Resolution of the “5^th Congress of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation” (excerpts)

A complete version of the resolution will be posted soon.

The delegates of the 5^th Congress of the indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East, plenipotentiary representatives of the 40 indigenous peoples of the Russian Federation, noted these negative consequences of modern social, economic and political processes:

• the destruction of the social infrastructure and the public system of medical, cultural, goods, social and transport provision in the places inhabited by the Northern indigenous peoples, as a result of which the indigenous peoples involved in reindeer herding and handicrafts, leading a permanent nomadic or semi-nomadic way of life, were completely isolated;
• a deep crisis in the traditional branches of economy, which form the basic life-support of the Northern peoples, as a result of ill-considered and swift privatisation of the main traditional means of production;
• a decrease of the amount of the indigenous peoples pursuing traditional occupations, as a result of which a general, permanent unemployment is noticed, which has led to impoverishment, abrupt increase of morbidity, especially through tuberculosis, and, as a consequence, to a mortality increase and a reduction of the life expectancy for Northern indigenous peoples;
• the non-effectiveness of the state measures on the preservation and support of Northern indigenous, regardless of the high vulnerability of the culture, language and ethnic identity of those peoples under the conditions of globalisation, which has brought over ten ethnic groups onto verge of disappearance, and led to the decrease of five indigenous peoples – an irreversible threat and cultural loss not only for the Russian Federation, but also for the global civilisation;
• the lack of the mechanism to implement Northern indigenous peoples’ rights, guaranteed in the Constitution and the federal legislation of the Russian Federation in the domains of land use regulation, self-government, development of traditional occupations and cultures; there is no well-considered system of regional and branch laws and other normative legislation, which has made it impossible to implement the declared rights.
• In order to safeguard the legal rights and interests of indigenous peoples under market economic conditions, it is essential to create additional mechanisms for ecological security to account for the industrial exploitation of traditional residence and nature use areas of indigenous peoples:
• regulate land and nature use of the indigenous peoples, providing gratuitous long-term use of land and traditional natural resources, which is essential for the preservation and development of their traditional way of life;
• regulate assessment and legal regulations concerning the negative impact of industrial use of natural resources as well as land confiscation for state and municipal purposes in traditional residence and nature use areas of indigenous peoples;
• regulate social and economic development of the indigenous peoples and eliminate their unemployment through state support of modern development of the traditional livelihoods, like thorough reshaping of reindeer herding, fishing, sea fishing, gathering of wild plants and handicraft, and the marketing of their products;
• take into consideration the uniqueness of the traditional way of life and culture of the indigenous peoples when organizing medical services, the education system and other social services;
• regulate the representation of indigenous peoples in public authorities so that the indigenous peoples in their residence areas can be represented in electoral committees and can nominate deputy candidates and recommend people from their communities to be included in the corresponding party lists.

The delegates addressed with their requisitions and suggestions:


To the President of the Russian Federation

… to safeguard protection of the indigenous people’s rights to lands and natural resources in the area of their traditional residence and traditional occupations according to universally recognised rules of international law, international treaties and the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Do not let our lands become the object of purchase and sale and destructive exploitation of natural resources.

…to establish the institution of a Plenipotentiary on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples of the Russian Federation. Suggest that the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation ratify the ILO Convention #169 of 1989 Concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries.

…hold detailed assessments of ecological, economical and social impact of state programme implementation on the development of oil and gas deposits on the territories of the North, Siberia and Far East and the adjacent shelf on the environment and traditional way of life of the indigenous peoples and numerically small ethnic communities.

…to recommend that the Plenipotentiary Representatives of the President of the Russian Federation in the North-Western and Ural federal districts create advisory expert councils to deal with the problems of the indigenous peoples, which would include plenipotentiary representatives of the peoples of the North.

… not to allow to the import of nuclear waste products on the territories of residence and economic activities of the peoples of the North.


To the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation

… to ratify ILO Convention #169 of 1989 Concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries.

… to develop and adopt Federal Laws:

• “On the Protection of the environment and traditional way of life of the indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and Far East of the Russian Federation”, and
• “On the Plenipotentiary Representative of the Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and Far East of the Russian Federation” taking into consideration the decision of the 5th Congress of the Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and Far East of the Russian Federation on the recognition of RAIPON as the plenipotentiary representative of the indigenous peoples.

… to create by the President of the State Duma of the Russian Federation an Advisory Expert Council for Northern indigenous peoples’ issues; this council should include as members the leaders of the peoples of the North and delegates of legislative (representative) bodies of the administrative units of the RF from among indigenous peoples and relevant experts.

… to accelerate the development and adoption of federal laws and normative acts regulating issues of vital importance for the indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and Far East of the Russian Federation concerning the following domains:

• reindeer herding;
• hunting and commercial hunting;
• preservation and support of cultures and languages of the peoples of the North;
• forming plenipotentiary representative bodies of the peoples of the North (including a Parliament of indigenous peoples),
• development of traditional forms of self-government of the indigenous peoples;
• preservation of cultural and spiritual heritage;
• education and health protection.

