12.09.2024

A joint side event of Arctida and ADC Memorial Brussels at the OSCE Human Rights Conference

Indigenous peoples in Russia are being criminalized and ruined, their rights violated by the state and mining companies

October 8, 2024, 13.30-14.30, hotel Sofitel Victoria, Warsaw, Opera room

The problems faced by Indigenous peoples in the Arctic zone of Russia will be discussed by the head of the NGO Arctida Ilya Shumanov and the independent experts from the Indigenous peoples’ movement.

Ilya Shumanov will present the latest findings of his team, related to the lobbyist role of the GONGO (funded by the mining companies) who through corrupt representatives of the Indigenous peoples call for a withdrawal of international sanctions against Nornickel (and similar Russian industrial forces). The independent experts from the Indigenous peoples’ movement will speak about the real situation of people living traditionally in Tundra and Taiga, where mining destroys the environment, poisons the water and air, and ruins their ability to hunt, fish and gather resources. Billions of rubles of the income received by companies like Nornickel and the Russian state in the Arctic are not shared with the Indigenous peoples; those who dare to criticize this robbery and destruction are labeled extremists and are criminalized by the state.