International Summer School in Legal Anthropology: Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the North to Fish Resources
(Saint-Petersburg – Pushkin, August 20 – 25, 2001)

The 2nd International Summer School in Legal Anthropology has been organized with the financial help from the Government of Canada (grants from the Canadian Embassy in Moscow and Consulate General in St.-Petersburg), “Open Society” Institute (“Law” Program), and the World Bank (the Small Grants Program). Lecturers from Canada (British Columbia, Prince George) and Germany (Halle) received financial support from foreign funds and their institutions (CIDA program for the former, and Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology for the latter).

Issues of natural resources’ use and management, as well as rights of indigenous minority peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East to these resources (first of all to biological renewable resources) were at the center of presentations and discussions. Problems, arising from co-existence of and relations between norms of international law, state law and folk law in Russia and Canada have been reviewed at the School as well.

Issues of distributing fishing, other freshwater and marine renewable biological resources are very important and urgent for many indigenous minority peoples in Russia, especially for those residing in Kola peninsular, Chukotka, Kamchatka, Sakhalin. One should stress that quality and quantity of these resources still determines quality of life of indigenous peoples to a considerable extent. Certain legal basis for resolving these issues has been created in the Russian Federation, but some problems are still not fully covered by legislation, and practice often does not correspond with the existing laws.

Legal education is needed in order to help representatives of the indigenous minority peoples and their organizations to deal with the existing situation. This education at the Summer School was focused on training in practical activities that are aimed at realization of indigenous rights, guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation in line with the universal principles and norms of international law (Article # 69 of the Russian Constitution). Besides, Russian students were very interested in and benefited greatly from learning international, and first of all Canadian, experience, because they saw that their position has much in common with the latter. But what is most important, the students at the Summer School learned about how issues of providing indigenous access to resources are being resolved through the court procedures, because this practice has been developed in Canada to a much greater extent than in Russia.

The following main goals have been achieved within the Project:

• providing students – representatives of the indigenous peoples of Russia, specialists and activists of public movements in support of indigenous rights – with legal and anthropological knowledge and with practical skills in using this knowledge.
• helping students to understand changes, currently taking place in natural resource management and in various systems of folk law, as well as forms of relationships between folk law and state law, in different countries of contemporary world.
• giving students theoretical, practical and psychological training in resolving independently legal problems, emerging in the field of using marine and freshwater resources for subsistence, including preparation of legal documents (requests, complaints, etc.).

Unfortunately, Canadian colleagues failed to receive adequate financial support and thus students, representing First Nations of Canada, could not participate, though their active role in the Summer school has been planned.

Organizations that were engaged in the Project:

• Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
• University of Northern British Columbia (Canada)
• Association of the Indigenous Minority Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation (RAIPON)
• Commission of Folk Law and Legal Pluralism of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES)

Organizing Committee of the Summer School:

• Tishkov V.A. – Project supervisor, Professor, Director of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
• Klokov K.B., Professor, head of laboratory at the Institute of Geography of the St.-Petersburg State University
• Novikova N.I., Ph.D., senior researcher at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
• Yamskov A.N., Ph.D., head of department at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Summer School and meetings of the Russian-Canadian-German Working group on preparing next Summer school.

Already at the previous stage members of the Working group from Russia, Canada, USA, representatives of the IUAES Commission on Folk Law and Legal Pluralism from Germany planned this Project to be just a part of a long-term program of legal education for indigenous peoples of the North, provided through a series of International Summer Schools. The 1st International Summer School in Legal Anthropology took place in 1999 in Zvenigorod (Moscow province). At the meeting of the Working group, held in Pushkin (Leningrad province) after the end of the 2nd Summer School, it was decided to organize the 3rd International Summer School in Legal Anthropology in Canada, British Columbia in the year 2002.

The 2nd International Summer School in Legal Anthropology focused on issues of natural resources’ use and management, as well as rights of indigenous minority peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East to these resources, first of all to biological renewable resources (for details see the Program in Appendix # 1).

Lectures have been presented by leading Russian lawyers and ethnologists, as well as experts in legal anthropology from Canada and Germany (see Appendix # 2). Lecturers were invited on the basis of their professional achievements in the field of theory, as well as personal experience in studies of legal anthropology and its practical use in defending indigenous peoples’ rights.

