A/HRC/22/71 34. It was also clear that the Declaration was meant to be forward-looking, in part advancing rights that had not previously been protected. As the delegate of India noted, “earlier declarations had not mentioned rights such as the right to equal pay for equal work; the right of mothers and children to social protection, whether the children were born in or out of wedlock; the right to education; equality of rights for men and women. Those rights were the expression of a new social order, of true democracy based on social justice.” 42 35. Scholars have noted examples of traditional values reflected in international human rights law,43 such as the concept of equality among the Akaamba of Kenya, 44 the high value placed on human dignity by the Akan of Ghana, 45 and the commitments to due process among the Amhara of Ethiopia and Kuba in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.46 In addition, the indigenous Andean concept of sumak kawsay bases the notion of well-being not in the isolated individual but in the relationship between the individual, the community and nature. 47 Ahimsa, a tenet of some Indian religions such as Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, is a term meaning non-violence. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi successfully promoted the principle of ahimsa by applying it to all spheres of life, particularly to politics.48 His non-violent resistance movement had an immense impact in India, impressed public opinion in Western countries and influenced the leaders of various civil and political rights movements, including Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. 49 Sikhism emphasizes the principle of equality of all humans and rejects discrimination on the basis of caste, creed and gender.50 36. The Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples has researched customary laws and the administration of justice among indigenous societies around the world. In a report submitted to the Commission on Human Rights in 2004, the Special Rapporteur wrote that indigenous customary law was rooted in local traditions and customs and usually answered the needs of indigenous communities regarding the maintenance of social order and harmony, the solution of conflicts of various kinds and the process of dealing with offenders. He added that countries that had been able to incorporate respect for customary indigenous law in their formal legal systems found that justice was handled more effectively, particularly when dealing with civil and family law, but also in certain areas of 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 and having been adopted by consensus, “represents a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations.” See UNDP, “Doing justice: how informal justice systems can contribute”, December 2006, pp. 33-35. A/PV.180, 181, 182 and 183. See Makau Mutua, “The Banjul Charter and the African Cultural Fingerprint: an Evaluation of the Language of Duties”, Virginia Journal of International Law, vol. 35, 1995, p. 346; Timothy Fernyhough, “Human Rights in Pre-colonial Africa” in Ronald Cohen, et al., eds., Human Rights and Governance in Africa (Florida, University Press of Florida, 1993); and Kwasi Wiredu, “An Akan Perspective on Human Rights”, in Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im and Francis M. Deng (eds.), Human Rights in Africa: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (Washington, D.C., Brookings Institution, 1990). Mutua, “The Banjul Charter” (see footnote 44), p. 350. Wiridu, cited in Mutua, ibid., pp. 348-354. Fernyhough, “Human Rights in Pre-colonial Africa” (see footnote 44), pp. 62. A/HRC/16/37, para. 17. Unto Tahtinen, Ahimsa: Non-Violence in Indian Tradition, London, Rider, 1976, pp. 116-124. See Placido P. D’Souza, “Commemorating Martin Luther King Jr.: Gandhi’s influence on King” SF Gate (San Francisco Chronicle), 20 January 2003; and Nelson Mandela, “The Sacred Warrior: The liberator of South Africa Looks at the Seminal Work of the Liberator of India”, Time, 31 December 1999. Satvinder Singh Juss, “The Secular Tradition in Sikhism” in Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion, vol. 11, spring 2010, p. 270. 11