A/HRC/4/49 page 14 protection of indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants’ rights, activities have been initiated in Ecuador in cooperation with the human rights ombudsman’s office, the Ministry of the Environment and indigenous organizations. In November in Bolivia, OHCHR jointly organized a regional seminar on indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and in initial contact in both the Amazonian basin and El Chaco, to consider policy options aimed at protecting indigenous communities in isolation. In January 2007, the Minister of the Environment, who had attended the meeting, signed the country’s first law to protect the lands of the Tagaeri and Taromenane people. In Cambodia, the Office organized a community led human rights training workshop aimed at building capacity among the forest-dwelling indigenous peoples. The Office continues to implement the Indigenous Fellowship Programme that is now entering its eleventh year. In 2006, 20 indigenous fellows completed the four-month programme that consists of four different language components (English, Spanish, French and Russian). The Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations also enabled more than 100 indigenous representatives to attend the annual sessions of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations. H. Business 53. My Office continues to be involved in efforts to clarify the human rights responsibilities of business and other private actors. Our contribution to the work of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises led us to examine, during the last few months of 2006, all the core human rights treaties as well as the work of their treaty monitoring bodies, to help map and clarify State obligations for corporate acts. We have also continued our involvement in the United Nations Global Compact. In view of the strong demand from companies that have signed the Global Compact for guidance and advice on the implementation of its human rights principles, my Office has worked with the United Nations System Staff College (and the Global Compact Office) to prepare an entry-level e-learning course for companies. The learning tool, which is web-based and being tested in draft form, comprises three modules which provide an introduction to human rights, to the concept of a corporation’s “sphere of influence” and to the notion of corporate complicity in human rights violations. On 16 February 2007, I also convened, as requested by the Commission on Human Rights in its resolution 2005/69, a meeting with senior executives from companies, experts from the financial sector, the public and private sectors and from non-governmental organizations. (The report of the second annual sectoral consultation is contained in document A/HRC/4/99.) I. Economic, social and cultural rights 54. I remain firmly committed to increasing further our work on economic, social and cultural rights. The legal protection of these human rights was the theme of my report to the Economic and Social Council in July 2006 (E/2006/86), and of course we continued to support the work of the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Open-Ended Working Group on an optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Staff of the Office participated in related meetings organized in Mexico in May 2006 and in Finland in July 2006 and we provided support to the meeting organized by the Chairperson-Rapporteur in Lisbon in September 2006 to assist her in preparing a draft for the July 2007 meeting of the