… abolish the rules of the Federal Law #122, which confine indigenous peoples’ rights and are in conflict with the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

… define the order of representation of the indigenous peoples in the legislative and executive bodies at federal, regional and local levels.

… provide the right of defining one’s ethnic identity in the identification documents of  Russian citizens.

… make changes and amendments to the federal laws on the rights of the indigenous peoples to the federal and regional legislation, in accordance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation, including:

• to the federal law “On Nonprofit Organisations” in order to assign to the communities of the indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and Far East of the Russian Federation the status of a legal entity;
• to the federal law “On General Principles of Organisation of the Indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and Far East of the Russian Federation” in order to assign to the communities the status of an organ of territorial, social self-government of Northern peoples and an economic entity, corresponding to the traditional functions of unions of the Northern peoples;
• to the federal legislation on local self-government to preserve municipal formations with a population below 1000 inhabitants in traditional residence areas of Northern indigenous peoples;
• to the labour legislation of the Russian Federation changes should be made to decrease of uninterrupted length of service in order to set privileged pensions for reindeer herders from 25 to 20 years and restore the northern guarantees and compensations in it, envisaged by the law of the Russian Federation “On Government Guarantees and Compensations for Individuals Working and Living in the far North and equivalent areas”;
• to the federal legislation on natural resources – Land Code, Forest Code, Water Code, the laws “On Subsoil”, “On the animal world”, “On the Continental Shelf”, “On Strictly Protected Natural Areas”, “Agricultural Land Market Act” – the necessary changes and amendments ensuring gratuitous, long-term and priority land and natural resources use, which are essential for the preservation and development of the traditional way of life of the indigenous peoples and providing compensation when confiscating those lands and resources, making amendments for the damage caused by the activities of enterprises and organisations of all property forms.
• to create a legal basis for the development of contractual relations between the representatives of the indigenous peoples, their organisations and economic entities of any property form in the traditional areas of the indigenous peoples.
• to establish rules in the federal legislation to limit commercial involvement of indigenous peoples’ traditional areas.
• to develop and adopt the federal law “On Making Amendments and Addenda to the Law ‘On Education’ (‘On State Support of the Educational Institutions Located in the Agricultural Areas of the North, Siberia and Far East’).
• to make changes and amendments to the federal laws regulating the legal status of the indigenous peoples in the legal documents regulating the protection of original human environment and traditional way of life.
• to add ‘territorial-adjacent communities’ to the list of types of indigenous communities in articles 217 and 238 of the Tax Code according to the Federal Law “On General Organisational Principles for the Communities of the Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and Far East of the Russian Federation”.
  
  
  

To the Government of the Russian Federation

… to develop and adopt the Conception of State National Policy toward the indigenous peoples.

… to develop the Conception of Sustainable Development of the indigenous peoples.

… to consider creating an executive authority to implement the state national policy toward the indigenous peoples to solve their social and economic problems and to regulate their social and labour rights to safeguard their traditional way of life.

… to revise and supplement the governmental resolution “On the list of the residence areas of the indigenous peoples of the North” taking into consideration the suggestions of the regional governments and RAIPON.

… to develop the necessary normative acts for the implementation of the federal law “On the Territories of Traditional Nature Use of the indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and Far East of the Russian Federation” of 11 May 2001.

… to make the necessary changes and amendments to the federal laws on natural resources, aimed at providing environmental security, and to give an adequate compensation for the damage done to the original natural human environment and traditional way of life of the indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and Far East.

… to make the necessary changes and amendments to the Land Code and to the federal “Agricultural Land Market Act” in order to ensure gratuitous, long-term and priority land and natural resources use, which are essential for the preservation and development of the traditional way of life of the indigenous peoples.

… to make the necessary changes and amendments to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation in order to ensure gratuitous, long-term and priority land and natural resources use, which are essential for the preservation and development of the traditional way of life of the indigenous peoples.

… to bring in line with the federal legislation the normative acts related to the distribution of quotas and licenses, hunting and fishing rules, to provide guarantees for indigenous peoples’ right to a prioritised use of living resources.

… to develop and confirm the methods of defining the damage and losses caused to the aboriginal habitat, traditional way of life and land use of the indigenous peoples by the activities of industrial companies, as well as land confiscation for state and municipal purposes.

… to develop and confirm the order of defining the damage and losses caused to the aboriginal habitat, traditional way of life and land use of the indigenous peoples by the activities of industrial companies, as well as land confiscation for state and municipal purposes.

… to develop and confirm the order of making amendments for the damage and losses caused to the aboriginal habitat, traditional way of life and land use of the indigenous peoples by the activities of industrial companies, as well as land confiscation for state and municipal purposes.

