The European Parliament discussed the problems of Indigenous Peoples

 

February 4, 2025, Brussels

The European Parliament hosted a discussion “Exploitated Lands, oppressed peoples: discrimination and persecution of the Indigenous peoples of Siberia, the North and the Far East,“ co-organized by Anti–Discrimination Center Memorial Brussels and Rasa Jukneviciene, MEP from Lithuania. This meeting continued the cooperation between Ms. Yukneviciene‘s office and ADC Memorial, started on October 25, 2023, with the event in the EP “Opposition to Russian colonial pressure: voices of different peoples”. The discussion was led by Rasa Yukneviciene and Stefania Kulaeva (ADC Memorial). The speakers were activists of the movement for the protection of the rights of Indigenous peoples Vladislav Tannagashev, a founding member of the International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia, and Mark Zdor, a native of Chukotka, a member of the ICIPR and an anti-war activist, as well as Dirk Schubel, Head of Russia division, EEAS, and Anastasia Crickley, an expert on minority rights (former Chair of the UN CERD and the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, the OSCE and Council of Europe expert on minority rights). Before the discussion, a part of the documentary “The Gold of Shoria“ was shown.

In their speeches, the representatives of the Indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East expressed their support for Ukraine and their protest against Russian aggression. They talked about how the Russian authorities are destroying the habitat of indigenous peoples, repressing those who dare to protest, and exterminating the male population of their native villages, mobilizing and turning residents into “cannon fodder.“ Both the main speakers and other participants of the discussion noted the discriminatory nature of Russia‘s national policy, the suppression of cultures, languages and religions of small nations. European Commission representative Dirk Schuebel also expressed support for Ukraine and all those, including activists from Russia, who oppose Russian aggression. He assured the audience of his readiness to support such initiatives. The MEP Rasa Jukneviciene spoke about the resolution of the European Parliament calling for remembering historical responsibility and the connection of history with modern problems. She shared her personal experience of overcoming Russia‘s imperial influence on the Baltic states, the struggle for the freedom of Lithuania, and thanked Ukraine for its courage in the struggle for independence and democracy currently taking place on the battlefields.

The ADC Memorial expert spoke about the protection of the rights of Indigenous peoples as part of anti-discrimination work, expressing support for activists of organizations (including the International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia), who were included in the lists of “extremists” and “terrorists” in the Russian Federation only for peaceful demonstrations in support of their communities. ADC Memorial unequivocally condemns such forms of repression of Indigenous human rights defenders and defenders of minority rights, expressing solidarity and support for their principled human rights and anti-war positions.

Video of the discussion

Rasa Jukneviciene

Member of the European Parliament (MEP)

Dear colleagues, dear friends, dear guests, I think we are about to start. This is second time we are organizing together with our partners – Anti-Discrimination Centre Memorial Brussels. Last term of European Parliament we had had similar seminar or event on a very similar topic. And today we understand that every time is even more and more important to have at least somebody, to give platform to the peoples, to the nations. They are almost, I would say, forgotten in European continent or globally, but not themselves. And in the light of Russia’s war against Ukraine and against the all the whole democratic world, it’s even more important to try to understand the content of what’s going on within the Russian Federation, what does it mean – this largest as of territory state globally, with the peoples living there – oppressed peoples, not only small nations but also, I would say, Russians themselves. Without that it would be not possible to have clear strategy on Russia for the future of our European continent.

So, this short remarks for the beginning. I also would like to finalize, I would say, the important event happened two weeks ago in Strasburg, during our plenary – for those who were not able to follow. We adopted a resolution on history, on how Russia is using history for disinformation in the light of this war, and there we were able to first time I think in the European Union legislative to send a very important message. A the European Parliament, we declared that we respond to the statement of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (May 2023) on the ideology of “russism”, by condemning the nationalist imperialist ideology, policy and practices of the current Russian regime. We stressed the incompatibility of this ideology and policy and these practices with international law and European values. This resolution was on history, also related with the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and what happened in the past. This is, you know, uncondemned ideology, like communism, bolshevism, imperialism from Russian side. It happen so that today we have ideology which is mentioned by Kremlin themselves as “russky mir” (‘Russian World’). It means that the same ideology happened many hundred years ago, when those nations in Siberia, Northern Caucasus and other parts of today’s Russian Federation. It is the same ideology – it’s imperialism, it’s colonialism, it’s the last, I would say, country globally which has inside this colonialism approach. And this is what would be our testimonies here with those guests.

