A/HRC/23/34/Add.1 Parliament in October 2011.6 The process has, however, reportedly stalled. The Special Rapporteur encourages all stakeholders to continue discussions on this important topic. (b) Law on national cultural autonomies 19. Federal Law No. 74-FZ on national cultural autonomies, passed in 1996 and amended in 2009, entitles ethnic groups to establish public organizations, referred to as "national cultural autonomies", at the local, regional or federal level. Such entities are eligible for State funding to conduct activities in the area of culture, language and education in particular, to participate in the activities of international non-governmental organizations and to establish contacts with foreign citizens and public organizations. By 2011, approximately 829 such entities had been registered. The main concern regarding the law relates to its unclear and vague clauses combined with the uncertainties surrounding governmental obligations.7 (c) Laws relating to numerically small indigenous peoples 20. The Special Rapporteur appreciates the Government‟s recognition of the urgent need to preserve the culture and traditional ways of life of numerically small indigenous peoples. 21. The rights of these peoples are protected in a series of federal laws, in particular by the Law on Guarantees of the Rights of Numerically Small Indigenous Peoples of the Russian Federation of 1999, the Law on the General Principles of Organizing Communities of Numerically Small Indigenous Peoples of the North of 2000 and the Law on Territories of Traditional Nature Use of Numerically Small Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and Far East of the Russian Federation of 2001.8 22. The concept paper of 2009 on the sustainable development of the numerically small indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation defining federal policy from 2009 to 2025 has been described as an important step in this regard.9 23. Criticism has nevertheless been voiced at the lack of effective implementation and concrete outcomes of these policies.10 The Special Rapporteur received testimonies that supported the concluding observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that changes to federal legislation regulating the use of land, forests and water bodies, in particular the revised Land (2001) and Forest (2006) Codes and the new Water Code, deprive indigenous peoples of the right to their ancestral lands, fauna and biological and aquatic resources, on which they rely for their traditional economic activities, through granting of licenses to private companies for development of projects, such as the extraction of subsoil resources.11 She is concerned that indigenous peoples feel they were not meaningfully consulted before these amendments were adopted. While interlocutors stressed that the Law on the General Principles of Organizing Communities of Numerically Small Indigenous Peoples of the North had helped them to protect their culture and traditions, they regretted that the clan communities created under the Law (obshchinas) were banned from entering into business. Consequently, communities remained dependent 6 7 8 9 10 11 6 See also Council of Europe Compendium on Cultural Policies (see footnote 5), p. 34. See also Third opinion of the Advisory Committee, 2011 (ACFC/PO/III(2011)010), in particular paras. 71-76 and 134-137, and comments of the Russian Federation, 2012 (GVT/COM/III82012)004). A/HRC/15/37/Add.5. Presentation by the Russian Federation to the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at its eleventh session. See also A/HRC/15/37/Add.5, para. 24. See A/HRC/WG.6/4/RUS/3, para. 75. E/C.12/RUS/CO/5, para. 7.