⚡️ Russia's Foreign Ministry has published its second report on the situation regarding the rights of Indigenous peoples in selected countries.

Like the previous report published in 2024, it identifies the key current challenges and analyses the situation of Indigenous populations in six Arctic Council member states: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the United States, as well as Australia, Japan and New Zealand.

In recent years, the issue of Indigenous peoples’ rights has become excessively politicised and rife with cynically applied double standards. Overall, it is increasingly being used to foment division and confrontation rather than promote cooperation among members of the international community.

The US, Canada and their allies have stepped up their activities at universal international platforms, within regional formats and in the media, promoting narratives about alleged violations of Indigenous peoples’ rights in Russia and several developing countries. In doing so, they seek to:

• divert global attention from problems in North America, Western Arctic states, Australia, Japan and New Zealand;
• call into question Russia’s right to its ancestral Arctic territories.

Virtually all the countries covered by the report have historically pursued policies of assimilation and discrimination against their Indigenous populations in one form or another. This has created, and continues to cause, numerous sociopolitical and cultural problems.

Many countries are currently developing mechanisms for consultation and cooperation with Indigenous communities. However, the measures adopted in this area are often incomplete.

☝️Common challenges facing Indigenous peoples in various countries include:

• the gradual erosion of their traditional way of life as a consequence of past assimilation policies;
• violations of their rights to traditional lands and natural resources;
• environmental degradation caused by industrial exploitation and the militaristic activities of certain states abroad;
• high unemployment;
• Indigenous communities’ dependence on state subsidies.

These adverse phenomena are particularly acute in Arctic countries, which is why the situation there has been addressed in a separate report.

🇷🇺🇧🇾 This issue was also traditionally covered in the third Joint Report by the Foreign Ministries of Russia and Belarus – “The Human Rights Situation in Certain Countries”, published in June 2026.

These matters are also systematically addressed in the Russian Foreign Ministry’s annual human rights reports, including those examining the glorification of Nazism, the spread of neo-Nazism and other practices contributing to the escalation of contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. The latest such report was published in August 2025.