On July 18, an expert of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center Lyudmila Korotkyh spoke at a session of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on issues of strengthening the interactive dialogue between indigenous peoples’ bodies. In her speech, the representative of the Crimean Tatar people indicated that the activities of the UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples “are truly irreplaceable, as you give a voice to indigenous peoples from all over the world”.
At the same time, Korotkyh drew the attention of the Fund to the importance of proportional representation of all geographic regions and detailed verification of representatives of indigenous peoples who receive support.
After all, the expert stated, scholarship holders from the Eastern European region often become people who are subordinate to the Russian government and, in fact, promote the interests of the Kremlin, not the indigenous peoples of the region.
In addition, the expert noted, it may be worth revising the scholarship selection policy in such a way that indigenous peoples, who face the greatest problems and are under direct threat of extinction, are guaranteed to be represented at least at the sessions of the UN Permanent Forum and the UN Expert Mechanism.
The representative of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center also appealed to the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples to make a statement about the impact of Russia’s full-scale armed aggression against Ukraine on the indigenous peoples of both Ukraine and Russia. She asked UN to pay special attention to the Kremlin’s criminal mobilization of the indigenous peoples of these countries as a tool to destroy disloyal and inconvenient people.
Korotkykh provided a general recommendation for all specialized UN mechanisms “when preparing your reports – to give preference to submissions from indigenous peoples’ organizations, rather than from states, because countries such as Russia paint an ideal picture in their reports, which is far from reality”.
