Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in Contemporary Russia.

Ruslan GaripovVisiting Scholar & Adjunct Professorial Lecturer

AU WCL & AU SISApril 16, 2015

68,000 km2

(26,254.9 sq mi)3,822,038 inhabitants

Russia

Kazan

Republic of Tatarstan

KAZAN (VOLGA REGION) FEDERAL UNIVERSITY

Found in 1804by Emperor Alexander I

• Leo Tolstoy;• Nikolay Lobachevski;• Vladimir Lenin.

• Now – 50 000 students

• First visit to the US as a Fulbright Scholar in 2007;

• Second Visit in 2011 as AU WCL Visiting Scholar;

• Third time, since 2014.

Former American Indian Museum Director Navajo Nation Reservation, 2007Richard West, 2007

Director of Indian Law Resource Center Armstrong Wiggins, 2011

American Indian Museum Director

Kevin Gover, 2014

Kimberly Tehee, Senior Adviser to the US President, White House, 2011

Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Protection in Russia and the US (Ruslan Garipov ed., Tatar State University of Humanities and Education, 2010)

Indigenous Peoples’ Protection in International Law (Ruslan Garipov ed., Kazan Federal University, 2012)

Interest to American Indians.The Russian colonization of the Americas covers the period from 1732 to1867

Russians-Natives contacts in Alaska andFort Ross (California)

“Terra Nullius” or Principle of “Discovery”

In 1872 Duke Alexey Alexandrovich Romanov visited America

General G. Custer and Buffalo Bill

In the Buffalo Bill’s show “Wild West” alongside with the American Indian’s part of show Russian Cossacks part was very popular.

Louis Armand, Baron de Lahontan (1666 –1716) The book “Dialogs”

Adario

The ideas of free life among “noble savages” were brought from America to Europe in XVII – XVIII Centuries and became an inspiration for the famous philosophers, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 – 1778), and revolutionary leaders around the world.Russia wasn’t an exception.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

"I am convinced that those societies (as the Indians) which live without government enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live under the European governments"

Nicolai Ivanovich Fechin (1881-1955)He was born in Kazan and immigrated later to the USA.

Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947)

Author of the Roerich Pact, 1935 Protection of Artistic and Scientific Institutions and Historic Monuments

Gojko Mitic

German writers: Karl May, Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich

American writers: James Willard Schultz, James Fenimore Cooper, Thomas Mayne Reid, Henry Longfellow“Red Westerns” produced by DEFA Studios (GDR) as a part of anti-American propaganda.

Toys from GDR

Propaganda results

Population of the Russian Population of the Russian FederationFederation

Population in millions, 2015

501

1394

127 143

322

EU China Japan Russia United States

Almost 200 different ethnic groups.

More than 80% of population are Russians.

Others are: Tatars, Ukrainians, Chechens, Bashkirs, Chuvash, Yakuts, Nenets, Chukchies and so on.

• Titular Nation (Russians);

• Titular Nations (in Republics);

• Indigenous Minority Peoples

(Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples)

400 (0,3%) 48 – 60% of territories;

• National Minorities.

Conquest of the Kazan Khanate Ivan Terrible (Tsar of Russia)

In 1552 Kazan was taken by storm of Russian armies under command of Ivan Grozny (Terrible) and annexed to Russian state

North, Siberia and Far East (except 4 ethnic groups) – very strong weather conditions.Traditional way of life – hunting, fishing, gathering and reindeer-breeding. Nomads.

Only 8% of the Russian population live in areas of “Indigenous Minority Peoples”. However, in these areas are concentrated a majority of Russian natural resources (97% of gas, 80% of oil, 100% of diamonds).

RUSSIAN INDIGENOUS MINORITY PEOPLES

•To live in their historical territory;•To preserve traditional way of life, occupations, and trades;•To self-recognize themselves as a separate ethnicity•There should be at most 50,000 of population within Russia.---------------------------------------------------Federal law about Guaranties of Indigenous Minorities Rights in Russian Federation 1999.

Russian Constitution (1993), article 69:“The Russian Federation shall guarantee the rights of the indigenous

minority peoples according to the universally recognized principles and norms of international law and international treaties and agreements of

the Russian Federation.”

International Regulation• ILO Indigenous and Tribal Populations Convention № 107 (1957) and № 169 (1989);

• The UN Second Decade 2005-2014;

• UN PFII;

• Expert Mechanism, UNHRC;

• Arctic Council.

Domestic Legal Regulation in Russia

• RFL “About Guarantees of the Rights of Indigenous Minority Peoples of the Russian Federation”, 1999.• RFL “About General Principles of Communities’ Organization of Indigenous Minorities of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation”, 2000.• RFL “About Territories of Traditional Nature Use of the Indigenous Minorities of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation”, 2001.

Field Trip

Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug

Nenets National Village “Harampur”, April 2012

Nenets in the city Tarko-Sale, April 2012

Mining Companies and Indigenous Peoples

Environmental pollution

Cultural damage

The Regional Administration building in Tarko-Sale, April 2012

Regional Nenets NGO building “Yamal for Future Generations”, April 2012

Just a fact: in 2012 the federal budget gave 240 million rubles to the needs of indigenous minority peoples,

and spent 275 million rubles on the pyrotechnic show at the APEC Summit in Vladivostok.

And only in March 13, 2013 the Ministry of Justice issued the document

about reactivation of the RAIPON.

In November 2012 the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of

the North, Siberia and the Far East was suspended by Russia’s Ministry of

Justice.

RAIPON – Grigory Ledkov (from March, 2013) Sergey Kharyuchi (before March, 2013)

Conflict with Ministry of Regional Development

UN PFIIArctic Council Pavel Sulyandziga

opposition leader

Sami People

There are approximately from 60 до 80 thousands of people:

• In Norway: 40 000 (ILO 169)• In Sweden: 20 000• In Finland: 10 000• In Russia: 2 000

Sami Parliaments

February 6 – Sami Day

 

Norway Sweden Finland Russia1. Sami

Population

 40 000  20 000  10 000  2 000

2. Legal Status

Indigenous People

National Minority

Indigenous People

Indigenous Minority People

3. Reference in Constitution

Yes (110a) No Yes (17, 121)  Yes (69)

4. ILO 169 Ratification

 Yes (1990)  No  No  No

5. Cross-Border Cooperation

 Yes  Yes  Yes  Limited

 6. Reindeer Herding Exclusive Right

 Yes  Yes  No  No

 7. Sami Parliament

 Yes  Yes (more dependable from the state)

Yes  No

Thank you for your attention!Ruslan Garipov

garipov@american.edu

www.ruslangaripov.com

In boarding-school with Nenets children, Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, April 2012.

CONCLUSIONS:

• Territories and Resources • Specific Definition• Weak domestic law• International law abstention• Corruption • Pressure on NGO activists

• Borders for indigenous minority peoples’ territories;• Ecological and Ethnological expert examination before extraction;• Principle “Duty to Consult”;• ILO Convention № 169, the UN Declaration of 2007, Nordic Sami Convention.