A/HRC/24/38 these institutions54, the Security Council55, and the World Trade Organization is necessary. Maybe alternative institutions should be devised.56 29. In the domestic arena, there are as many obstacles. Communications received from civil society organizations claim that, for a variety of reasons, which vary from country to country, some people cannot participate in decision-making. As highlighted by the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice, structural and social discrimination against women prevent them from taking part in political and public life in all almost all countries in the world.57 It is unacceptable that a number of women who have taken part in peaceful protests in some parts of the world have met with violence, including sexual violence. States must demonstrate determination in putting an end to structural violence, and implementing positive measures to ensure the participation of more than half of the Earth’s population in public and political life. 30. Indigenous groups58 maintain that they have been denied effective representation and that their participation is essentially pro forma, since, regardless of their views, governments pursue their own agendas and only perfunctorily listen to them. In particular, some indigenous claim material breaches of treaties 59 made by their ancestors with the European powers, others claim deception when the treaties were made. They maintain their right to self-determination, autonomy and identity, including sovereignty over their natural resources, which have been taken from them without their consent and without appropriate compensation, in contravention of common article 1 of the ICCPR and ICESCR. A fundamental issue to many indigenous is that of their status as peoples, since they do not want to have the citizenship of the country which colonized them; in some cases, they challenge self-determination referenda in which they claim they had little or no possibility to manifest their will.60 They maintain that the right of self-determination cannot be exercised against the will of the population concerned, and that self-determination referenda should only allow the indigenous to vote and not the colonizers. 31. Many other groups at risk – including human rights defenders, students, minorities and people living in poverty – suffer from a lack of genuine participation in society and in decision-making. It is crucial that States take appropriate measures to ensure that obstacles 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Yilmaz Akyüz, Reforming the IMF : Back to the Drawing Board, Third World Network, Penang, Malaysia, 2006. International Law Association, Study Group on United Nations Reform, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1971008; Hague Academy Lectures of Vera Gowlland, “The Relationship between the Security Council and the International Criminal Court” http://untreaty.un.org/cod/avl/ls/Gowlland-Debbas_PS.html; “The Relationship between Collective Security and State Responsibility” http://untreaty.un.org/cod/avl/ls/Gowlland-Debbas_S.html; Alejandro Teitelbaum, “Naciones Unidas: Reformarla o Reconstruirla?” published in Derechos de los pueblos y gobernanza mundial, Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación (HUHEZI) de la Universidad de Mondragón), Iruñea, 2007, pp. 77–118; Erskine Childers and Brian Urquhart, Renewing the United Nations System, Uppsala 1994; Joseph Schwartzberg, Revitalizing the United Nations, New York 2004. Samir Amin, Global History - a View from the South, Oxford, 2010; Samir Amin, Ending the Crisis of Capitalism or Ending Capitalism? Oxford, 2011. A/HRC/23/50. See reports of the Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Issues. See also the statement of Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Issues on the occasion of the Twelfth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, 22 May 2013. See http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/0/696c51cf6f20b8bc802567c4003793ec. See, for instance, “shadow reports” submitted to the Human Rights Committee and to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination by indigenous groups, and the recommendations in the relevant concluding observations http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/usdocs/hruscomments2.html. 11