On 14–17 June, the XII Conference of the Arctic Region Parliamentarians took place in Ulan-Ude. A representative of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia, Chief of Forward Planning and Preparation of Reports Section Marina Stepanova took part in the conference. She made a presentation on the topic ‘Protection of rights of indigenous minorities as one of the lines of the High Commissioner’s activity’.

The participants in the conference discussed the current issues of Arctic cooperation: the impact of human factors; social and cultural challenges in the Arctic; climatic and environmental changes; prospects for indigenous minorities and residents of the North, as well as economical, technical and scientific development of the region.

Chief of the Legal Center for the Russian Association of Indigenous Minorities of the North, Siberia and the Far East Yulia Yakel underlined the importance of the human rights commissioner institution. According to her, the role of this institution is increasing year by year, and in recent years the pressing problems of realisation of the indigenous people’s rights covered in the Russian High Commissioner’s Annual Report 2015 were alrgely addressed.

Considerable attention was also paid to the available experience of native minorities’ rights commissioners in Krasnoyarsk and Kamchatka territories, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Representatives of these regions spoke about the activities and projects in support of the indigenous minorities, the methods of their interaction with the representatives of state authorities, municipal government and public organisations.