Dirk Schubel

Head of Russia division at the EEAS

We believe that it is very important to draw public attention to the fate of indigenous peoples and the ethnic minorities globally but also in Russia in particular, taking into account also the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine and the overall very bad and ever deteriorating human rights situation in Russia. Let me start with a few words on the bigger picture if I may. For the EU, Russia’s fullscale war against Ukraine was a watershed moment. Indeed, Russia forced us to fundamentally alter our perception of and also our approach towards Russia, coming from a vision of cooperation to a vision of Russia as a threat. Now the main pillar of our Russia policy is unwavering support to Ukraine. That’s the most important factor of our Russia policy. All avenues of cooperation with Russia were stopped. We put pressure on Russia with sanctions. We work to ensure accountability for all the crimes to enhance our resilience now also against hybrid threats which is the latest and to support our partners around the world to deal with the consequences of Russia’s war.

Supporting Russian civil society, human rights defenders and independent media inside and outside Russia remains crucially important to the EU and it’s the key element of our Russia approach. Today external aggression and internal repression are linked with Russia’s war against Ukraine. The human rights situation, the state of democracy and the rule of law inside Russia has deteriorated even further. At the same time, the EU financial support for civil society, for independent media and for human rights defenders has not only been maintained, but it has increased since 2022. The EU continues to closely follow the developments and raise concerns via public communication, statements in multilateral bodies and fora. This also refers to the organizations working with Indigenous peoples of Russia. These communities had remained in the vulnerable position already before the 24th of February 2022, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine only exacerbated this situation. We see the Russian authorities’ efforts to unite the citizens of the Russian Federation under Russian flag against Ukraine and the West, whitewashing all ethnic differences and stifling Indigenous people’s identities. As the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Russia Mariana Katsarova, whose mandate was established at the initiative of the EU, emphasized in her recent report, that Indigenous peoples and national minorities have been disproportionately mobilized some by force to fight against Ukraine. As a result, some small numbered groups may face extinction from war casualties. On top of that, the Russian authorities try to restrict their freedom of association by banning under the guise of extremism legislation or labeling as foreign agent and undesirable organization, those organizations representing Indigenous peoples or ethnic minorities. According to Katsarova, 55 such entities recognized as extremist following the Supreme Court decision to ban the anti-Russian separatist movement, as they call it. At the same time, we see a surge of Indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities activities and recognition of their identity. Many of the activists had to relocate to Europe and to continue their fight from here. Some of them are present with us today.

Climate change and hence a strengthened exploration of the Arctic endangered the traditional ways of living of the Indigenous people’s communities, including harvesting, fishing, or hunting. So, the rights of Indigenous peoples are an integral part of the European Union’s human rights policy as it was confirmed by the Council Conclusions on Indigenous Peoples of May, 2017. In these Council Conclusions we underline a) the importance of addressing discrimination and inequalities, b) addressing the threats to and the violence against Indigenous peoples and individuals, as well as to Human Rights defenders, and c) further enhancing the opportunities for dialogue and consultation with Indigenous peoples at all levels of EU cooperation. The EU seeks to integrate human rights including the rights of Indigenous peoples into all aspects of its internal and external policies, cooperation and trade. Our rights-based approach to development encompassing all human rights is the main vehicle in our external action for integrating the support to indigenous peoples in the implementation of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. In addition, the EU gives direct support to Indigenous people’s organizations and to civil society organizations working on Indigenous issues. The EU is committed to the implementation of the outcome document on the World Conference on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

As I mentioned already, in other discussions today earlier, we would be very happy to explore with you more potential avenues of our support to the Indigenous peoples NGO organizations working in or on Russia from inside or from outside.

Stefania Kulaeva

Anti-Discrimination Center Memorial Brussels

Thank you very much for co-hosting this event and for helping to give a voice to people who really have very big challenges and only growing challenges every year. The situation is getting worse – the film we have seen was made a few years ago, and the situation as you could see looked already dramatic. But as we well know, since then it aggravated a lot through Russian aggression against Ukraine and the horrible war that broke out, that affected a lot indigenous peoples of Russia and small indigenous peoples. It also gets worse not only with excavation works, and we are quite unhappy that even the fact that some countries stopped importing coal from Russia, that hasn’t helped yet to stop the whole industry.