29 students took part in the Summer School. They were represented by graduate and a few post-graduate students of the A.I. Herzen Saint-Petersburg State Pedagogical University, State Polar Academy (St.-Petersburg), Institute of Technologies of Minority Peoples’ of Russia Traditional Handicrafts at the Saint-Petersburg University of Technology and Design. Activists of the indigenous peoples’ movement from Moscow, Taimyr, Yamal, Chukotka, Kamchatka, Sakhalin, Magadan province were also among the students at the School (see Appendix # 3).

Special attention to legal education of indigenous graduate students determined the place where the School took place – Pushkin town in the outskirts of Saint-Petersburg, because the latter has become a center of university education for the youth of the indigenous minority peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of Russia. After graduating, many of them would return back to work in their native places and communities, and there they are often the only educated persons. So their relatives and neighbors usually consult them on various important issues, including conflicts over resource use. When selecting students for the Summer school, we also tried to put together persons of different ages and with different life experiences, so that during the School they would find it interesting and useful to contact each other and to learn from each other.

Young lawyers from the Legal Center “Rodnik” (NGO) participated at the School as students too. They attended lectures and actively participated in practical trainings, that was certainly very useful for them. But they also helped indigenous students and activists during preparations for a role-playing exercise

The School was organized so that in most cases foreign and Russian lecturers presented reports on the same topic. Lectures were covering all aspects of indigenous rights to resources and possibilities of defending these rights, including court appeals and proceedings.

Another special characteristic of the School were studies in small groups and a role-playing exercise. Students also worked with many documents – drafts of the World Bank Operational Policy No 4.10 “Indigenous Peoples” and Procedures No 4.10 “Indigenous Peoples”, draft Federal Law “On Ethnological Assessment in the Russian Federation”, Canadian documents that regulate research in indigenous communities.

At the first day of the Summer School students received sets of educational materials that they would be able to use after returning home. (List of materials see in Appendix # 4; copies of most of these materials are enclosed.)

When the Summer School was opened, the students were first given information on general issues, related to position of indigenous peoples in contemporary world with its growing competition for resources in areas with ethnically mixed populations (V.A. Tishkov, K.B. Klokov, K. and F. von Benda-Beckmanns). Among other things, various approaches to co-management of biological resources and to legal and political decisions that could change legal system and distribution of rights in favor of a certain population group have been reviewed in those presentations.

Lectures, read by professor V.A. Kryazhkov, contained detailed characteristics of international legal basis for the status of indigenous peoples in its relation to Constitution and laws of the Russian Federation. He showed institutions, both national and international, that provide guarantees for implementing these norms. His special attention has been given to indigenous minority peoples’ land rights and their rights to other natural resources.  

Legal basis of aboriginal peoples’ of Canada rights was reviewed in details in lectures, presented by Mr. R. Krehbiel. He came to a conclusion that despite serious differences in history, justice and governance between Canada and Russia, positions of indigenous peoples in both countries have much in common. So these countries have a lot to learn from the experience of each other. Practically the same conclusions could be formulated after lectures of Dr. J.-A. Fiske, who presented an analysis of “inherent rights of First Nations” in Canada and of tensions, caused by modern development of indigenous peoples, their need to trade with resources, and transformations of their folk law norms.

Considerable time was given to analysis of situation in Kamchatka, and a joint lecture by O.A. Murashko and O.I. Davydova was followed by commentaries from local activists O.N. Zaporotsky and M.Kh. Sidorenko. Main report was devoted to review of traditional practices of indigenous peoples of the Far East in fishing and hunting sea mammals and its legal regulation during 19th and 20th centuries. Discussing these issues within a case study of Kamchatka province and Koryak Autonomous Area caused serious interest on a part of many students and provoked discussions between them; some students presented their own experience of the same kind but from other regions.

Establishing new relations with international (like the World Bank) and state institutions is a new and recent development of last years in the life of indigenous peoples. Issues of indigenous participation in Environmental Impact Assessment in Canada (R. Krehbiel), proposed role of indigenous peoples in procedures of ethnological assessment in Russia (V.V. Stepanov), indigenous policies of the World Bank (A.N. Yamskov) have been reviewed in lectures, followed by practical studies of corresponding documents by students. It is important to stress that written students’ comments and proposals on the draft documents of the World Bank’s indigenous policies, undergoing revision at this very moment, have been collected and passed to the representatives of the World Bank in Moscow (Dr. S. Peabody and Dr. S.S. Artobolevsky).  

