Human Rights of Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples in Russia: Recent Developments

• Author: Ekaterina Zmyvalova
• Pages: 266-291

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Citation: Ekaterina Zmyvalova. “Human Rights of Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples in Russia: Recent Developments”

Arctic Review on Law and Politics, Vol. 11, 2020, pp. 334–359. http://dx.doi.org/10.23865/arctic.v11.2336

Arctic Review on Law and Politics

Vol. 11, 2020, pp. 334–359

334

*Correspondence to: Ekaterina Zmyvalova, email: ekaterina.zmyvalova@umu.se

Peer-reviewed article

Human Rights of Indigenous

Small-Numbered Peoples in Russia:

Recent Developments

Ekaterina Zmyvalova

Umea University, Sweden

Abstract

In Russia, there exist legal norms providing for the protection of indigenous small-numbered peo-

ples’ rights. Yet, indigenous small-numbered peoples face multiple challenges when it comes to the

implementation of their rights. After a brief presentation of the Russian legislation on the rights

of indigenous small-numbered peoples, peculiarities of the Russian legal system and impediments

to the legal provisions regulating the status of indigenous small-numbered peoples, this article

addresses several issues related to the implementation of indigenous small-numbered peoples’

rights in Russia today. One of the core issues is the attribution of individual members of indige-

nous communities to indigenous small-numbered peoples. Such an attribution is still challenging

despite the newly adopted amendments to the 30 April 1999 Federal Law N 82-FL: ‘On Guar-

antees of the Rights of Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples of the Russian Federation’. Another

issue is application of the notion ‘foreign agent’ to individuals and non-commercial organizations.

Still another issue is the State’s pressure on independent indigenous organizations. The nal chal-

lenge is the possible impact of amendments to the Constitution approved by popular vote in July

2020 on the rights of indigenous small-numbered peoples.

Keywords: Identity, foreign agent, State’s pressure, constitutional amendments

Responsible Editor: Øyvind Ravna, Faculty of Law, UiT The Arctic University of

Norway

Received: April 2020; Accepted: October 2020; Published: December 2020

Introduction

This article is devoted to a discussion of the present situation concerning the human

rights of indigenous small-numbered peoples in Russia. The issues raised by the

author are non-exhaustive but can be considered highly topical at the present time.

Human Rights of Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples in Russia

335

In the rst part of the article, the author presents the Russian legal acts on the sta-

tus of indigenous small-numbered peoples, explains what peculiarities of the Russian

legal system impact this status and also discusses one of the lingering challenges–

impediments to the legal provisions regulating the status of indigenous small-

numbered peoples.

The second part of the article focuses on the following issues: the attribution

of individual members of indigenous communities to indigenous small-numbered

peoples, the introduction of the notion ‘foreign agent’ into Russian legislation,

the State’s pressure on independent indigenous organizations, and the impacts

of recently adopted amendments to the Constitution on the rights of indigenous

small-numbered peoples.

The topicality of the issues selected by the author has been emphasized at the inter-

national level. In its 113th session, The UN Human Rights Committee expressed its

concern that “insufcient measures [are] taken to respect and protect the rights

of indigenous peoples and to ensure that members of such peoples are recognized

as indigenous.”1 Already in 2010, the Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples’

Rights, James Anaya, drew public attention to the fact that there was lack of effective

implementation of laws on the rights of indigenous peoples.2

For a long time, there was no unied legal procedure regarding the attribution

of individual members of indigenous communities to indigenous small-numbered

peoples at the federal level. Recently, the Federal Law (FL) of 6 February 2020

N11-FL ‘On Amendments in FL ‘On Guarantees of the Rights of Indigenous Small-

Numbered Peoples of the Russian Federation’ (amendments in FL ‘On Guaran-

tees’) was adopted. The law, which came into force on 7 May 2020, regards the

establishment of registration procedures for persons belonging to indigenous

small-numbered peoples and the establishment of a unied registry for these pur-

poses. However, there is reason for concern. The origin of the determining criteria

for the identication of persons belonging to indigenous small-numbered peoples

is ambiguous. Moreover, the implementation procedures of the amendments are

unclear. As a result, individuals belonging to indigenous small-numbered peoples

may not receive benets enshrined in law. Besides, indigenous activists are con-

cerned about the survival of some small groups of peoples as indigenous small-num-

bered peoples due to the adoption of the amendments and after the 2020 Census,

which has been postponed to 2021. When preparing the 2020 Census in the State

Duma, the opinion was expressed that “Oroch people living on their land from time

immemorial […] will be eliminated from the indigenous small-numbered peoples’

list as a result of the 2020 Census.”3,4 Despite the entry into force of the amend-

ments, the registry itself will start functioning from 2022.

The Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples’ rights drew public attention to

the application of the notion ‘foreign agent’ to certain individuals and legal entities,

whose activities can be limited when they get this status.5