DOCUMENT: 94-13040.TXT
                     U N I T E D    N A T I O N S
     Economic and Social Council         ENGLISH
     Distr.                              Original: ENGLISH/FRENCH/RUSSIAN
     GENERAL                                       AND SPANISH
     E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.4/1994/7/Add.1      GE. 94-13040 (E)
     20 June 1994
     COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
     Sub-Commission on Prevention of
     Discrimination and Protection of Minorities
     Working Group on Indigenous Populations
     Twelfth session
     25-29 July 1994
     Item 5 of the provisional agenda
        REVIEW OF DEVELOPMENTS PERTAINING TO THE PROMOTION AND 
        PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS OF 
                        INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS  
     
             Information received from indigenous peoples' 
                  and non-governmental organizations  
     
     
                         THE TREMEMBE MISSION
     [Original: French]
     [27 April 1994]
            A. The geographical and demographic background
     1. The Tremembe of Almofala and Varjota occupy a vast area 
     in the municipality of Itarema along the coast in the State 
     of Ceara in north-eastern Brazil. They live in small 
     communities in the area, situated between the Almofala 
     beaches and the far side of the Aracati-Mirim river, a 
     region they still call the MATA, which is the local name for 
     forest areas. We know that there are other Tremembe 
     communities either in Itarema or in other coastal 
     municipalities in Ceara, Piaui and Maranhao. They are 
     fishermen and excellent divers.  
     
     2. The work done in 1986 during the first visit of a team of 
     technicians from the Fundacao Nacional do Indio (National 
     Indian Foundation) (FUNAI) to this indigenous area resulted 
     in a count of 3,061 Tremembe. Since the work did not take 
     account of all the communities in the area, the size of the 
     population who consider themselves Tremembe may be even 
     greater.  
     
            B. The "aldeamento" (Indian settlement) and the 
               collective memory and cultural tradition  
     
     3. In 1702 Father Jose Borges de Novais founded a rural 
     mission settlement called "Nossa Senhora da Conceicao" (Our 
     Lady of the Immaculate Conception) at Almofala. The Church 
     of the Holy Lady was built there and is a historical point 
     of reference for the Tremembe because it symbolizes their 
     link with the past in this area and with what it represents 
     today. The historical records corroborate the orally 
     transmitted history of the Tremembe.  
     
     4. Although their lands have been visited and invaded for 
     500 years, the Tremembe have succeeded in preserving some of 
     their cultural traditions. One of the most outstanding 
     examples is the Torem dance, which has become typical of the 
     Tremembe culture today and through which they keep alive 
     their links with nature and with their ancestors.  
     
     5. Oral history transmits and strengthens the ties which the 
     Tremembe cultivate with the "Land of the Holy Lady" the 
     tribal land where they were born and live.  
     
            C. Resistance and the fight for the land 
     6. The Tremembe have been driven out of their lands over a 
     long period. The year 1950 marked the beginning of the 
     process of modernizing rural areas in Ceara. Ensuing 
     expulsions have been accompanied by a policy of enclosures 
     that fragments the territory, as well as by displacements, 
     causing the Tremembe to lose contact with and control of all 
     their land. 
     
     7. In the struggle to protect their rights the Tremembe are 
     inspired by the example of the indigenous community of 
     Varjota, which after bitter fighting remained the only  
     community where the land was managed by the group. They have 
     389 hectares where they are able to fish, hunt, gather 
     fruit, grow crops (cassava, corn, beans) and rear domestic 
     animals for their daily subsistence.  
     
     8. They banded together to resist an agricultural firm, 
     Ducoco S.A., which has been established in the area since 
     1978 and has taken various steps to evict the community from 
     its land.  
     
     9. In the beginning, the Tremembe were backed by the Church 
     Advisory Commission on Land Issues (CAPT). Since 1986 
     support has come from a group of missionaries - the Tremembe 
     Mission of the Diocese of Itapipoca - who promote the 
     cultural and social stand of the Tremembe and back their 
     assertion of themselves as an ethnic group, despite age-old 
     prejudices against the exercise of their rights.  
     
     10. The Tremembe are claiming only a small portion of the 
     4,900 hectares which they have traditionally occupied, 
     because they realize that they do not have enough resources 
     to withstand the large landowners who have settled on the 
     northern part of their lands. This means that the Tremembe 
     have lost their mangues (the area of mangrove swamps, the 
     quagmires or "Tremembe") as well as the "Lagoa Santa"  (Holy 
     Pool), which the Tremembe of Almofala regard as their most 
     historic site,  since it was the scene of the Tremembe's 
     last stand as late as 1972. The FUNAI team of scientists 
     have erected an archaeological site there which is very 
     important for the history of the community.  
     
