On 18 March 2015, Permanent Forum expert member Oliver Loode participated in a roundtable event entitled “Preservation and Promotion of Cultural and Linguistic Heritage of Sakhalin Indigenous People (the Nivkh)” at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France. The roundtable we dedicated to the 80^th jubilee of Mr. Vladimir Sangi, the preeminent Nivkh writer and a founder of the Nivkh alphabet, ortography and grammar.

The event was organized by UNESCO, the Permanent Delegation of the Russian Federation to UNESCO, the Sakhalin Region of the Russian Federation and the Sakhalin Energy Investment Company. Mr. Loode noted that the issue of the protection and revitalization of indigenous peoples’ languages is a foremost priority of the agenda of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.