Decision by UN Human Rights Council on Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Unofficial translation from Russian

PRESS RELEASE

The first session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on June 29 approved the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and forwarded it to the UN General Assembly for consideration.

Thirty Council member states supported the draft, with 12 abstentions and the delegations of Russia and Canada voting against.

As to the motives of our voting on the substance of the document, the Russian delegation was unable to agree with a number of its provisions. It is primarily about the article on the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination, which, unfortunately, is not accompanied by a reservation that it is to be exercised in the framework of national legal systems and with regard for the provisions of the constitutions of countries and cannot be interpreted as a basis for the violation of the territorial integrity of states. If that specification had been made, we could have supported this article. In addition, into contradiction with Russian legislation come the articles on the rights of indigenous peoples to lands, territories and resources. All peoples of the country, not just the indigenous alone possess such rights.

Also unacceptable to the Russian side was the procedural aspect - the approach of the chairman-rapporteur of the working group of the UN Commission on Human Rights (Peru's representative Luis Chavez), who submitted for consideration by the Council a text not agreed in the Group. Such actions, as is known, are contrary to UN practice.

Russia, like a number of other countries, would have been ready to continue work on the text of the Declaration, but since neither this offer nor our concerns based on Russian legislation were taken into account and the draft itself was put to the vote we were unable to support the above decision.

June 30, 2006