A/HRC/45/22 including in the context of a high-level round table, together with the Secretariat for Human Rights and Secretariat for Social Inclusion of Honduras. 14. The OHCHR office in Mexico advised the National Council to Prevent Discrimination on possible measures to prevent and mitigate risks for indigenous peoples during the pandemic. Its policy document on essential guidelines for incorporating the perspective of human rights in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic included a section on indigenous peoples. 15. The OHCHR Regional Office for South America provided substantive support to the National Institute of Indigenous Affairs in Paraguay in the drafting of a sanitary protocol on COVID-19 and addressing its effects on indigenous peoples. The support was focused on integrating a human rights-based approach in line with relevant international standards. 16. In addition to providing policy advice, OHCHR field offices also engaged in advocacy on indigenous peoples’ issues. For example, in May 2020, the OHCHR Regional Office for South America welcomed two decisions by the Federal Supreme Court of Brazil aimed at protecting indigenous peoples’ rights. By its decision of 7 May 2020, the Court ordered the suspension of procedures that could result in the forced evictions of indigenous communities during the COVID-19 crisis. By its decision of 8 May 2020, the Court provisionally suspended the effects of an opinion that in practice paralysed the demarcation of indigenous lands. With those decisions, the judiciary of Brazil reaffirmed the right of indigenous peoples to lands that they have traditionally occupied.3 17. The Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples stressed the heightened vulnerability of indigenous peoples to the pandemic. The Expert Mechanism highlighted the importance of taking the rights of indigenous peoples into consideration when applying measures to respond to the pandemic.4 18. The Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples has called for greater respect of indigenous peoples’ right to autonomy and self-governance in managing the crisis, in order to ensure food security through their traditional crops and traditional medicine. He noted that the rights to development, self-determination and lands, territories and resources must be ensured in order for indigenous peoples to manage in such times of crisis.5 19. Other United Nations human rights mechanisms have also issued guidance relating to indigenous peoples during the reporting period. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women stressed the disproportionate impact that COVID-19 had on indigenous women and girls. It called upon States parties to ensure access for women and girls to acceptable health care, equipment, testing and urgent emergency treatment, as well as education and COVID-19-related information.6 The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights urged States parties to adopt special, targeted measures to protect and mitigate the impact of the pandemic on communities and groups subject to structural discrimination, including by providing social relief and income-support programmes (E/C.12/2020/1, paras. 15 and 18). B. Free, prior and informed consent and the consultative mechanisms, including in the context of business and the extractive industries 20. During the reporting period, the inadequate implementation of the appropriate mechanisms for the consultation, consent and participation of indigenous peoples in many development projects and plans that may affect them continued to undermine the protection and promotion of their rights during the period under review. OHCHR field offices worked with indigenous peoples and the relevant authorities to ensure that the rights of indigenous 3 4 5 6 4 See https://acnudh.org/brasil-comentario-do-representante-da-onu-direitos-humanos-jan-jarab-sobreterras-indigenas/. See www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/IPeoples/EMRIP/Pages/EMRIPIndex.aspx. See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25893&LangID=E. See www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/cedaw/pages/cedawindex.aspx.