I want to say a few words of how Anti-Discrimination Centre Memorial, our organization based in Brussels since 2013, how we came to these issues, how we came to this particular work and research. Opposing discrimination, first most of all ethnic discrimination, we were of course protecting minorities rights, and Indigenous people’s rights belong to that. However, originally, we looked on it only from the point of view of discrimination, while for example environment was not so much our issue. But when we met the Tannagashevs and the Shor rights movement people, understood that destroying their environment is a form of discrimination. They face the fact that they can’t live the traditional life. The industry destroys them economically but also culturally, as it destroys the language. We’ve heard from experts that um it is very bad for the bodies of Indigenous peoples to move to the cities, or to be forced to move to the cities, but it’s also destructive for the culture. There is no place to educate children in Shor language, and being out of their villages they lose language, they lose culture, traditional work and crafts. All together it creates structural discrimination. Meanwhile, working on opposing the structural discrimination and destruction of environment, we understood that it is also a global issue. Excavation and using coal is destroying the planet, it is bad for climate. We’ve published two reports on that.

Later, except of the reports and except of all the advocacy connected to the reports, we decided to do some visual materials, and it became this film. The film is focused on Shoria, later Vladislav Tannagashev whom you could see in the film will speak about that. He was there saying goodbye to his family near the burnt house of his father-in-law. His own village was destroyed back in Soviet times, but also we’ve heard his name mentioned by the orphan girl whom he helped to restore her rights. Of course, we were for a while quite focused on this part of Southern Siberia, and now we see that the same problems can be found anywhere. For example, Chukotka – the next speaker Mark Zdor is from Chukotka, it’s a place in Far East. Already now, in the last years, they also started to excavate coal – just now, when it is already a kind of damned fuel and everybody knows that is destroying the climate – new excavation work started in other parts of Indigenous peoples’ places. In Khakasia, in Chukotka, against the sanctions – we know that Australian companies participate in that, and people are only in a hurry to sell the coal while it’s still bought by some countries, first of all by China.

The next trouble that many of you could have known, that people who protest against the war are persecuted. Political repressions also affect Indigenous peoples. There are people from Indigenous movement already behind the bars; there are people who are at high risk of arrest and other forms of persecution; there are many who were forced in immigration; and there are people who are facing mobilization. The mobilisation declared by Putin’s government heavily affected indigenous peoples, and many of them had to flee, try to cross the border, try to hide in the forest, in taiga, but still many ended up in the frontline and lost their lives. All of us are strongly against the war, strongly against this aggression of Russia, and against all people involved in this aggression but it must be said that by this war the Russian government and authorities destroy not only Ukrainian people and villages and cities, but also some Russian population and peoples living in the Russian Federation now. And all this is also part of a story of our speakers. Later we’ll hear about persecution faced by Mark Zdor as anti-war activist. And the final thing I want to say that already now, in the beginning of 2025, we found out that peaceful organizations protecting the rights of Indigenous peoples, including International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia, were listed as “terrorist” organizations by Federal Security Service of Russia, ex-KGB. I want to use this opportunity to say that we completely disagree and condemn this illegal and absurd declaration. We know that this list actually exists for very heavy criminal organizations, organized crime; and to put next to these dangerous violent groups these peaceful Indigenous rights’ organizations who are trying to protect the environment, the language, the culture, the religion – it is another crime of the authorities in Russia.

Thank you so much for coming here and attending this event. There is a proverb: it’s better to see one time than to hear 100 times. I will not re-tell what happened with my people, with my family, with myself – I will speak more about what you’ve seen. You’ve seen with your own eyes how “Russian World” has come to our homeland. And if you don’t want the “Russian World” to come to you, you have to become strong, you have to spend more money assisting Ukraine which is helping you by giving you time today, precious time which might save you in the future.

The Shors live in the south of the Kemerovo region, next to the Altai Kray, Novosibirsk region – just for reference. For centures, it was our land, our ancestors lived there. In 1989, there were 16,000 of us, and a little over 30 years later, there were only 10,000 of us. This indicates that a blatant policy of extermination is being pursued against my people. One of the speakers said that Chechens were turned into “terrorists”, that is, if they say “Chechen”, and they seem to imply that this person is aggressive and evil. In our region, the word “Shors” is a humiliating insult. The Russians applied this to all minorities – that’s how the word “Chukchi” also has an offensive synonym in Russia. The same is true for other peoples who live in Russia. My grandfather did not speak or understand Russian. My father did not speak or understand Russian until he was 7 years old. And I don’t speak the Shor language. How did this happen? The Department of the Shor language, the only department of the Shor language, was closed in 2010, and this is one more crime. It is impossible to study the language now, there is no scientific research and study of the Shor language, its promotion and development.

