Article 5 Measures to Safeguard Various Rights for reviewing these matters, is appointed by local leaders with no requirement for an open and transparent process. Given the absence of any oversight, decisions regarding important matters involving individual Indigenous property rights may be arbitrary or biased. Furthermore, while over 260,000 hectares of Indigenous land reserves exist, the Council of Indigenous Peoples has fewer than 30 staff members. This workforce is inadequate when compared to other land management authorities such as the Forestry Bureau and the National Property Administration, whose staff member totals range from the hundreds to the thousands. This results in a slow pace of rights allocation for Indigenous land reserves, negatively impacting the efficiency of rights allocation and severely affecting the land rights of Indigenous peoples. 70. For §§66–69, the NHRC recommends: (1) The NHRC asserts that the Indigenous Peoples Basic Law recognizes the right of indigenous peoples to their lands and natural resources. The definition of Indigenous lands explicitly includes traditional territories and existing indigenous land reserves and ensures the right of indigenous peoples to own, use, develop, and control their lands and resources. The government should acknowledge the profound relationship between Indigenous peoples and their lands and natural resources. It should thoroughly review and devise appropriate policies regarding Indigenous land and establish a comprehensive set of laws that aligns with the principles of the Indigenous Peoples Basic Law , ethnic autonomy, and cultural characteristics, thereby responding to the Indigenous peoples’ demand to restore and secure their land rights. (2) The government should re-evaluate and re-structure the existing Indigenous land reserve system, and grant it the appropriate legal status. It should invest in all the human and material resources needed to 49

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