The formation of the United Nations draft Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples started in 1985 with the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations (WGIP), a working group of the then Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. With relaxed rules of participation and real enthusiasm among participants, the WGIP attracted up to 700 individuals; it grew to ‘one of the largest regular human rights meetings organised by the United Nations’ and ‘made indigenous peoples a permanent presence within that world-wide governmental organisation’. With the help of very supportive chairpersons, indigenous representatives had from the beginning almost equal rights to the states in expressing their views on the text. Initially comprising seven principles, the text gradually expanded into a Preamble with eighteen paragraphs and nine parts with forty-five operative clauses. After several changes the draft Declaration is an ambitious text that challenges state sovereignty at a deep level. It recognises a wide range of collective indigenous rights including: the right of self-determination; prohibition of genocide and ethnocide; a wide range of collective land rights including rights to natural resources; intellectual property rights; and the recognition of distinct indigenous political and judicial systems and self-government arrangements. Essentially it is the outcome of a ‘partnership between experts and indigenous peoples’. States gradually withdrew from the drafting process, attending in small numbers and often reluctant to engage in a dialogue on the provisions. In 1993 the WGIP members agreed on the final text of the draft Declaration.