Discussions about ethical norms of relationships between indigenous peoples and scholars took considerable time during the School. Dr. G. Fondahl presented a lecture on the topic, and two documents – Protocols, regulating such relations – have been given to the students for individual studies and possible use. One would like this theme to cause attention of the Association of the Indigenous Minority Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation.

Another very important issue that deserves attention of the Association is a problem of using and incorporating norms of folk law in legal system and laws of the Russian Federation. Adopting three Federal Laws on indigenous peoples of Russia that take into account traditions and customs of these populations makes it necessary to start joint work of representatives of indigenous peoples with ethnographers and lawyers, devoted to studies and fixation (in some forms) of folk law norms.

Issues of direct resolution of conflicts between indigenous peoples and authorities occupied an important position at the School. This theme was at the center of the role-playing exercise, and it was also reviewed in the lecture, presented by a practicing lawyer G.N. Kuznetsova. She informed the students about possibilities of defending their rights in courts and guarantees of their rights, fixed in Constitution and laws of Russia. This lecture also included practical advice on how to prepare formal complaints and appeals to courts. Professor A.I. Kovler, a judge of the European Human Rights Court, gave a lecture about this court and its practice in defending human rights and basic freedoms of representatives of indigenous peoples, using examples of actual legal cases of the Court.

A role-playing exercise “Negotiations between Provincial Administration, fishing collective farm, and community of indigenous peoples of the North [on sharing fish resources]” (copies of its documentation are enclosed) was organized at this School for the first time. Its background information and plan, or scenario, was prepared in advance with the help of psychologist V. Sosnin who acted as a consultant; these documents were given to every student. Students formed several groups – representatives of Provincial Administration, officers of Fishing Control, members of indigenous community, managers and workers of the fishing collective farm, group of professional fishermen who arrived from outside for a fishing season.

As the exercise demonstrated, some students and first of all many of the graduate indigenous students still need further training in formulating their claims, presenting arguments and defending their position. On the other hand, in the process they were learning to find ways to compromise solutions and to maintain negotiations in conflict situations. As a result, they realized that they really need to learn how to reach agreements. By the way, in the set of materials for the role-playing exercise, distributed among the students, there was a special instruction “How to participate in negotiations” (a copy is enclosed).

At the last day of the School its results were summarized, and the students filled the questionnaire "Assessing results of the Summer school” (a copy is enclosed). All students were advised to write essays or articles on the themes, discussed at the School, for a book that is planned for publication.

When assessing results of the School, all students mentioned that lectures contained a lot of timely information, met high theoretical standards and was of great practical importance. Nevertheless, some students admitted that they had some difficulties in absorbing this large amount of new and sometimes complicated knowledge. It is interesting to note that despite the fact that there were no special lectures on environmental issues at the School, many students stressed they need such information in order to use it when defending indigenous peoples’ rights. We hope that publishing lectures and other materials of this School would help our students to acquire all the presented information.

For organizers of the Summer school, one of its most important results was the fact, noted by several students, that they have gone through certain changes in their consciousness – they have acquired confidence in themselves and became sure they are able to participate in activities, aimed at defending rights of indigenous peoples. These persons also mentioned that the School helped them to realize how important is knowledge of laws and legal procedures and that they can use this knowledge.

Russian and English were the working languages of the Summer school, and two-way translation of all presentations and discussions was constantly provided.

Appendix 1.

Monday, 20.08.2001

Afternoon session (15-00 – 18-00):

Opening of the Summer School

1. Novikova N.I., Fondahl G. Goals and tasks of our Summer School.

2. Tishkov V.A. Indigenous peoples’ rights in contemporary world.

3. Klokov K.B. Contemporary state of natural resource base of the traditional economic activities of the indigenous peoples in the Russian North. Ecological foundations for biological resource management in traditional natural resource use.

4. Presentation of participants: every participant briefly introduces him(her)self and explains what problems with indigenous peoples’ resource use he/she personally or the family faces in their everyday life. Students receive books and binders, forms and questionnaires.

Tuesday, 21.08.2001

Morning session (9-00 – 13-30)

The Importance of Natural Resources to Indigenous Peoples’ Lives

1. 9.00 – 9.45 - von Benda-Beckmann K. Transnational dimensions of legal pluralism.

2. 9.45 – 10.30 – von Benda-Beckmann F. Legal pluralism and natural resources.