     11. In Ceara, in the north-east, and nationwide, the 
     Tremembe participate in mobilizing the indigenous people to 
     protect the rights which are theirs under the 1988 Brazilian 
     Constitution, as well as in drafting the new ESTATUTO DO 
     INDIO (Indian Statute) and in the campaigns for indigenous 
     solidarity and the delimitation of indigenous land.  
     
     12. During the last decade the indigenous movement has grown 
     in Ceara, where for a long time indigenous groups were 
     completely disregarded. Several other groups like the 
     Pitaguary, the Genipapo-Caninde, the Potiguara of Mount Nebo 
     and the Tremembe of Capim-Acu have now joined the Tremembe 
     and Tapeba (who have met the conditions for demarcation of 
     their land) on the road to ethnic identification.  
     
            D. The campaign for the demarcation of indigenous 
               land - hope for the future  
     
     13. On 4 September 1992 FUNAI Brasilia established a 
     technical working group for the ethnic identification of the 
     Tremembe of Almofala and Varjota and of their territory. 
     Both procedures are necessary for carrying out a 
     demarcation, the administrative part of which is the 
     responsibility of FUNAI. Under the Brazilian Constitution 
     the time-limit for the demarcation expired on 5 October 
     1993.  
     
     14. For centuries, part of the Tremembe population has been 
     dependent on the FAZENDEIROS (large landowners, including a 
     few POSSEIROS, in other words occupants of indigenous land) 
     and the businessmen, who also have political control of the 
     region. This section of the population, driven by hunger and 
     the increasing scarcity of land and resources for survival, 
     took up a position at variance with their own rights and in 
     so doing sided with the landowners and the politicians.  
     
     15. FUNAI, meanwhile, adopted the comprehensive findings of 
     the administrative proceedings initiated by its working 
     group (8 July 1993) and ordered their publication in the 
     DIARIO OFICIAL of the Union.  
     
     16. The Tremembe of Almofala and Varjota are thus officially 
     recognized as an indigenous people on indigenous territory.  
     
     17. The reaction was not long in coming: the area's 
     politicians hurriedly sent letters and telegrams to exert 
     pressure on the Ministry of Justice, while in the disputed 
     areas the pressure was more direct, with violence designed 
     to sow panic and confusion. Following that, a dispatch from 
     the Minister of Justice on 24 August 1993 yielded to the 
     requests for a review of the case and referred the entire 
     matter back to FUNAI. Ducoco S.A. filed an application for 
     the outright annulment of the administrative demarcation 
     proceedings. Mrs. Germana Oliveira de Moraes, the judge, 
     granted the application and suspended the land demarcation 
     proceedings.  
     
     18. A procedural battle then began in various courts, 
     involving FUNAI/the Federal Union and Ducoco S.A. Exercising 
     their constitutional rights, the Tremembe have engaged a 
     team of lawyers who are helping them and at the same time 
     becoming aware of the realities of the Tremembe as an ethnic 
     group.  
     
     19. FUNAI recently sought an expert opinion in the disputed 
     area. The application was handled by Judge de Moraes, who 
     appointed a civil engineer to give the opinion. The Tremembe 
     have challenged that decision because the issue is 
     essentially anthropological. The judge has now approached 
     the Brazilian Association of Anthropology to obtain a list 
     of anthropologists likely to provide an expert opinion. The 
     other lawyers may also appoint an assistant expert.  
     
     20. The Tremembe thus continue to live beset by these 
     various difficulties. They have on the one hand to organize 
     themselves to cope with threats, persecution and aggression, 
     but on the other hand they are working to promote their 
     traditional activities (for example, handicrafts) and defend 
     their rights. 
     
