identity of minorities, ensures free expression, association and opportunity for cultural development association of minorities amongst themselves, as well as, ensuring that states allow for education about minorities. • The UN 1926 Slavery Convention or the Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery prevents slave trade and abolishes all forms of slavery. • The United Nations Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery is a more expansive document that covers situations such as bonded labor. • The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) which was acceded to by Pakistan in 1996, with reservations based on its Constitution. National Law and Policy As a beneficiary of donors, Pakistan is also bound to abide by provisions that safeguard the interest of indigenous communities. The World Bank states that it “…seeks to position excluded groups, such as the indigenous peoples, at the center of the development agenda.” It aims to give indigenous people the tools and capacity for self-development and realizes that the knowledge they hold may be critical to adapting to climate change (World Bank, 2014). Over the years, Pakistan has had a Ministry of Religious Affairs and Minority Affairs, a Minorities Affairs Division, Federal Advisory Council for Minority Affairs, District Minority Committees, a National Commission for Minorities, as well as, a National Committee on the Kalash People. These were all institutional frameworks to implement constitutional freedoms. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is more clear and extensive in its support for indigenous communities. “The ADB’s indigenous peoples safeguards aim to ensure that the design and implementation of projects foster full respect for indigenous peoples’ identity, dignity, human rights, livelihood systems, and cultural uniqueness as defined by the indigenous peoples themselves so that they receive culturally appropriate social and economic benefits, are not harmed by the projects, and can participate actively in projects that affect them” (ADB, 2014). 88 The 1973 Constitution was an improvement on the Constitutions of 1956 and 1961 because it provided for provincial autonomy and freedoms for ethnic minorities. However, even though ethnic minorities were mentioned, there was very little provision for ethnic minorities and indigenous cultural groups within provincial laws. Thus indigenous groups have to derive their individual and collective rights from the general articles of the Constitution that protect an individual’s freedom. Article 36 of the Pakistani Constitution obligates it to safeguard the interests of minorities and Article 38 makes the state responsible for taking steps to ensure social and economic equality. The National Resettlement Policy formed in 2002 places strict measures to preserve the communities of indigenous people and ensure fair compensation for any development schemes that adversely affect them. The third national report on the implementation of the CBD published in 2006 states that some goals have been established with regard to maintaining the socio-cultural diversity of local and indigenous communities. The Lok Virsa and the Pakistan National Council of Arts, as well as the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs have the institutional framework to carry Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC)

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