The Free Nations League (FNL) will help represent the interests of Indigenous peoples of the Russian Federation (RF) at the venues of the United Nations and other international institutions without Moscow’s mediation. For this work, a Human Rights Group of the Free Nations League (HRG-FNL) has been established. The goal of this initiative is to protect and ultimately realise collective and individual rights of Russia’s Indigenous peoples – including cultural, language, political and economic rights.
Today, over 190 Indigenous peoples reside on the territory of RF. All of them face systemic limitations from the state, which has effectively denied their rights to control their own natural resources and participate in the political life of their regions. However, Indigenous peoples are unable to inform the international community about these and other problems because Moscow has appropriated the right to speak on their behalf. Russia’s authorities are preventing all attempts of activists to voice their issues on international venues.
“We consider that non-dominant peoples of the Russian Federation have a full right to independently and freely promote their rights at the United Nations Permanent Forum of Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) and other such venues. Not only do they deserve that their genuine problems will be heard, but they should also be recognised by the international community,” said Radjana Dugar-DePonte, President of the Free Nations League. “This should also lead to growing international support for Russia’s Indigenous peoples,” DePonte added.
“The current situation is such that most peoples of Russia, with the exception of ethnic Russians, have been placed on the brink of extinction”, said Aygul Lyon, chair of the newly formed Human Rights Group. “Therefore their voices have never been more important. However, Russia’s authorities will continue convincing international and domestic audiences of the myth as if the issues of Indigenous peoples can be reduced to the preservation of folklore and the availability of kindergartens. But in fact the state is committing an ethnocide,” Lyon noted, adding that “Russia’s war against Ukraine only confirmed and strengthened this trend. Because the authorities are mobilising to frontlines primarily people from economically underdeveloped regions with a high share of Indigenous peoples”.
Human Rights Group of the Free Nations League consists of activists representing Indigenous peoples of the Russian Federation. All these activists reside outside the RF and are unaffiliated with the Russian state.
Activities of the Human Rights Group will include preparation of shadow reports to relevant UN treaty bodies, development of studies and analyses about the human rights environment of Russia’s Indigenous peoples, provision of legal aid, as well as documenting specific violations of collective and individual rights, with a particular focus on Indigenous human rights defenders (HRDs).
The newly formed Human Rights Group is open for cooperation with international organisations and activists working to protect the rights of Russia’s indigenous peoples.
Free Nations League (www.freenationsleague.org) is an association of national and regional movements promoting the realisation of the right to self-determination and independence of Indigenous peoples from the Russian Federation. Free Nations League was established in May 2022.
