UN special rapporteur on the situation in human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people James Anaya arrived in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk territory on a two-day visit on Sunday. He will visit Evenki settlements and discuss local legislative initiatives in support of indigenous peoples, a source at the territorial administration told Itar-Tass.

Krasnoyarsk authorities are working on a bill, which will protect the habitat and traditional lifestyle of indigenous people. A working group made up of representatives of the territorial government, the legislative assembly, municipal authorities, indigenous people and the public is drafting the bill.

The bill will be discussed in local communities, so that it fully takes into account the interests of indigenous people. “We hope to consult James Anaya about this bill,” the source said.

“We will show him schools, hospitals and other social facilities built for indigenous people,” deputy head of the territorial administration’s department for external relations Igor Kurtushin told Itar-Tass. He noted that it would not be easy to visit the Evenki sites due to peculiar weather patterns. The villages can be reached by helicopter, and weather is too bad for flying sometimes, he said.

Indigenous people amount to 0.6 percent of the population of the Krasnoyarsk territory (16,400, including 9,500 living in the Taimyr municipality and 4,000 in the Evenki municipality). The regional authorities spent 84 million rubles in support of indigenous people this year.

The Commission on Human Rights decided to appoint in 2001 a Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, as part of the system of thematic special procedures. The Special Rapporteur’s mandate was renewed by the Commission on Human Rights in 2004 and by the Human Rights Council, which replaced the Commission, in 2007.

On 26 March 2008, the Human Rights Council appointed Professor S. James Anaya (United States of America), for an initial period of three years. Professor Anaya is the James J. Lenoir Professor of Human Rights Law and Policy at the University of Arizona (United States).

Anaya started his Russian visit on October 5 at the invitation of Russian authorities.

“I will investigate and report on the major challenges faced by indigenous peoples of the country in the enjoyment of their human rights,” Anaya said announcing his twelve-day mission, “with a view toward contributing to steps to address those problems, as well as to identify goo d practices.”

It is the first mission by a UN independent expert monitoring the rights of indigenous people to the Russian Federation, where there are over 40 officially recognized indigenous peoples, comprising more than a quarter of a million persons (about 2% of the total population) located mainly in the North, Siberia and Far East parts of Russia.

The Special Rapporteur will travel to Moscow, Khanty-Mansiysk, Krasnoyarsk, and Khabarovsk to hold discussions with government representatives, indigenous communities and civil society groups on the human rights of indigenous peoples.

A press conference will be held in Moscow at the conclusion of the Special Rapporteur’s visit – on Friday, 16 October 2009, with additional information to follow – and the Special Rapporteur will present the visit’s findings in a forthcoming session of the Human Rights Council.

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Russia’s Indigenous Minorities Organize to Resist Moscow’s Policies

By MariUver, http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13916...

7th August 2009

Russia’s numerically small indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East are marking the International Day of Indigenous Peoples this weekend with expressions of concern about the ways in which Moscow’s policies threaten their survival and with efforts at creating organizations to resist those policies by attracting support from abroad.

In recent years, the leaders of these communities say, Russian government policy has taken away “the means of existence” from the roughly 250,000 members of these communities even while Moscow continues to “proudly” but falsely claim in international for a that it supports them.

Changes in Russian legislation to allow for commercial exploitation of the natural wealth of the regions where these communities have lived “from time immemorial,” the leaders of these small and dispersed ethnic groups say, have “taken the ground from under their feet” and left them with little or no chance to survive.

Fishing and hunting have been privatized, with outsiders often gaining exclusive rights to what had been the basis of the subsistence economies of these peoples even in Soviet times. And any concessions to the native peoples, their leaders say, have been “laughable:” In one case, for example, local people have been allowed to catch only 2.5 kilograms of fish per person per year.

Despite that, the local leaders say, “our government proudly declares to the entire world that it is successfully carrying out the Action Plan for Conducting the Second International Decade of Indigenous Peoples of the World (2005-2014) and has already developed a Plan for the implementation of the Conception of Stable Development” for these groups.

“But the indigenous peoples know that you cannot survive on plans alone” and that it is important that “you have the right tomorrow to catch a fish or hunt for a rabbit. But the indigenous peoples of Russia have been deprived of these rights.” And as a result, what is supposed for them to be a happy holiday is a bitter one instead.
Some of the indigenous peoples together with their allies and friends in the ecology movement are taking action. Yesterday, the No Reservoir [plotina.net] Ecological Organization of Krasnoyarsk announced plans to create a Council for the Stable Development of Evenkia.

The group, which has been fighting Moscow’s plans to build a hydroelectric dam that will flood much of the traditional land of the Evenks and which has been accused of “extremism” by the backers of the project, has put out a draft plan entitled “Evenkia without the Giant Hydro-Electric Dam: The Path to Stable Development of the Region.”

