Round chopped under the root

The Ministry of Justice eliminated the largest NPOs engaged in the problems of the peoples of the North

On Wednesday, the Moscow City Court granted the lawyer’s claim for the liquidation of the Center for Assistance to the indigenous peoples of the North. Until its 20th anniversary, the largest organization, which occupied the problems of the peoples of the Russian Arctic, did not reach six months. The center managed to deal with the second attempt: in 2015 he was recognized as a “foreign agent”, but, contrary to the widespread practice, NGOs not only did not become self -destructive, but also achieved exclusion from this register three years later.

Now the CSC CMNS is a leading expert organization that helps the indigenous peoples of the North, the only one that has special status and accreditation at the UN agencies and structures, such as UNESCO, the Enrequisy program, the UN food and agricultural organization, economic and social councils. The “Higher Merra” was applied to it for purely formal grounds - as the director of NPO Rodion Sulandzig told the “new”, the organization was guilty of an irrelevant legal address and the outdated provisions of the charter. The defendant directly at the hearing submitted the documents necessary to eliminate these shortcomings, but the Moscow City Court refused to give time to amend the legal documents of the organization.

However, the plaintiffs had another, very amazing argument against the center - conducting seminars without a license. That is, according to the Ministry of Justice, any organization that conducts certain trainings, for example, in journalism, volunteering or access to the astral, is obliged to obtain a license for educational services. It is clear that the Center did not provide any educational services, its main activity is examination and legal assistance to the representatives of the CMNS. It is also clear that there is no other reason to cause the state the desire to cut down the indigenous ones under the root. Sulandziga believes that two factors destroyed the organization:

- The first is the development of the Arctic. Industrial development. In which the land and environmental rights of indigenous peoples are violated. We defend these rights. Therefore, they remove us - as objectionable, ”says Rodion.

Industrial development of Arctic resources, indeed, is increasingly resting against the rights of peoples living in the northern territories. If, under the Soviet regime, the “Aboriginal people”, occupying the territory of mineral mining, were referred to reservation at 24 hours, as, for example, with Koli SAAMs, now large rates made by business giants on the polar lands are sometimes bits with stubbornness and competent lawying of indigenous ones. So this fall it was possible to ban the extraction of gold, planned in the heart of the Yugyd VA National Park in Komi.

So the same Sami are stubbornly trying to expel private hunting farming from their pasture lands, and in this struggle they reached the UN.

By the way, their voice was heard: the other day, the Murmansk governor Chibis on behalf of the chairman of the permanent forum on the issues of the UN indigenous peoples sent a letter with an urgent request to organize a visit to the region with an expert group to assess the situation with the rights of indigenous peoples.

“This is the second reason for our liquidation - our membership in international organizations,” says Rodion Sulandziga. We are doing a lot of work, we have a direct access to the UN structure, and of course, this also could not like our opponents.

Rodion himself with opposition on this line already encountered, and in a very radical form-in 2014 he could not go to the World Conference of the Indigenous Peoples of the World in New York, since, since, since

Having presented a passport on a border control, he received it back without one page.

The center’s website published an open letter against pressure on the organization and its leadership. What is happening is directly called the "revenge" for the defending the rights of the indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East. In addition, the center team promises to continue their work anyway.

Otherwise, the protection of the indigenous peoples, who became the last barrier on the path of ruthless operation of the Arctic resources, will simply be nowhere to search. For the period between the censuses of 2000 and 2010, Russia has already lost two peoples - the Alyutors and Kereki completely disappeared. Close to the line of disappearance from the country's national map of more than a dozen ethnic groups, the number of each does not exceed 2000 people.