article 4 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People). 39. These shortcomings, which can still be overcome, detract from the important human rights advances the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous 23 General comment No. 28: Equality of rights between men and women (art. 3), Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-fifth Session, Supplement No. 40 (A/55/40), annex VI, sect. B, para. 32. 24 See the reports on my missions to Guatemala (E/CN.4/2005/72/Add.3) and Mexico (E/CN.4/2006/61/Add.4), Cf. also the report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples (E/CN.4/2005/88, paras. 38-39) and the reports of that Special Rapporteur on his missions to Colombia (E/CN.4/2005/88/Add.2) and Canada (E/CN.4/2005/88/Add.3).