     
     
                      SERVICES OF THE MIXE PEOPLE
     [Original: Spanish]
     [18 May 1994]
        DECLARATION OF TLAHUITOLTEPEC ON THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS 
         OF THE INDIGENOUS NATIONS, NATIONALITIES AND PEOPLES 
                         OF INDO-LATIN AMERICA  
     
          Bearing in mind that we the indigenous nations, 
     nationalities and peoples are natives of the territories 
     which we have traditionally occupied, and that in most cases 
     alien religion, education and legislation were imposed on us 
     against our will,  
     
          Considering that Government States were established on 
     top of our own political structures and governments and that 
     we did not voluntarily accept their jurisdiction over us,  
     
          Reaffirming that the right of self-determination is a 
     human right of peoples, as an absolute pre-requisite for the 
     enjoyment of all the other internationally recognized human 
     rights,  
     
          Bearing in mind that individual human rights are 
     constantly violated in any nation State, and that history 
     has shown them to be insufficient to safeguard the future of 
     mankind,  
     
          Convinced that we human beings who inhabit this planet 
     must promote legal recognition of the collective rights of 
     all peoples, in a close relationship with nature as a whole 
     and what it encompasses,  
     
          Reaffirming that the right of self-determination for 
     our nations, nationalities, peoples and communities is 
     systematically violated by the government States, thus 
     preventing our economic, social, cultural, civil and 
     political development,  
     
          Recognizing that considerable progress has been made 
     with regard to the rights of our peoples within the 
     framework of international law, and that despite this, many 
     States have not in this respect ratified the instruments 
     which concern them, or fail to comply with them internally 
     despite what they proclaim to the world,  
     
          We the indigenous representatives assembled here at the 
     Indo-Latin American Symposium, held in the Tlahuitoltepec 
     community of the Mixe people from 27 to 31 October 1993, 
     after a legal examination of the fundamental concepts of the 
     rights of our indigenous nations, nationalities and peoples, 
     have agreed, of our own free will, to proclaim the following 
     declaration:  
     
     1. We the representatives of the indigenous Indo-Latin 
     American nations, nationalities and peoples unanimously 
     agree that we have always been and will forever continue to 
     be peoples with our own history, religion, culture, 
     education, language and other fundamental characteristics of 
     nations, nationalities and peoples. 
     
     2. We reaffirm that our indigenous nations, nationalities 
     and peoples have had and still have their own way of life, 
     which is reflected in their political, legal, economic, 
     social and cultural structures, and demands the recognition 
     and respect of the nation States which, in law and in 
     practice, have denied our existence.  
     
     3. The nation States must understand that the aspiration of 
     our indigenous nations, nationalities and peoples is not to 
     establish themselves as new States, but to be given the 
     recognition and respect due to us as the first inhabitants 
     of these lands and territories in which the nation States 
     have established themselves, by virtue of the principle 
     "first in time, first in law".  
     
     4. We the indigenous nations, nationalities and peoples 
     reiterate that we eschew violence as a means of solving our 
     problems. We reassert our capacity for dialogue as the 
     proper and civilized way to settle the great differences 
     between the nation States and our interests.  
     
     5. The nation States need to assume responsibility for 
     creating a new legal, political, territorial, cultural and 
     economic system not only to satisfy our aspirations but also 
     to give their own existence legitimacy.  
     
     6. We therefore urge all the nation States to recognize 
     their multiple composition, bearing in mind that indigenous 
     nations, nationalities and peoples today included within the 
     territory of the present States continue to exist as they 
     have done for centuries.  
     
     7. We the indigenous nations, nationalities and peoples of 
     Indo-Latin America are fully aware that we have held our 
     lands and territories for centuries, and it is therefore 
     urgently necessary in the interests of peaceful and 
     respectful coexistence, that unequivocal and full legal 
     recognition should be accorded to our rights.  
     
     8. Our territories and lands constitute our life, because 
     within them lies the cradle of our age-old cultures, 
     regulated by our own legal systems which proclaim our 
     internal and external relationship with these territories 
     and lands, reflected in our conduct as individuals and 
     communities.  
     
     9. Our territories and lands are inalienable, 
     imprescriptible and untakable, because it is so established 
     in every one of our own legal systems, which derive from our 
     cosmic view that they are an integral part of our indigenous 
     nations, nationalities and peoples. This is so, because the 
     Land like our Mother, cannot be turned into private 
     property, since otherwise we could not guarantee the 
     collective future of our peoples.  
     
     10. It is therefore imperative and urgent that the nation 
     States should prevent and punish any action of genocide, 
     ethnocide or the destruction of the environment, because in 
     this way they will also safeguard the future of mankind. For 
     this reason, we condemn the killing of our Ashanika and 
     Yanomani brothers, and other acts, which prove that the 
     invasion and murder of our peoples has not ended. 
     11. Respect for the right to self-determination is vital for 
     the future development of our indigenous nations, 
     nationalities and peoples. According to the international 
     human rights covenants, this right is not the exclusive 
     prerogative of governments but an inalienable right of all 
     the peoples of the earth, without which they cannot fully 
     exercise their other national and international rights. 
     
