A/HRC/6/15 page 13 the Ministry of Public Education. The project now includes a university programme for indigenous rural populations, based on the model developed by the Inuit people in Nunavut (Canada), and draws on the financial and human resources of the communities themselves, with added assistance from State, federal and international agency funds. 33. Best practices for the participation and empowerment of indigenous peoples as components of the human rights-based approach demonstrate that the time has come to move beyond the old participative model for development and to include processes for their autonomy and self-management. One innovative example in this context is the project to empower the indigenous peoples of Antioquia, to enable them to exercise their rights and autonomy in the context of the armed conflict in Colombia. This project receives support from the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights, with the participation of the Indigenous Organization of Antioquia and the Mugarik Gabe and Almáciga NGOs. The project promotes the empowerment of authorities and women’s organizations in Antioquia in three ways: by strengthening the autonomy enjoyed by indigenous peoples, especially through the political participation of indigenous organizations within their own communities; through dialogue with State officials and non-indigenous entities; and through “indigenous diplomacy” with international and cooperation agencies. 34. Empowering rights holders and duty bearers reinforces institutional dialogue, thus rendering the exercise of rights more effective. This was the key to a UNDP project with the Philippine NGO Centre for Community Journalism and Development (CCJD), which aims to enhance knowledge and foster public discussion about human rights. This project involved community organizations and public authorities alike, including the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines and the Philippine National Commission on Indigenous Peoples. Through this project, indigenous communities in the Iloilo province of the Western Visayas region of the Philippines were able to organize themselves in protest against the building of a dam. A community newspaper, TVE, went with local organizations on fact-finding missions and disseminated the results of those missions in order to raise awareness among the general public about the impact of that dam on indigenous communities. 35. By involving and empowering rights holders and duty bearers, it is possible to find solutions to individual cases that take into account their specific cultural characteristics. In the context of educating nomadic communities in Karamoja (Uganda), the NGO Save the Children promoted an initiative to foster understanding between the local authorities and the Karamojong community, which follows traditional herding practices, in order to tackle the issue of illiteracy affecting 90 per cent of the population. An alternative education system was designed as part of this initiative, providing lessons at the beginning and end of the day for children involved in traditional herding activities, and also accommodating those parents who want to learn. This alternative education system, managed jointly by local communities and district authorities, provides students an opportunity to enter the formal school system, and has thus enabled Karamojong children to receive a formal education. E. Autonomy and self-management 36. Of particular importance to the development of indigenous peoples is their right “to autonomy or self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs, as well as ways and means for financing their autonomous functions” (article 4 of the United Nations