,;· r)6~ttEB rum,. Human and Peoples' Rights Human Rights our Collective Responsib1hty Charter also refers to historically organised ancestral communities such as the Maasai of Kedong. b) Kedong Maasai as an indigenous people 153. The Commission notes that since the Maasai of Kedong are a people, it is now necessary to determine whether they are an indigenous people. The Commission notes that the African Charter, although it refers to group rights, in particular in Articles 19 to 24, it does not provide a definition of whether it is an indigenous people or population. However, the Commission recalls that its Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities presented a report on the issue32. Based on this Report, the Commission issued an Opinion to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in which it presents the following criteria for identifying indigenous populations: i. Self-identification; ii. special connection to their traditional land through which their land and their ancestral territories assume fundamental importance for their collective physical and cultural survival as a population; iii. A situation of subjugation, marginalization, usurpation, exclusion or discrimination because these populations have cultures, ways of life or modes of production that are different from the hegemonic and dominant national model. 33 154. In the Report entitled Indigenous Peoples in Africa: Forgotten Peoples?, the Commission indicated that it does not intend to give "a definition of indigenous peoples, since there is no global consensus on a single universal definition, nor would such a definition be desirable or necessary." The Commission also considered that the issue of "aboriginality or 'who came first' is not a significant feature to identify indigenous peoples".34 155. In the same document, however, the Commission considered that the general characteristics of groups identifying themselves as indigenous peoples are that their cultures and ways of life differ considerably from those of the dominant society; that their cultures are threatened with extinction in some; that the survival of most of them depends on access to and rights to their traditional lands and the natural resources 32 Report of lhe African Commission Working Croup on Indigenous Populations/Communities ,dopted by lhe ' Resolution on Populations/Communities in Africa" during th~ 28th Ordina,y Session, 23 October to 6 November 2000, in Cotonou, Benin. 330pinion of the African Commission on Hum•n and Peoples' Rights on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of lndigenous Peo Commission on lluman and Peoples' Rights during it• 41st Ordina,y S.-ssion, held in M<1y 2ro7, in A«ra, Chana, page 4. ul 34 Indigenous populations in Africa: forgotten p('Ople? The work of lhe African Commission on indigenous peoples in Africa (2006), p. !!? :; Cl \ 0 "' ~ Clo,, .q. ,,.,~"'