Siberian Indigenous Counter Russia's Claim of Upholding Human Rights at U.N. Permanent Forum

Siberian Indigenous Counters Russia's Claim of Upholding Human Rights at United Nations

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, April 25, 2025

NEW YORK -- An Indigenous representative from Siberia countered the testimony of the Russian government, and organizations, at the United Nations, stating that his people, the Shors, are struggling to survive, pointing out the bureaucracy at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples.

"Our tribesmen are being fined for having fished for their own purposes, and in the hunting lands, where we have been hunting for centuries, we can only hunt in exchange for money."

Indigenous pensioners collecting firewood in the far north are made to pay huge fines, at a time when there is no other way for them to obtain heating in their homes during the severe Siberian winter, he told the United Nations today.

The government and so-called leaders of the umbrella organizations are not even trying to change this situation and protect the rights of the tribes, he said.

Countering the situation, he said it is more important for them to interact with one another at the U.N. Permanent Forum.

"This is manipulation, acting in bad faith on the part of bureaucrats."

He said he is not speaking against his country, or the government, and is not speaking against the so-called leaders, but is speaking in favor of economic and social development for his people, and in favor of the culture and environment for the development of health care and education.

All of this needs to be done, he said, not in a way that people are "allowed" -- but must be done in the way that the people themselves want it done.

He said the dialogue during the closed meeting yesterday is a good example of the policy of "divide and pitting the indigenous peoples against each other within my country."

Questioning Russia's claim of providing rights and a sustainable government, he asked what goals have been obtained in regards to the Shor people.

"None I think."

"Leaders of umbrella organizations on behalf of a people here at the U.N. are disseminating bareface lies," he said. 

During his testimony earlier this week, he referred to the statements of other delegates from Russia, and questioned if they live in the same country, or even on the same planet that he lives on. He pointed out that one town had been burned to the ground ten years ago.

The Shor village of Kazas was destroyed due to coal mining activities in Siberia in 2013. The people who opposed the mines, and the houses of those who refused to sell, were burned down.

The representative from Siberia spoke on behalf of the Center for Support of Indigenous Peoples of the North (CSIPN), a Russian non-governmental organization that works to protect the rights of indigenous peoples in the Russian North, Siberia, and the Far East.

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