     12. In such difficult times as these, the highest priority 
     must be given to recognizing the regional or local 
     autonomies of our indigenous nations, nationalities and 
     peoples when we deem fit to assume them as practical ways of 
     exercising our self-determination, and in order to 
     strengthen the unity of the present nation States through 
     constitutional recognition and its effective application in 
     each case. 
     13. We the indigenous nations, nationalities and peoples 
     understand our cultures to be any manifestation that 
     expresses the comprehensive concept of our relationship with 
     our Mother Earth and our relationships among ourselves, as 
     human beings in a community. Our cultures include elements 
     such as language, social, political and economic customs, 
     the arts, sciences, medicine and religion. 
     14. In view of the foregoing, we condemn any action or 
     intent to undermine our culture as a whole or any element 
     thereof and we reject any policy or activity which seeks to 
     impose itself on any of them. 
     15. In order for our indigenous nations, nationalities and 
     peoples to control and dispose freely of their lands, 
     territories and natural resources, we ourselves must 
     strengthen our legal systems, the fundamental principle of 
     which is the search for harmony between human beings and 
     nature. This means a new concept of law on the part of the 
     nation States and the acceptance of legal pluralism. 
     16. We make a special appeal to the governments of the 
     nation States to ratify ILO Convention 169 whenever the 
     indigenous nations, nationalities and peoples so request. 
     They should also support the adoption in the United Nations 
     of the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous 
     Peoples, without any restriction, since that instrument 
     establishes the fundamental rights which safeguard our 
     future. 
     17. In the Organization of American States, the Latin 
     American States should actively encourage the adoption of an 
     instrument which will guarantee the full exercise of the 
     collective rights of our different nations, nationalities 
     and peoples. 
     18. We confirm our proposal put forward on 18 June 1993 at 
     the World Conference on Human Rights that the International 
     Decade of the World's Indigenous People should be proclaimed 
     with effect from 1994. 
     19. Similarly, we strongly urge Governments and the United 
     Nations to appoint a High Commissioner for Human Rights, who 
     will devote special attention to the collective rights of 
     our indigenous nations, nationalities and peoples.
     
     20. Finally, we are convinced that the future of Indo-Latin 
     America will be better and more secure if there is a joint 
     effort by the nation States and the indigenous nations, 
     nationalities and peoples, to make dialogue and respect for 
     equality through diversity the bases for settling problems 
     and differences in order to achieve universal peace and the 
     development of all.  
     
     Issued on 31 October 1993 in Tlahuitoltepec of the Mixe 
     People, Oaxaca. 
     
     
     
