Part I The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Background, content and implementation It has been noted that indigenous peoples are “distinct from, yet joined to, larger units of social and political interaction”.98 Self-determination serves as a basis for those interactions and the meaningful participation of indigenous peoples facilitates effective, good-faith dialogue: The fundamental condition to realizing the right of self-determination in practice is trust between peoples. Trust is impossible without cooperation, dialogue and respect. Governments have nothing to fear from indigenous peoples; they can learn to respect and trust ... to be able to live together peacefully, without exploitation or domination [indigenous peoples and Governments] must continually renegotiate the terms of their relationship.99 Consequently, the recognition and promotion of indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination buttresses the processes of forming and maintaining constructive relations between indigenous peoples and States and facilitates mutual efforts to overcome legacies of historical injustice: [T]he right of self-determination of indigenous peoples should ordinarily be interpreted as their right to negotiate freely their status and representation in the State in which they live. This might best be described as a kind of “belated State-building”, through which indigenous peoples are able to join with all the other peoples that make up the State on mutually-agreed and just terms, after many years of isolation and exclusion. This does not mean the assimilation of indigenous individuals as citizens like all others, but the recognition and incorporation of distinct peoples in the fabric of the State, on agreed terms.100 There are many approaches to achieving effective implementation of the right to self-determination within the State context and the most effective are those that are developed in cooperation with indigenous peoples. Young Salaseca Indians in Ambato, Ecuador. UN Photo/Milton Grant. 98 J. Anaya, “The right of indigenous peoples to self-determination in the post-Declaration era” in Making the Declaration Work: The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, p. 193. 99 E. Daes, “Striving for self-determination for indigenous peoples” in In pursuit of the right to self-determination, Y. Kly and D. Kly, eds. (2000), p. 57. 100 E/CN.4/Sub.2/1993/26/Add.1, para. 26. Chapter 3: The content of the Declaration: Self-determination; autonomy; and participation, consultation and consent | 21