I’ll probably tell you a little bit about myself. As a child, I was embarrassed by my nationality. When they talked about my nationality in front of me, I tried to make myself small so as not to hear, because I was embarrassed by the Shor words when my parents spoke in presence of other people. When I was in college, other pupils beat me up for being a Shor. When I was studying well, a Russian guy would come up and beat me, and he would say that it offended his Slavic nature: He doesn’t feel very well when some Shor studies better than him. I’m just saying this so that you understand the situation of non-Russian peoples in Russia.

Russian nationality has ceased to exist after 2022 as a nationality, and it turns out that the European Parliament has indeed correctly drawn its conclusions: “Russism, Russian”, is now synonymous with some kind of terrible sect that promotes war, murder, aggression, and hatred of all living things. Of course, there are Russians on the side of Good, and three are Shors, Chukchi, Chechens, and others are on the side of Evil – but they called themselves Russians in 2022. Do you remember when they broadcast those “I am Russian” videos? Guys of a different nationality came out and said: “Russian, I am Russian,” that is, it looked like they did some kind of terrible ritual and joined this sect, in fact. That’s all I wanted to say. Thank you.

Mark Zdor

a representative of Indigenous people of Chukotka and anti-war activist

Ettyk tumgyturi! Gymnin nynny Tletegin.

Good afternoon! My name is Mark Zdor. I was born in the village of Neshkan, a Chukchi village of sea hunters and reindeer herders located near the Bering Strait. Traditional environmental management is the main means of survival for many people of my community. But more importantly, it is a key means of preserving the identity of Indigenous peoples. Therefore, for us, nature conservation is not an abstract concept, but literally a matter of survival.

Environmental challenges in Russia’s Indigenous regions

Unfortunately, our Committee must note that the Russian State ignores many threats to the traditional way of life of Indigenous peoples. In our region, the authorities sometimes not only ignore the problems of Indigenous peoples caused by the industrial development of Chukotka, but even act in partnership with industrial corporations in their confrontation with Indigenous communities.

Here are some examples. The history of the development of the Amaam coal deposit in the south of Chukotka was accompanied by a confrontation between the coal company and the local community named Altar. At first, the coal company tried to suppress the Indigenous community through the court. When this failed, the authorities provided such enormous administrative pressure that the members of the Altar community had no choice but to close their organization.

Another example is the Baim copper deposit. In the process of promoting the project, the authorities suppressed any attempts by the Indigenous peoples of Chukotka to express their concerns for a healthy habitat. At first it was a floating nuclear power plant in Pevek. The Indigenous people have feared a nuclear catastrophe. But their worries were suppressed by administrative resources. Then came the plans for the construction of a port at Cape Nagleynin. According to local residents and environmentalists, this project did not take into account the potential damage to the lands of traditional nature management. The suppression of the voices of the opponents of the project took place according to a well-established methodology. The authorities carried out administrative pressure, and law enforcement agencies conducted so-called investigations and threatened independent activists with criminal cases.

The situation is no better in other regions of Russia. Let me recall the story of Sergey Kechimov from the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug. He fought with the oilmen for his ancestral sacred land. The story ended with Kechimov dying of cancer under unclear circumstances. There are other examples. You can find some of them on our website “Indigenous Russia”.

The Indigenous peoples of Chukotka and the war in Ukraine

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been going on for three years now. Ukrainian and Russian soldiers are dying every day, but the worst thing is that civilians are dying.

Indigenous peoples are also suffering. By the end of the first year of the war, Russia had already undergone a “partial” mobilization. In Chukotka, many Indigenous people were forced to go to war in Ukraine. Some researchers estimate that up to 10 young people were mobilized from each Chukchi village. Chukchi villages have an average of 300 to 400 inhabitants. This means that in each village about 10% of Indigenous men of working age could be called up for mobilization.

The protests of Russian citizens, including Indigenous ones, are severely suppressed by the authorities. Recent well-known cases are related to Konstantin and Valery Ledkov, both natives of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

At the same time, apparently fearing protests against mobilization, the Russian authorities changed their strategy. Now they are attracting people to the war with big contracts. According to indirect evidence and estimates of information from public sources, over 1,000 volunteers and conscripts left Chukotka for the front in the first two years of the full-scale war. This is about 10% of men of working age in the region. At least half of them are representatives of Indigenous peoples.

We also would like to point out fatal consequences for Indigenous communities. In fact, they are being deprived of their future. Families will not be created in Indigenous villages without young men, and traditional environmental management will disappear along with identity.

Persecution of Indigenous activists by the Russian authorities

I have already mentioned that the Russian authorities use administrative and criminal pressure against activists and leaders of Indigenous peoples and communities. All members of our International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia have been through such persecution. You can find information about our cases on the Indigenous Russia website.