               COMMITTEE TO SAVE THE KOLYMA RIVER BASIN
                           REPUBLIC OF SAKHA
     [Original: Russian]
     [18 April 1994]
                   Kolyma River Hydroelectric Scheme
               and the rights of the indigenous peoples
                             of the Kolyma
     1. Together with technological progress the twentieth 
     century has brought environmental catastrophe to many 
     peoples, including the peoples of the Russian North. The 
     industrial conquest of the North has as its accompaniment a 
     barbaric attitude towards the aboriginal peoples' 
     environment.  
     2. Everyone has heard of the tragedies that have affected 
     such major Siberian rivers as the Ob, the Yenisei and the 
     Vilyui and the disaster this has turned out to be for the 
     indigenous peoples.  
     3. The threat of similar environmental degradation, in the 
     form of a scheme to build a series of hydroelectric 
     stations, now looms over a major river in the north-east of 
     Russia, the Kolyma.  
     4. The Kolyma is formed from the confluence of the rivers 
     Kula and Ayan-Yurakh, which rise in the Khalkan Range of 
     Russia's Magadan Region. It is 2,129 km long, drains an area 
     of 643,000 km2 and empties into the Kolyma Gulf of the East 
     Siberian Sea.  
     5. The Kolyma flows through the Magadan Region and the 
     Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in the Russian Federation. It 
     has been from time immemorial, and it still is a source of 
     life for a number of indigenous peoples: the Evenks, Evens 
     (or Lamuts), the Chukchi and the northern Yakuts. It is also 
     the only home of the Yukagir people, a race that was, by 
     Siberian standards, plentiful in the eighteenth century, but 
     that is now vanishing.  
     6. The lower reaches of the Kolyma flow through three of the 
     administrative regions in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia): 
     Upper Kolyma (area: 67,800 km2; population: 10,147; 
     aboriginal peoples: Yakuts, Evens, Yukagirs); Middle Kolyma 
     (area: 125,200 km2; population: 9,421; aboriginal peoples: 
     Yakuts, Evens, Yukagirs) and Lower Kolyma (area: 87,100 km2; 
     population: 14,001; aboriginal peoples: Evens, Yukagirs, 
     Chukchi, Yakuts).  
     7. In terms of the variety of its flora and fauna, the 
     Kolyma is one of the world's richest rivers. It is home to 
     37 species of fish, including some highly prized edible 
     varieties: sturgeon, Stenodus leucicthys nelma, Coregonus 
     nasus, Coregonus muksun, etc. The Kolyma River basin 
     supports 174 varieties of birds, including some that are 
     extremely rare, such as the Arctic white crane (Grus 
     leucogeranus), cuneate-tailed gull (Rhodestethia rosea) and 
     northern swan, as well as numerous fur-bearing animals 
     (Arctic fox, ermine, red fox, sable, etc.). The area along 
     the Kolyma is rich in domesticated and wild reindeer and 
     elk. The native economy is based on reindeer- and horse-
     herding, cattle-farming, fishing, fur-trading and the 
     gathering of the mushrooms, berries and other useful plants 
     that grow on the banks of the river and the many lakes 
     connected with it.  
     8. Building of the first hydroelectric station (HES) on the 
     river, the Kolyma HES, began in 1973, without the knowledge 
     of the people living in the area concerned; the Kolyma 
     hydroelectric scheme as a whole, as planned by Kolyma 
     Gesstroi (Kolyma Hydroconstruction) of the Magadan Region 
     and the Ministry of Fuel and Energy of the Russian 
     Federation, calls for the construction of a series of five 
     stations to a design drawn up by the Lengidroproekt design 
     institute of St. Petersburg in 1990-1993. Construction of 
     the second stage of the scheme, the Ust-Srednekan HES, has 
     begun, on a site in Magadan Region 217 km downstream from 
     the Kolyma HES and 14 km upstream from the village of Ust-
     Srednekan, at kilometre 1,677 on the Kolyma River, 517 km 
     from the administrative boundary of the Republic of Sakha 
     (Yakutia). Work on the Ust-Srednekan HES is currently halted 
     because of the public campaign to defend the Kolyma River 
     basin.  
     9. The Ust-Srednekan HES is intended to reinforce the 
     generating capacity of the Magadanenergo power authority for 
     which it will be operated.  
     10. The principal economic activity in the area to be served 
     by the Ust-Srednekan HES is the mining and concentration of 
     gold, silver and tin ore. The station's intended installed 
     capacity is 550 MW.  
     11. The adverse effect of the Kolyma hydroelectric scheme on 
     the surrounding area is enormous even now, but when 
     construction is complete and the planned industrial and 
     other facilities are in operation the Kolyma and its 
     environs could be totally ruined. That in turn would lead to 
     the disappearance of the indigenous peoples, who have 
     already been brought to the brink of ethnic disaster.  
     12. The expert studies that have been made to date do not 
     fully encompass the negative effects of the scheme.  
     13. The environmental impact statement was drawn up by the 
     Lengidroproekt design institute on the basis of research by 
     the Magadan Environmental Centre and institutes of the Yakut 
     Scientific Centre. The conclusions and views advanced are, 
     inter alia, that the building of the Kolyma and Ust-
     Srednekan stations will reduce the catchment area of the 
     Kolyma River in the vicinity of the town of Srednekolymsk by 
     17 and 27 per cent respectively. Proportional decreases are 
     likely in maximum stream flow, so that the peak water level 
     in wet years will be lowered by 60-70 cm with the 
     construction of the Kolyma HES and by a further 100 cm with 
     the construction of the Ust-Srednekan HES. In an averagely 
     wet year the peak water level will be lowered by 1.5 m.  
     14. The ice-jam rate will be 55 per cent for the village of 
     Zyryanka and 76 per cent for Srednekolymsk. The frequency of 
     catastrophic water levels at Srednekolymsk when the river is 
     in flood or there is pack ice will be greatly increased. 
