From Aleksey with love! Tweet me your thoughts and takeaways. He belongs to the Karelian community in Northwest Russia and leads the Center for Support of Indigenous Peoples and Civic Diplomacy «Young Karelia», an NGO under special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. A lifetime activist for the rights of indigenous peoples in Russia, and previously led the International Youth Association of Finno-Ugric Peoples and has served as an independent expert in several United Nations capacities. Since 2020, he serves as a Member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Addressing all mandated areas of the Permanent Forum, he is especially interested in language, culture and participation. He is a former Member of the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and served as its Chairperson-Rapporteur through the critical time of this body’s mandate change. He also served on the Steering Committee for the 2019 International Year of Indigenous Languages and has commenced as a member of the Global Task Force for the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.