That 22-page document, available at www.plotina.net/pdf/Evenkia_bez_EvGES.pdf, not only challenges the claim of the backers of the dam that only its construction can serve as “a locomotive for the development of the economy of this northern region” but also offers an alternative vision that would allow the Evenks and other numerically small peoples to survive.

In the course of laying out their plans, the ecologists expressed the hope that “the preliminary materials for the program of the stable development of Evenkia will serve as a stimulus to the working out of new ideas concerning the means of the further development of all the northern territories of Siberia.

Like most ecologists around the world, the Krasnoyarsk group believes that “the economic development of the northern Siberian regions presupposes the rapprochement of nature and society, the combination of contemporary achievements of science and technology with the beauty of nature and not its destruction in the name of an abstract economic result.

In issuing this draft document, the Plotina Ecological Organization called on all interested individuals and groups around the world to “take part in the discussion of the materials” their draft contains and to join the Council for the Stable Development of Evenkia by send an email to evenkia [at] plotina [dot] net.

Paul Goble
Scott Klinger
Director of Corporate Engagement
First Peoples Worldwide
3307 Bourbon St.
Fredericksburg, VA 22408

Phone: +1 (540) 899-6545

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UN expert on Indigenous People concludes visit to the Russian Federation

Media Statement

16 October 2009

MOSCOW / GENEVA — “I am impressed by the several initiatives by the Government of the Russian Federation and regional governments to address the concerns of the country’s small-numbered indigenous peoples,” stated James Anaya, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, as he concluded his visit to Russia.

“Significant challenges remain, however, to consolidate and effectively implement these initiatives for the benefit of these indigenous peoples,” he added.

Over the past two weeks, the Special Rapporteur met with Government authorities at the federal and regional levels, representatives and members of indigenous communities and organizations in Moscow and in the regions of Khanty-Mansiysk, Krasnoyarsk and Khabarovsk.

In each region, he carried out a number of field trips to meet with members of indigenous communities living in remote compact settlements or isolated dwellings.

The Special Rapporteur expresses his gratitude to the Government of the Russian Federation and to the regional authorities of the Khanty-Mansiysk, Krasnoyarsk and Khabarovsk regions for providing support in the planning and carrying out of his visit. He also thanks the Senior Human Rights Advisor to the United Nations country team in Russia for coordinating essential aspects of the visit.

In his preliminary observations on his visit, the Special Rapporteur notes that the Concept Paper on the Sustainable Development of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation, which the Federal Government issued in February of this year, provides an important impetus for advancing the rights of indigenous peoples and for overcoming their disadvantage in social and economic spheres.

The Special Rapporteur observes that several important framework laws are in place at the federal level to address the concerns of indigenous peoples, including in regard to lands and natural resources and the preservation and development of their distinctive cultures. At the same time he encourages steps to implement these laws and harmonize them effectively with other laws and development policies that favor commercial development of natural resources.

Also significant are the laws and programs at the regional level focusing on indigenous peoples.

The Special Rapporteur learned of a number of situations in which indigenous peoples have access to formal education and health services, are able to pursue traditional economic activities such as reindeer herding, and benefit from programs that advance their cultural preservation and economic and social development.

However, he also learned that indigenous peoples in many places continue to suffer from poverty, unemployment, and related social ills, and face impediments to their access to traditional economic activities and effective participation in the decisions affecting them. It is obvious to the Special Rapporteur that, as elsewhere in the world, indigenous peoples in Russia continue to require special attention, and he encourages the efforts of the federal and regional governments in this regard.

Furthermore, he calls upon the Federal and regional governments to strengthen their efforts to secure the rights of indigenous peoples and to enhance indigenous peoples participation in the design and implementation of the programs intended to benefit them. The Special Rapporteur added that further research and exchange of information would be needed to more completely understand the situation of indigenous peoples in Russia.

The Special Rapporteur stresses the importance of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a benchmark for the development of government policies and action regarding indigenous peoples. He notes that the Government of the Russian Federation has stated its support for most of the provisions of the Declaration and encourages the Government to further consider its position on the Declaration, in a spirit of cooperation and strengthening of the rights of indigenous peoples.

ENDS

The Commission on Human Rights decided to appoint in 2001 a Special
Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, as part of the system of thematic special procedures.

The Special Rapporteur’s mandate was renewed by the Commission on Human Rights in 2004 and by the Human Rights Council, which replaced the Commission, in 2007.

On 26 March 2008, the Human Rights Council appointed Professor James Anaya (United States of America), for an initial period of three years.

Professor Anaya is the James J. Lenoir Professor of Human Rights Law and Policy at the University of Arizona (United States).

Learn more about the mandate of the Special Rapporteur:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/indigenous/rapporteur/

OHCHR Country page – Russian Federation:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/ENACARegion/Pages/RUIndex.aspx

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights – Media Unit
Rupert Colville, Spokesperson: + 41 22 917 9767
Xabier Celaya, Information Officer: + 41 22 917 9383

For inquiries and media requests: press-info [at] ohchr [dot] org