     15. It is clear to even a casual observer that the pattern 
     of flow levels in the river has changed considerably.  
     16. While water quality is stated and a list given of the 
     main pollutants, there is no calculation of the pollution 
     index or comparison with the maximum permissible 
     concentrations.  
     17. Lengidroproekt calculates that the hydroelectric scheme 
     will reduce the area of flood-plain inundated by 10.8 per 
     cent, with lakes shrinking by 11.2 per cent, but data from 
     the Institute for the Physical and Technical Problems of the 
     North of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of 
     Sciences put the reduction at 50 per cent.  
     18. The adverse economic impact of the scheme is not fully 
     assessed: there is no calculation of the damage that will be 
     done to vegetation (trees, berry plants) or to the 
     population, birds or agricultural land.  
     19. No prediction is made of the scheme's effect on the 
     living conditions of the aboriginal population of the 
     regions through which the river flows.  
     20. The scheme will have an adverse effect on the habitat of 
     waterfowl and mammals and on the size of the invertebrate 
     population.  
     21. Tremendous damage will be caused to the fishing industry 
     in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The precise magnitude of 
     that damage is not defined.  
     22. Generally speaking, the environmental impact assessment 
     made for the hydroelectric scheme fails to meet the 
     requirements of the Provisional Instructions concerning the 
     Procedure for Environmental Impact Assessment in Feasibility 
     Studies and Design Work for Economic Facilities and 
     Complexes approved by the Deputy Chairman of the USSR State 
     Committee on Protection of the Environment on 10 May 1990.  
     23. The above are some of the findings of an expert 
     commission of the State Environmental Assessment Directorate 
     of the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources of 
     the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). They relate only to part of 
     the scheme as designed by Lengidroproekt in 1990-1993.  
     24. No reliable information is yet available concerning the 
     pollutants entering the Kolyma. Doctor's records, however, 
     show that gastrointestinal and kidney disorders are 
     increasing among the permanent population.  
     25. Fishermen report that they are increasingly finding 
     ulcerated fish: whitefish, dace and sometimes Coregonus 
     nasus and other species. Channels connecting lakes to the 
     Kolyma are drying up, so that water quality is falling and 
     fish are dying in the lakes.  
     26. The artificial lowering of the water level and the 
     releases of water from the reservoir of the existing HES 
     have seriously disrupted fish spawning. This could 
     eventually lead to the complete disappearance of some 
     species. 
     27. Hunters say that the influence of the HES is seriously 
     reducing the populations of fur-bearing animals, as well as 
     of other wild and domesticated animals and small rodents. 
     For example, the flooding caused by the release of water 
     from the dam after the winter ice melts drowns fur-bearing 
     animals such as muskrats, ermine, squirrels and small 
     rodents and the total number of these creatures is gradually 
     declining.  
     28. To date, public opinion in the three relevant regions of 
     the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and in Magadan Region has 
     been ignored, as have the demands for the halting of the 
     hydroelectric scheme from the public Committee to Save the 
     Kolyma River Basin.  
     29. The appeals that deputies for the Kolyma regions to the 
     Supreme Council of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) made to 
     the Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, and the former Prime 
     Minister of Russia, Egor Gaidar, when they visited the 
     Republic have gone unanswered.  
     30. The construction of the Kolyma hydroelectric scheme not 
     only marks the beginning of the degradation of the 
     environment in one of the most picturesque corners of the 
     Earth but also threatens the future of the aboriginal 
     peoples of the Kolyma: the Evens, Chukchi, Yukagirs and 
     northern Yakuts, whose culture is an integral part of the 
     circumpolar culture of the peoples of the Arctic.  
     31. The construction of the Kolyma hydroelectric scheme is a 
     gross violation of the sovereignty of the Republic of Sakha 
     (Yakutia) and breaches the right of the indigenous peoples, 
     the Kolyma Evens, Yukagirs, Chukchi and Yakuts, to the 
     possession and use of their ancestral territory, their right 
     to maintain their own way of life. It may in time turn the 
     aboriginal peoples of the Kolyma into environmental refugees 
     and lead to ethnocide.  
     32. This is happening despite the legislation adopted by 
     Russia, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the 
     international community to protect the rights of indigenous 
     peoples. In particular, it contravenes the Constitutions of 
     the Russian Federation and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), 
     the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation on 
     Urgent Measures to Protect the Living Places and the 
     Economic Activity of the Minority Peoples of the North 
     (Decree No. 397, issued on 22 April 1992) and the Act of the 
     Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) on the Nomadic, Tribal Community 
     of the Minority Peoples of the North. It also violates the 
     ILO Convention concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples 
     (Convention No. 169, Geneva, 1989).  
     33. The Committee to Save the Kolyma River Basin appeals 
     urgently to the Sub-Commission on Prevention of 
     Discrimination and Protection of Minorities of the United 
     Nations Commission on Human Rights to include the present 
     report in the study of the connection between environmental 
     degradation and the rights of indigenous peoples. 
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