… to define the order of deduction from the profits of industrial companies involved in the activities related to resource use and the order of making amends for the damage done to the traditional way of life and land use, as well as the lost profit to the economies of the indigenous peoples.

… to develop a federal regulation on measures of state support for the traditional economic occupations of the indigenous peoples.

… to define the order of participation of RAIPON as the plenipotentiary representative of the indigenous peoples in development and decision-making on issues related to the protection of original human environment and traditional way of life.

… to approve the order of annual adjustment of volume and objects of financing from the federal target programme “Social-Economic Development of the Indigenous Peoples of the North up to 2011” taking into consideration the suggestions of RAIPON and regional indigenous peoples’ organisations.

… to form an executive board of directors of the programme which includes indigenous peoples’ representatives.

… to develop and adopt a statement on the plenipotentiary of indigenous peoples in pursuance of the federal law “On the Guarantees of the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples of the Russian Federation”.

… to make amendments to the regulation of the government of the RF No. 7 of 5 January 2001, related to funds for the regions of the Russian Federation having on their territory indigenous peoples, and of the right to indicate a person’s ethnic affiliation according to his/her desire.

… to introduce the practice of discussing and adopting an annual national report on the state of the indigenous peoples.

… to introduce annual statistics accounts of the social and economic development of the urban and rural indigenous population.

…to support the development of languages, education, culture and science of the Northern indigenous peoples, to develop and adopt a state target programme that would envisage the introduction of a continuous educational system, a programme of preservation, revival and development of the cultures, that would stipulate the creation of ethnic culture centres in the areas inhabited by the peoples of the North.

… to consider a prolongation of the registration period and recording of unemployment among indigenous representatives who live in remote places.

… to add the words “and ethnic groups” to the title of “List of the indigenous peoples of the Russian Federation” and include the Izhma-Komi reindeer herders in it.

… to work out a state programme concerning a “mobile” model of industrial development of natural resources in the traditional indigenous residence and activity areas.

… to create a national committee on the 2^nd International Decade of the Indigenous Peoples of the World with representatives of the indigenous peoples on parity terms and suggest that the authorities of the indigenous residence areas create corresponding local committees.

… to develop and adopt a comprehensive activity plan for the implementation of the 2^nd International Decade of the Indigenous Peoples of the World, taking into consideration the suggestions of  the indigenous NGOs.

… to speed up the ratification process of the ILO Convention #169 of 1989 Concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries.

… to propose the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages for ratification by the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.

… to reconsider the development and implementation of the federal target programme “Social-Economic Development of the Indigenous Peoples of the North up to 2011”, to increase its funding using resources of the Stabilisation Fund and to strengthen the control over its intended use.

… to restore the programme “Children of the North”, financing the support of indigenous children and youth.

… to create a special body (committee or department) in the health and social security system to provide the development and implementation of measures on health protection and social security for the rural population of remote and poorly accessible Northern regions.

… to include ethnic and national educational problems of indigenous peoples on the priority list of the Ministry of Education and Science and develop a federal target programme concerning the development of education from 2006 to 2010 to increase the quality of education by modernizing the educational systems of the regions.

… to include a section of education and staff training on the federal target programme “Social-Economic Development of the Indigenous Peoples of the North up to 2011”.

… to define development goals of educational programmes for the Ministry of Education and Science, that would take into consideration the traditional nomadic or semi-nomadic way of life of the Northerners; to provide necessary funding for publishing schoolbooks and fiction in the indigenous languages.

… within the framework of the federal programme “The Russian Language”, to monitor the linguistic situation for creating a glossary of the languages of the peoples, which will reflect their current social, linguistic, educational and cultural state.

… to prevent the reduction of grant applications to the main universities of the Russian Federation, in order to train specialists from among the indigenous peoples in the priority issues of their regions.

… to include the Herzen State Pedagogical University in the list of national universities of Russia; to preserve the plan of enrolment to the university of grant students (matriculated to the university at the place of grant issuing) for the regions at the level of 2004; to envisage funding the staff development programme by the Herzen Institute for the Northern peoples.

… to preserve the unique federal scientific Institute of Ethnic Educational Issues as an autonomous juridical person financed from the federal budget to develop the regions.

… to charge the Ministry of Agriculture to take into consideration RAIPON’s suggestions when preparing the decree “On the Order of Aquatious Harvesting Aimed at Safeguarding a Traditional Way of Life and Traditional Occupations” for the following year.

… to recommend the Federal Agency of Physical Fitness and Sports to include in their programmes annual ethnic sports competitions for indigenous children and youth, as well as art and crafts regional festivals to support health and bring up the children according to their ethnic traditions.


The delegates also addressed to the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation, the bodies of state authorities of the Russian Federation subjects, the Russian and international NGO’s and to the RAIPON with their requisitions and suggestions.

The resolution was adopted by the 5^th Congress of the Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and Far East of the Russian Federation on 13 April 2005, supplemented by the Congress delegates’ suggestions and published on 6 June 2005.