Alexey Tsykarev, member of the Council of Representatives of Karelians, Veppsians and Finns of the RK under the Head of the Republic of Karelia, is appointed member of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples from the Group of Eastern European States for a term of three years, portal Karelia Official reports.

Alexey Tsykarev was put in nomination by the Youth Public organization Nuori Karjala (The Young Karelia) and supported by Chairman of the Advisory Committee of Finno-Ugric Peoples Valery Markov, Chairman of the Committee for Education, Culture, Sports, and Youth Affairs of the Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Karelia Andrei Rogalevich, and Professor Janne Saarikivi of the University of Helsinki.

At various times Alexey Tsykarev took part in sessions of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Expert Mechanism. In 2011 he was on probation on the rights of indigenous peoples at Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia in Moscow and at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, in 2012 he did his fieldwork in Moscow office of the United Nations in the Russian Federation.

The Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) was established by the Human Rights Council, the UN’s main human rights body, in 2007 under Resolution 6/36 as a subsidiary body of the Council. The Expert Mechanism provides the Human Rights Council with thematic advice, in the form of studies and research, on the rights of Indigenous peoples as directed by the Council. The Expert Mechanism may also suggest proposals to the Council for its consideration and approval. The Expert Mechanism has become a substitute for the working group on the draft United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples.

The Expert Mechanism works in close cooperation with the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples. The Expert Mechanism holds an annual five-day session in Geneva to prepare a report to be submitted to the Human Rights Council.

Over the period of five years of its existence the Expert Mechanism has conducted and published results of research on the rights of indigenous peoples to education, on the issue of the role of languages and culture in the promotion and protection of the rights and identity of indigenous peoples, on the issue of the right of indigenous peoples to participate in decision-making.