The article below is published by QHA Crimean News Agency:

Deputy Chief of Foreign Relations Division of the Majlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Abduraman Egiz, and Coordination Council member of the World Congress of Crimean Tatars, Ayla Bakkalı, are representing the Crimean Tatar people at the 11th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), which is underway in New York. QHA learnt this from the press service of the Majlis of the Crimean Tatar people. 

The special theme of this year's session is ‘The Doctrine of Discovery: its enduring impact on indigenous peoples and the right to redress for past conquests (articles 28 and 37 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples).’ 

The meeting will mark the fifth anniversary of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that was approved by the General Assembly on September 13, 2007.

One of the discussions scheduled for May 11 will be also devoted to the situation of indigenous peoples in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, Central Asia and Transcaucasia.

The Forum has brought together delegates representing indigenous peoples of the world as well as government delegations.

Reference: The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII or PFII) is the UN's central coordinating body for matters relating to the concerns and rights of the world's indigenous peoples. "Indigenous person" means native, original, first people and aboriginal. There are more than 370 million indigenous people in some 70 countries worldwide. The forum is an advisory body within the framework of the United Nations System that reports to the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The first indigenous to be elected to office at a United Nations meeting was Chief Ted Moses of the Grand Council of the Crees in Canada, in 1989.

The 2012 UNPFII is taking place at the UN Headquarters, New York, from May 7 to May 18.