OREANDA-NEWS. In the beginning of October Sakhalin Energy presented the translation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into the Nivkh language at the first International Symposium in the Languages of the Indigenous Minorities of the Russian Far East held in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

The Declaration was translated by Vladimir Sangi - author of the alphabet, spelling rules, ABC, textbooks and reading books in Nivkh, founder of the Nivkh literature, member of the Russian Writers’ Union, holder of the State Prize of the Russian Federation.

As from 2012 Sakhalin Energy jointly with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia has been implementing the project for translation of the fundamental UN documents into the languages of the Sakhalin Indigenous Minorities: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Declaration of Indigenous Peoples’ Rights which are translated into Nivkh, Uilta and Nanay. Translation of the Declarations also supports conservation of the language and culture of the Sakhalin Oblast indigenous ethnos. Besides these documents include a great volume of new vocabulary which in its turn facilitates evolution of the language.

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 13 September 2007. It covers human rights and freedoms that apply to indigenous peoples, including the right to maintain and develop their cultural diversity and their specific identities, as well as the right to own and use the lands and resources that they have traditionally used or owned.