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40th anniversary of the UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples
UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples
2025 marks the 40th Anniversary of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples — a milestone in the global effort to uphold and promote Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Since 1985, the Fund has been a cornerstone in ensuring effective and meaningful participation of Indigenous Peoples in international negotiations and decision-making processes that concern them. Over 40 years, the Fund has enabled more than 4,000 Indigenous representatives from more than 90 countries to participate in critical UN processes, shaping decisions that impact their communities and future.
This anniversary is a moment to reflect on the Fund’s powerful legacy and achievements, raise awareness about its vital role, and mobilize sustainable resources to meet growing demand. Each year, the Fund receives thousands of applications but can only support a small fraction due to limited funding. Now more than ever, as the climate emergency worsens, and the need to ensure Indigenous Peoples’ participation in the most pressing human rights discussions of our generation increases, expanding support to the Fund is not just important - it is urgent. All activities to mark this anniversary will celebrate the resilience of Indigenous Peoples, highlight the Fund’s transformative impact, and create new opportunities for partnerships with governments, philanthropic organizations, and the private sector.
Join us in honoring this legacy and securing the future of Indigenous Peoples’ participation in global decision-making.
Protecting the identity and language of the Mordovian people
Eastern Europe, Russian Federation, Central Asia and Transcaucasia
Vasilii Nemechkin is a member of the Mordovian people, one of the Finno-Ugric ethnic groups of the Russian Federation.
As a human rights defender, scholar and Indigenous Peoples’ leader, Nemechkin is a passionate believer in the importance of protecting and promoting the identity and linguistic rights of all peoples, particularly of minorities.
“This issue is very important for Mordovian people and the different Finno-Ugric peoples in Russia, who face the problems of assimilation and the preservation of the native language and identity,” he said.
Nemechkin, who has a PhD in law from Ogarev Mordovia State University, was a beneficiary of the Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples and has participated in sessions of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Nemechkin said the Voluntary Fund has helped him grow as a teacher at the Law Faculty of Ogarev Mordovia State University, where he teaches human rights, the rights of Indigenous Peoples and fundamental freedoms in the Russian Federation.
“In my work with students, I often use thematic studies of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Human Rights Council’s resolutions, reports of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” he said.
“All students in multinational Russia, regardless of their ethnicity, should study Indigenous Peoples’ rights. This knowledge will help them in their future work, as lawyers, to understand better and consider sensitive issues of Indigenous Peoples.”
Nemechkin, who is the author of numerous publications with a focus on the rights of minorities and Indigenous Peoples, advocated for the proclamation of the 2019 International Year of Indigenous Languages and the 2022–2032 International Decade of Indigenous Languages by the UN General Assembly.
“The promotion of international standards in the field of Indigenous People’s linguistic rights in Russia comes with certain difficulties, but absolutely this gives an impulse to work more actively in this direction at the federal, regional and local levels.”
Nemechkin said he was grateful to the Fund and its transformative impact in upholding and promoting Indigenous Peoples’ rights.
“You are doing important and necessary work, so that the voices of Indigenous Peoples’ representatives are heard at the UN, and they contribute to the strengthening of international human rights standards,” he said.
How to contribute to the Fund
The Fund is financed through the voluntary contributions of Governments, non-governmental organizations and other private or public entities, as well as individuals.