A/HRC/15/35 Committee further affirmed that the right to participation under article 25 (a) includes the right to take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely-chosen representatives. The Committee concluded that the provision did not establish a right to direct representation by an indigenous group in a constitution-making process as long as the individual members of the group enjoyed rights of participation along with other groups.3 It should, however, be pointed out that more recently, the Committee has made several explicit references to either article 1 or to the notion of self-determination in the context of indigenous peoples, relevant to the right to participation of indigenous peoples.4 12. On the other hand, the right to participation relating to certain matters concerning internal or local affairs is evoked under article 27 of the Covenant, which protects the cultural rights of indigenous peoples. The Human Rights Committee observed that the enjoyment of those rights might require positive legal measures of protection and measures to ensure the effective participation of indigenous communities in decisions affecting them.5 The right to participation has been further elaborated in subsequent observations and conclusions of the Committee in the context of individual complaints brought under the first Optional Protocol to the Covenant. The absence of meaningful consultations with the indigenous community concerned regarding measures that may affect them, normally constitutes a denial of their cultural rights under article 27.6 13. Articles 7 and 8 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women make clear that women’s right to participation in the political and public life of a State should be on equal terms with that of men, including in the international area. While the Convention does not specifically make reference to the rights of indigenous women, the articles must be read in the light of article 22 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which ensures that the special needs of indigenous women should be protected against all forms of discrimination. Similarly, although the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action does not explicitly refer to the participation of indigenous women, the Commission on the Status of Women has now called for the participation of indigenous women in both the Beijing Platform and the Millennium Development Goals.7 14. Participation is also one of the guiding principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Article 12 affirms that children, both individually and collectively, have the right to participate in decision-making that may be relevant to their lives and to influence decisions taken in their regard, within the family, school or community. Moreover, the provisions of the Convention should be interpreted in conjunction with article 30 of the Convention, which provides for the right of the indigenous child, in community with other members of his or her group, to enjoy, individually or collectively, his or her own culture, to profess and practise his or her own religion or to use his or her own language. 15. The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination obliges States to prohibit and eliminate all forms of racial discrimination, including in relation to the enjoyment of political rights, as well as in the conduct of public affairs (article 5). In its general recommendation No. 23 (1997) on the rights of indigenous 3 4 5 6 7 See Official Records of the General Assembly, forty-seventh Session, supplement No. 40 (A/47/40) and Raija Hanski and Martin Scheinin, comp., (2003), Leading Cases of the Human Rights Committee (Turku, Finland, Institute for Human Rights, Åbo Akademi University, 2003), pp. 402, 406–409. See CCPR/C/79/Add.109 and Add.112, CCPR/CO/69/AUS and CCPR/CO/74/SWE. General comment No. 23 (1994) on article 27 (Rights of minorities), para. 7. Official Records of the General Assembly, fiftieth Session, supplement No. 40 (A/50/40), vol. II, annex X, section I, para. 9.6. E/CN.6/2005/2, paras. 572–595. 5