Lumad could not exercise their right to culture in community with those who remained there. 101. Article 2798 of the UNICCPR provides for the right of ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities to enjoy their own culture, profess and practice their own religion, and to use their own language.99 These rights are held by individuals, but exercised “in community with other members of the group,” thereby providing some measure of collectivity.100 102. Article 27 makes no literal reference to IPs. Although indigenous representatives assert that they are more than minorities,101 UN practice shows it has been treating IPs as minorities. Their concerns have been taken up by the UN Human Rights Council’s Sub-commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. Thus, the jurisprudence of the Human Rights Committee, the body that monitors States’ compliance with the UNICCPR, deals mostly with claims raised by indigenous groups when interpreting Article 27.102 In its own General Comment No. 23, the UNHRC said: With regard to the exercise of the cultural rights protected under article 27, the Committee observes that culture manifests itself in many forms, including a particular way of life associated with the use of land resources, especially in the case of IPs. That right may include such traditional activities as fishing or hunting and the right to live in reserves protected by law.103 103. The content of the rights of IPs and minorities and their issues materially overlap and converge;104 hence, an indigenous group may be simultaneously a people and a minority.105 104. The Commission further affirms, as did the Inter-American Court of 98 The Human Rights Committee in interpreting Article 27 of the ICCPR issued General Comment 23 (par. 6.1) explaining that while the article is expressed in negative terms, it nevertheless recognizes the existence of a ‘right’ and a State party is under an obligation to ensure that the existence and the exercise of this right are protected against their denial or violation. Positive measures of protection are, therefore, required not only against the acts of the State party itself, whether through its legislative, judicial or administrative authorities, but also against the acts of other persons within the State party. 99 Other relevant ICCPR articles include: the right to life (6); freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (7); the right to liberty and security of person and freedom from arbitrary arrest or detention (9); the right of all persons deprived of their liberty, to be treated with humanity and respect (10); the right to be equal before the courts, including the right to a fair and public hearing and the right to free legal aid and assistance of an interpreter (14); the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion (18), the right of every child to protective measures as required for minors (24). 100 Fergus Mac Kay, A Briefing on Indigenous People’s Rights and the United Nations’ Human Rights Committee, 2001, accessed on 5.12.2015 at www.forestpeoples.org/sites/fpp/files/publication/2010/10/unhrcfppbriefdec01 101 Patrick Thornberry, Minority and indigenous in 2 ETHNICITIES (No. 4) 515, 517 (2002). Gudmundur Alfredsson, Minorities, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples and Peoples, in MINORITIES, PEOPLES, AND SELF-DETERMINATION 163-172 (Ghanea and Xanthaki, eds., 2005) (arguing that IPs are minorities but more than minorities, they are peoples. 102 Martin Scheinin, Indigenous Peoples’ Land Rights Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Torkel Oppsahls minneseminar, Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo, at 4, 28 April 2004, available at http:// www.galdu.org/govat/doc/ind_peoples_land_rights.pdf. 103 UN Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 23: The Rights of Minorities (Art. 27), CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.5 (04/08/1994), para. 3.2. 104 James Anaya, International Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples: The Move Toward the Multicultural State, 21 AJICL 13, 21 (2004). 105 Alfredsson, supra note 260. 24