2 5. In its Advisory Opinion OC-16/99 (The Right to Information on Consular Assistance within the Framework of the Guarantees of Due Process) the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights held that “the interpretation of a treaty must take into account not only the agreements and instruments related to the treaty (...) but also the system of which it is part” (par. 113). It cited the International Court of Justice, which found that “an international instrument has to be interpreted and applied within the framework of the entire legal system prevailing at the time of the interpretation.” (Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence of South Africa in Namibia (South West Africa), Notwithstanding Security Council Resolution 276 (1970), Advisory Opinion, I.C.J. Reports 1971, p. 16 ad 31). This is precisely what the Inter-American Court has done in the judgment it delivered on the instant case. 6. Various international instruments on the life, culture and rights of indigenous peoples call for explicit recognition of their legal institutions, one of them being the concepts of property once and still prevalent among them. The review of these texts was informed by a wide array of beliefs, experiences and requirements. The finding was that the documents were legitimate and that the land tenure systems must be respected. It necessarily follows, then, that those systems must be recognized and protected. In the final analysis, the individual rights of indigenous persons and the collective rights of their peoples fit into the regime created by the more general instruments on human rights that apply to all persons, as illustrated by the texts of the more specific instruments for which there exists an ever broader and more robust consensus. This information is useful, if not indispensable, for an interpretation of those Convention provisions that the Court must apply. 7. Geneva Convention No. 169 Concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries was adopted by the 76th General Conference of the International Labour Organisation (Geneva, 1989) out of a concern for the survival of indigenous and tribal peoples’ cultures and the institutions that their cultures have produced and protect. It provides that “governments shall respect the special importance for the cultures and spiritual values of the peoples concerned of their relationship with the lands or territories, or both as applicable, which they occupy or otherwise use, and in particular the collective aspects of this relationship.” (Article 13(1)). The Convention also provides that “[T]he rights of ownership and possession of the peoples concerned over the lands which they traditionally occupy shall be recognised.” (Article 14(1)). 8. The Draft Declaration on Discrimination against Indigenous Peoples, prepared by the United Nations Economic and Social Council’s Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities (E/CN.4/Sub.2/1994/2/Add.1, 20 April 1994) makes clear reference to these very same issues and sets the standards that the international juridical community is to observe in matters bearing upon indigenous peoples and the members of their communities. Article 4 stipulates the following: “Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen (...) their legal systems (...)”. Article 25 provides that “Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinctive spiritual and material relationship with the lands, territories, waters and coastal seas and other resources which they have traditionally owned or otherwise occupied or used, and to uphold their responsibilities to future generations in this regard.” In Article 26, the Draft Declaration recognizes indigenous peoples’ right to “own, develop, control and use the lands and territories,” and adds the following: “This includes the right to the full recognition of their laws, traditions and customs, land-tenure systems (...) and the