3. 10.30 – 11.30 – Fiske J. The inherent rights of First Nations to natural resources in the Canadian North – “traditional use” and beyond.

4. 12.00 – 13.30 – Discussion: Conflict situations, arising on the basis of indigenous natural resource use (sharing information and experience between students; selecting the most interesting cases for the future detailed analysis after going through lectures on law).

Afternoon session (15-00 – 19-00)

National Law, Its Potential and Limitations (in Russia and Canada)

1. 15.00 – 16.00 - Kryazhkov V.A. The constitutional-legal basis for regulation and defense of indigenous minority peoples’ of the North rights to natural resources.

2. 16.00 – 17.00 – Krehbiel R. The legal basis of indigenous rights to resources in British Columbia (Canada).

3. 17.30 – 19.00 – Discussions in small groups and general discussion.

Wednesday, 22.08.2001

Morning session (9-00 – 12-00):

The Rights of Indigenous Peoples to Resources in International Law

9.00 – 10.00 - Kryazhkov V.A. International law and indigenous minority peoples of Russia.

10.00 – 11.00 – Kovler A.I. European convention of 1950 and the Framework convention on defense of national minorities: Practices of application.

11.00 – 12.00 – Discussion.

Afternoon session (16-00 – 19-30):

1. 16.00 – 17.00 - Yamskov A.N. The World Bank and its policies on indigenous peoples.

2. 17.00 – 17.45 – Individual work of the students – preparation of proposals on revisions of the World Bank Operational Directive # 4.20 “Indigenous peoples”.

3. 18.15 – 19.30 – General discussions.

Thursday, 23.08.2001

Morning session (9-00 – 13-30):

Folk Law and Resource Management (in Russia and Canada)

1. 9.00 – 10.00 - Novikova N.I. Folk law of indigenous peoples of the North in the system of Russian law: Past and present.

2. 10.00 – 11.00 - Fiske J. Folk law’s role in resource management in Canada.

3. 11.30 – 13.30 – Discussions in small groups and general discussion on possibilities of using norms of customary law in defending indigenous minority peoples’ of the North rights in contemporary states.

Afternoon session (15-00 – 19-00):

Discussion of Ethical Norms in Relationships between Indigenous Peoples and Researchers, Legislators, and Lawyers

1. 15.00 – 16.00 – Fondahl G. Aboriginal Community Research Protocols as important instruments of customary law.

2. 16.00 – 17.00 – Discussions in small groups on possibilities of adopting such recommendations in Russia.

3. 17.30 – 19.00 – Preparation of recommendations to the Russian Association of Indigenous Minority Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East

Friday, 24.08.2001

Morning session (9-00 – 14-00):

Indigenous Peoples’ Rights to Fishing Resources: Kamchatka and British Columbia

1. 9.00 – 10.00 – Murashko O.A., Davydova O.  The indigenous minority peoples of Kamchatka problems with fishing: Practice and law.

2. 10.00 – 11.30 – Comments and discussions. 

3. 12.00 – 14.00 – Preparing for the role-playing exercise “Negotiations between administration, fishing collective farm, and community of indigenous peoples”

Afternoon session (15-00 – 19-30):

1. 15.00 – 16.30 – Preparation for role-playing exercise.

2. 17.00 – 19.30 – Role-playing exercise “Negotiations between administration, fishing collective farm, and community of indigenous peoples”

Saturday, 25.08.2001

Morning session (9-00 – 13-30):

Legal Defense of Indigenous Peoples’ Rights to Traditional Natural Resource Use

1. 9.00 – 10.00 – Kouznetsova G.N. Indigenous peoples’ of the North rights to defending their traditional natural resource use in courts in the Russian Federation.

2. 10.00 – 11.00 – Discussions.

Defending Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in the Process of Ethnological and Environmental Impact Assessment.

1. 11.30 – 12.30 – Stepanov V.V. Draft law “On ethnological examination” in Russia.

2. 12.30 – 13.30 – Krehbiel R. Environmental Impact Assessment and its “ethnic” requirements in Canada.

Afternoon session (15-00 – 19-30):

15.00 – 17.00 – Studies in small groups – discussing draft laws, preparing proposals to legislative institutions of power.

17.30 – 19.30 - Summarizing Results of the Summer School

Organizers present review of major themes, discussed during the School, and summarize its results. Students are asked to describe their impressions about the School and to indicate what particular lectures, studies or materials, and in what way, may be actually used by them in their future academic studies or practical activities.