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| Russia's Indigenous Speaking at the U.N. in Geneva on Monday. Screenshot Censored News. |
Breaking the Silence -- Indigenous in Russia, Amazon and Okinawa Tell U.N. of Poisoned Water, Dying Reindeer and Oppression as Illegal Mining Brings Disease and Death
By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, July 15, 2025
GENEVA -- Indigenous Peoples are silenced when they speak out about mining in Russia, while drug trafficking, logging and illegal mining are forcing isolated Indigenous Peoples from their homelands in the Amazon. In Okinawa, Japan refuses to recognize Indigenous Peoples, and they suffer from the toxic dumping left behind by the U.S. military.
Indigenous Peoples spoke as the U.N. Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous People began on Monday, focused on data sovereignty.
Russia's Indigenous Speak: The Silence on Mining
Indigenous Peoples have the right to their data as inherently sovereign people, but this right of self-determination is not recognized in Russia. Russia does not recognize Indigenous Peoples whose numbers exceed 50,000, a representative of the Indigenous of Russia Foundation told the U.N. on Monday.
The people are denied self-identity and do not have access to the data that concerns them, especially on extractive projects.
The representative said that in her home region, the Republic of Sakha Yakutia, 73 percent of Russia's diamonds are extracted. There is 53 percent of Russia's uranium mining and 12 percent of its gold is extracted. The mining companies include the Russian British company Nordgold.
"We have no say." There is no information about the environmental and health impacts, and there is no independent monitoring.
"This violates both our right to know, and our right to withhold free, prior and informed consent," she said, referring to the rights stated in the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Poison water and dying reindeer are the result, because of the expansion of mining.
When her people speak out about the mining, they are labeled "foreign agents." A leader of the local nomadic community was falsely charged with extortion, after speaking out, and died soon after.
Another community member, a traditional hunter, was imprisoned for practicing his way of life, and then pressured into joining the Russian army where he died soon after in Ukraine.
"These are not isolated cases."
Extraction, extortion and prosecution are part of the denial of human rights. She spoke before the U.N. Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on Monday in Geneva, as the session began and focused on data sovereignty.
Living in isolation in the Amazon, Indigenous Peoples are being forced out of their territories: There are 188 groups of Indigenous Peoples living in isolation in South America, and only 60 are officially recognized by governments, leaving more than 120 invisible, without protection and facing real threats.
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