Excellency,
We have the honour to address you in our capacities as Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises; Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment; Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; and Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, pursuant to Human Rights Council resolutions 26/22, 19/10, 28/11, 25/2, 24/5, 25/18, and 24/9.
In this connection, we would like to bring to the attention of your Excellency’s Government information we have received concerning allegations of unwarranted charges and disputed sentencing of Mr. Sergey Nikiforov. Mr. Sergey Nikiforov is an Evenki indigenous people’s leader, environmental rights defender and head of the village council of Ivanovskoye. He has led a series of demonstrations in Ivanovskoye, in protest of the negative impact on the environment from the operations of UK-based gold mining company Petropavovsk. The company reportedly intends to extract ore from Evenk ancestral territories.