February 2006

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THE MARI MINORITY FACES CULTURAL AND LINGUISTIC ASSIMILATION IN RUSSIA

February 2006 – The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) and the Moscow Helsinki Group (MGH) issued on 1st of February a report on the human rights situation of the Mary minority of the Republic of Mari-El, one of Russia’s so-called ethnic regions. Maris are a national group belonging to the Finno-Ugric people and constitute less than a half the population of the Republic.

According to the report, democracy and freedom of expression have come under growing attack over the last few years and the social acceptance of the Mari language, despite being an official state language, has decreased in recent years. The report states that “attempts to use Mari in public contexts are now sometimes met with outright hostility”. This fact comes as the result of a Soviet era trend: the Mari language increasingly became a domestic language with little visibility in public life, while Russian consistently gained ground. The report also points out that “lack of resources makes it impossible to effectively enforce Mari as an official language in the public sector” and that “the fact that public officials are not required to have any knowledge of Mari, combined with the fact that ethnic Mari are underrepresented in public administration, creates a major obstacle to the provision of public services in the titular language”.

The report includes a list of recommendations in which IHF and MGH advise the authorities of the Russian Federation and Mari-El to take adequate measures to enforce the protection and development of minority languages and cultures and to intensify their efforts to facilitate practical enforcement of the official status of the Mari language. They should also encourage active use of minority languages in different forms of media and give particular consideration to the importance of promoting, maintaining and improving the availability of newspapers, magazines, and TV and radio broadcasts in minority languages when elaborating and implementing public media policies.

Finno-Ugric minorities of Russia have been given international attention in recent years, and the situation of the Mari and other Finno-Ugric groups of Russia has repeatedly been featured on the agenda of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. A report on this subject is currently being prepared by Ms. Saks, one of its members. The European Parliament has also been active with respect to the Finno-Ugric minorities of Russia and in a resolution adopted in May 2005 it deplored “violations of human rights and democracy” in Mari.