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Feedback At the annual OSCE Human Dimension Conference, human rights defenders and Indigenous rights activists discussed how a human rights-based approach applies to ideas about a post-colonial future. ADC Memorial organized the discussion. Its aim was to bring a stronger human rights perspective to a debate already under way among Indigenous activists, about rejecting Russian colonial patterns and respecting every people’s cultural, economic, environmental and political rights. Representatives of the peoples of the Caucasus, the Urals and Siberia are speaking out more and more about creating independent national republics based on local cultural and political heritage. Participants noted that, as this happens, the rights of other groups living in these regions also need special attention. These include small-numbered Indigenous peoples and other minorities.
The activists who spoke agreed that the political future must rest on democratic, inclusive approaches. They also agreed on the need to work out how to guarantee equal opportunities and protection from discrimination for peoples who cannot create independent states. These peoples need their rights protected within existing political entities, or possibly within future ones.
Indigenous participants in the discussion were:
- Ruslan Valiev, Aspects of Bashkortostan
- Maria Ochir-Goryaeva, historian and decolonial activist from the Republic of Kalmykia
- Vyacheslav Shadrin, expert on the rights of small-numbered Indigenous peoples and a representative of the Yukaghir people (via Zoom)
- Taulan Salpagarov, Indigenous Peoples Global Unity (via Zoom)
They were joined by Natalia Sineaeva-Pankowska (via Zoom), a human rights defender from the “Never Again” Association, and Stephania Kulaeva, an expert at ADC Memorial.
Video is available in Russian
The side event will be organized as part of the project “Indigenous Peoples’ Rights for a Democratic Future”, which is being implemented by INFOE (Institut für Ökologie und Aktions-Ethnologie e.V.), ICIPR (International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia), the Never Again Association and the ADC Memorial, with the support of the German Federal Foreign Office.