Perhaps the most famous Russian Indigenous political prisoner is Alexander Gabyshev. In 2019, Gabyshev announced a marche to Moscow, protesting against Putin’s dictatorial regime. He was detained by security forces and sent to a psychiatric institution for treatment against his wish. Memorial has recognized Alexander Gabyshev as a political prisoner.

Russian Indigenous activists and political asylum – the situation in Western countries

Our Committee is grateful to the European Union for the support of people from Russia who protested against the war and the dictatorial regime in Russia. Nevertheless, we must pay attention to the fact that Russian activists sometimes do not even have the opportunity to gain access to the EU mechanism for political asylum. Therefore, most of them are forced to hide from the persecution of the Russian authorities in countries such as Georgia, Kazakhstan, or Armenia. Proximity to the borders with Russia contributes to the high vulnerability of political activists.

There are also political asylum seekers among the Indigenous peoples. One of them is Andrey Danilov, a member of our Committee. He has been awaiting political asylum since March 2022. Refusal or non-granting of asylum implies a return to Russia, where activists will be convicted, and in prison they will be tortured and may even be killed.

I have only touched some of the problems and challenges of the Indigenous peoples of Russia. I thank the organizers for the opportunity to provide information about the situation of Indigenous peoples in Russia. We hope that the International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia will continue to cooperate with the European Parliament for the benefit and prosperity of our continent and the world. Thanks for your attention!

Anastassia Crickley

The Chairperson of Minority Rights Group and ex-Head of the UN Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination who also works for Fundamental Agency Against Racism and OSCE (online)

A number of years ago, when I was Chair of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, I had the honor and pleasure to meet some of the Shor people and some of the people from Kazas, and I am very concerned this afternoon to hear again your stories and to hear that things far from improving have got significantly worse in a number of instances. So, thank you very much for sharing that with us; it’s really important that we are informed that and that we are informed not just about the general contours of your story, but also about the current realities that you face. It’s just very helpful to know.

But I want to say really is that, as someone who has been involved in work with minorities for very many years and someone who myself although not a member of a minority have been in a minority position as an Irish emigrant in England and in the UK. I believe that what’s really important is to acknowledge how minorities are treated, how indigenous people are treated at times of war, and I therefore have no doubt at all but to acknowledge the veracity of what you have been telling us.

Secondly, it seems to me that the importance of civil society cannot be underestimated, and I want to salute your courage and also the courage of Stefania and her colleagues in ADC Memorial who have brought so many of these issues to the for with such courage and such commitment over a long number of years. Civil society for human rights, for democracy and for all, but especially for marginalized and minority groups and Indigenous people is of crucial importance, and one of your colleagues reminded us very clearly of decoration on minorities and the UN decoration also on Indigenous peoples. But what I think is really important in what you’ve said, and what’s really important to move forward is that civil society is beyond just individual activist, it’s beyond individual champions, and it’s beyond individual defenders all of whom are absolutely crucial, but it also is about the collective effort of all the members of your community. And an approach also that for me needs to explicitly name Indigenous groups, Indigenous peoples and minority groups if we were to compare for example with women, you would say that unless women are named, our needs and our rights cannot be achieved, realized or met. And I think for civil society as well it’s explicitly important that your needs and your rights as minority peoples and as Indigenous peoples are named. So, from this point of view it seems to me that at this point in time of great importance is the since we’re in the European Parliament at the moment, virtually or in reality, of great importance is the role that the European Union can play for example and maybe and it seems to me that as a new Parliament which has begun maybe a little while ago that perhaps it would be really important to look to guidelines on minorities, the EU guidelines on the rights of minorities and Indigenous peoples which is something some of us have been asking for a considerable period of time. This would be something for me, and I speak as someone who was Chair of the first Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union. This is something which could go alongside a number of the other instruments that are available and indeed could also go alongside the legislation that’s available within the European Union but that sort of guidelines could also be particularly important for the EEAS and for instruments that are operating outside of the European Union.

I think, in addition to my previous roles with the UN and with regard to the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in particular it’s really fundamentally important that all of the human rights mechanisms in Geneva are both familiar with your case but not only as something to be listed but as something around. Which action needs to be taken at this point in time. Thank you very much for taking the time to share your stories. As Chair of Minority Rights Group, we are familiar with a number of the issues in Minority Rights Group that you speak of. We’re very lucky to have Stefania also as a member of the Board, and I commit myself to trying to support in any way I can the causes that you brought to our attention. Well, thank you very much.