This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities. Agenda 21 recommends that states should consider the ratification and application of existing international conventions relevant to indigenous people and their communities (where not yet done) and provide support for the adoption by the General Assembly of a declaration on indigenous rights.
At the end of 1998, a working group set up by the United Nations (UN) Commission on Human Rights ended another annual period of sessions without approving a single clause of the 45-point draft declaration under discussion. The UN Declaration on the Rights of the World's Indigenous Peoples, drawn up by a commission of experts, has the unanimous support of the indigenous representatives participating in the working group. But a few governments, such as those of the United States, France, Japan and Brazil, have problems with the draft declaration's articles on peoples, self-determination and collective rights.