MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/. Delegations from Russia’s two regions - Yamalo-Nenets and Yugra (Khanty-Mansi) - participate in the 17th session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York on April 16-19, the regional authorities told TASS.
"Yamal’s delegation will share experience with foreign counterparts," the region’s foreign relations authority told TASS. "Topics on the agenda will include: keeping and developing languages of the North’s indigenous peoples in Yamal and collective rights the indigenous peoples have on land, territory and resources."
"The region’s delegation will also participate in an additional session, devoted to socially important projects to support the indigenous people’s sustainable development, healthcare and social services," the region said.
The delegation from the neighboring region - Yugra - is led by First Deputy Governor Alexei Shipilov. "He will speak about the six spheres as per the Permanent Forum’s Mandate in line with the UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples," the region’s PR Department said. "The Mandate is a document-resolution, which outlines the Forum’s further actions and gives the right to the UN executive body to fulfil its functions."
Yugra’s legislators will take part in a discussion of Russia’s experience in socially important projects to support the indigenous people’s sustainable development, healthcare and social services. Russia’s state authority on ethnic polices is the discussion’s organizer.
About the Forum
The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) is an advisory body to the Economic and Social Council with a mandate to discuss indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, environment, education, health and human rights. The event in New York will feature about 500 international representatives.
Yamal began cooperation with the UN in 2003, when its representatives were invited to take part in the 2nd session of the UN Permanent Forum, and later on the region participate in another six sessions.
In March 2017, Yugra hosted a meeting of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous People, where experts from Africa, Latin America, Northern America, Asia and Eastern Europe learned the region’s experience in supporting the North’s indigenous low-numbered peoples.