The Center for Assistance to the North Polish appealed recognition by the "agent" in the ECHR

The Center for Assistance to the indigenous peoples of the North filed a complaint about the decision of the Ministry of Justice, which included the organization in the register of "foreign agents". It is reported by Kommersant. The interests of the organization are represented by the lawyer of "Agora" Ilnur Sharapov.

As stated in the complaint, Russia violated Article 10 (freedom of expression), 11 (freedom of assembly and associations) and 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the European Convention in relation to NPO. "The intervention in the rights was carried out by the authorities on the basis of a poor -quality law, it did not pursue a legal goal and was not necessary in a democratic society," the document emphasizes.

As political activities, the Ministry of Justice regarded the participation of NPOs in 2013 in preparation for the congress of indigenous peoples, in particular, the organization of the work of sections on environmental management and interaction with industrial companies, as well as the training and publication in the same year of the 29th issue of the world of indigenous peoples. Living Arctic.

“We do not consider work at the congress political activity,” said lawyer Sharapov. “Work was carried out as part of the state concept of sustainable development of indigenous peoples.”

The chairman of the Agora Pavel Chikov, in turn, noticed that if in the 1990s-early 2000s the Russian authorities encouraged the organization of indigenous peoples in every possible way and attracted them to work in public structures at various state institutions, then the state policy changed in the future. "There is an economic reason because these organizations are actively fighting with the enterprises of the fuel complex in the remote regions of the Far North," the human rights activist noted.

The Center for Assistance to the Peoples of the North was formed in the early 2000s as part of a joint Russian-Canadian project. The purpose of his activities NPOs calls "achieving the sustainable development of the indigenous peoples of the North of the Russian Federation, ensuring their direct participation in economic activity and in the decision -making processes at the national, regional and local levels." For this, NGOs "develops and implements educational programs oriented towards the economic development of communities of indigenous peoples."

The headquarters of the NKO is located in Moscow. There are branches in Dudinka (administrative center of Taimyr), Tomsk and Yakutsk.

The Ministry of Justice announced the inclusion of the Center for Assistance to the North to the North to the register of "agents" on November 27, 2015. Two months later, on January 20, 2016, the Nikulinsky district court of Moscow fined the organization of 300 thousand rubles under Article 19.34 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation of the procedure for the NPO - "Foreign Agent").

In September 2014, the Russian authorities tore off the trip of the director of the NPO Rodion Sulandzigi to New York to the UN conference on the indigenous peoples. At the same time, Suladziga was a member of the Global Committee on the preparation of the conference. At the passport control in Sheremetyevo, a passport was seized from a public activist, asked to wait, and, returning, announced that the document was not enough, and brought an administrative case to Sulandzig.

“There they will talk about the development of the Arctic and the exploitation of its natural resources,” the social activist of the actions of the security forces explained. “A painful question is a conflict of interests between indigenous peoples and oil industrialists.”