A/HRC/15/37/Add.5 between the federal Government and federal subjects are still in flux, especially within the sphere of joint or concurrent powers, including that of indigenous issues. 27. The federal Government determines some general legal principles and development policies for indigenous people in Russia, while the regional governments implement and may in addition legislatively apply, specify and refine these general principles. Federal subjects vary significantly in their size, economic and political development, and ethnic composition. They also vary significantly in their approach and the degree of attention to indigenous issues. 28. Several regions of the Russian Federation have established well-developed and comprehensive legal frameworks for the protection of indigenous peoples’ rights. However, close observers agree that most of the regions in Russia have not. Khanti-Mansiysky Autonomous Region is often cited as the region with the best laws, programmes and relationship between regional authorities and indigenous peoples. The main indigenous organization there, “Salvation of Yugra”, has been working with and within the regional government for the past 15 years to establish a relatively high level of political representation and to ensure legislative attention to indigenous issues. In contrast, many regions have only recently experienced indigenous political activism and have started to frame a legislative approach and policy regime towards indigenous people. IV. Major issues A. Land and resources 29. Indigenous peoples’ ways of life, cultures and traditions in the Russian Federation, as elsewhere in the world, have evolved over hundreds of years through a very close connection to nature and land. Access to land and natural resources is essential to the ability of indigenous peoples to maintain and develop their distinct identities and cultures, as well as to develop economically. Indigenous peoples throughout Russia have engaged in and depended on activities such as reindeer herding, hunting and fishing in the same or adjacent territories for centuries, and today, as many indigenous peoples continue these activities, they are looking to further develop them and engage in other resource uses for the future. Secure land and resource tenure is one of the most basic human rights for indigenous peoples, as emphasized by articles 25–30 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and it is a right grounded in general human rights principles of equality, property and cultural integrity incorporated into multilateral treaties to which the Russian Federation is a party.7 Several federal and regional laws and government programmes in the Russian Federation provide some protection for this right but, nonetheless, effective enjoyment of the right remains precarious in many if not most situations. 1. Relevant legal framework 30. Post-Soviet Russia has been undergoing a complex and prolonged land reform, defining and redefining property and land relationships. According to the federal constitution, land and other natural resources may be under private, State, municipal or 7 GE.10-14779 In particular, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, as made clear by the treaty-monitoring bodies that oversee compliance with these instruments. 9