Institutions and uploaded onto the SEANF Website for the Members’ future reference as well as for public consumption. 1.2 BACKGROUND ON GOOD PRACTICES IN PROMOTING AND PROTECTING THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN MALAYSIA The following study will highlight some of the initiatives taken in Malaysia that positively impact the rights of IP in the Country, for the purpose of the SEANF’s Project entitled ‘Good Practices in Promoting and Protecting the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’. It will begin by ascertaining who constitutes the IP of Malaysia, who are locally called the Orang Asal, based on definition given by domestic legal provisions, and which term will be used throughout this paper, where relevant. It will also look at the composition of the Orang Asal in Malaysia before it explores their way of life and current administration, as well as legal standing in the Country, in particular, the special position they are afforded by law. Subsequently, this study will highlight some of the existing measures that have been introduced in order to protect and advance the well-being of the Orang Asal, which have simultaneously enhanced the promotion and protection of their rights. While these will be mainly focused on the measures taken by the State, it will also highlight some of the programmes that have been implemented by certain nongovernmental institutions and organisations. However, in doing so, SUHAKAM takes stock of the experience of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMPRIP) in its study concerning the right to participate in decision making, 2 in which it encountered difficulty in defining what ‘good’ practices constituted in the context of its study, 3 as the Expert Mechanism could not verify whether all the ‘good’ practices it reported were “uncontroversial or objectively good in every respect”. 4 The Expert Mechanism qualifies this as follows: UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP), ‘Final study on indigenous peoples and the right to participate in decision-making - Report of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ (EMRIP, 2011) A/HRC/EMRIP/2011/2 <http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/IPeoples/EMRIP/AEVfinalreportStudyIPRightParticipate.pdf> 3 EMRIP (n.2), 3 4 EMRIP (n.2), 4 2 4