Sami people | The Sámi people accuse the center of stalling an important law reform

Anni-Sofia Nittyvuopio is tired. It’s a long night in Paistunturi’s paliskunta reindeer herding. The reform of the Sámi Parliamentary Act and the future of Sámi youth weigh heavily on my mind.

Now we are living in the last moments so that the Sámi district law reform can still be considered by the parliament during the current session. Attempts have been made to reform the law in three government terms, and the reform is in danger of failing again.

Niittyvuopio is a 23-year-old Sámi reindeer herder and chairman of the second term of the Sámi Assembly’s Youth Council. Concern for his own language, culture and livelihood drove him into Sámi politics at the age of 13, when he joined the Finnish Sámi Youth Board.

“The Sámi District Law has been on the back burner throughout my political career.”

Current the Sámi district law violates human rights. This was stated by the UN Human Rights Committee in 2019 and the Anti-Discrimination Committee in 2022. Both solutions are related to the electoral list of Sámi assemblies and the decisions of the Supreme Administrative Court to accept persons who are not recognized by the Sámi community on the electoral list.

Both committees recommend that Finland reform the Sámi District Act in order to strengthen the Sámi’s right to self-determination.

“

“We’re running out of time.”

Also in Finland, all key human rights organizations, the Human Rights Center, the Human Rights Commissioner, Amnesty and the Human Rights Association, recommend the law to be quickly reformed.

The proposal of the commission appointed by the Ministry of Justice was completed in May of last year, but the Sami people are still waiting for action.

“We are running out of time,” says Niittyvuopio.

The Sámi District Act does not proceed because the center in the government opposes it. The main points of contention are the removal of the Lappish criterion from the Sámi district law, i.e. the renewal of the conditions for entering the electoral roll, and the reorganization of the electoral roll based on the revised criteria.

The criteria for being Sámi in the Sámi District Law are mutually contradictory, and that has been the biggest obstacle to reforming the law.

“The law was already out of date when it came into force,” Niittyvuopio states.

The Sámi District Act was approved by parliament in 1995 and entered into force in 1996.

In Finland, Sweden and Norway, the definition of Sámi is based, according to the Sámi themselves, primarily on the Sámi language, which is a central supporter of traditional knowledge. In Finland and Sweden, according to the law, the language basis extends to grandparents, i.e. three generations, and in Norway to the fourth generation.

“

The court has expanded the definition of Sámi too broadly.

The Sámi district law reform would extend the Sámi language criterion to the fourth generation and unify the legislation of Finland, Sweden and Norway towards a converging Nordic Sámi agreement.

The so-called Lappish criterion in the current law is based on old land, tax collection or life records, on the basis of which a person could have applied for the election list of Sámi assemblies. The criterion is completely without a time limit.

According to experts, the older documents referred to business, not ethnic Sámi. Based on the Lapland criterion, persons who are not considered by all Sámi to be Sámi can be accepted into the election list of Sámi assemblies.

Second it is considered a flaw of the current law that the Supreme Administrative Court (KHO) was named as the final appeal authority, where a person can appeal if the Sámi assemblies do not accept him on the electoral roll.

The role of the Supreme Administrative Court has proven to be problematic, because according to researchers, the decisions are illogical about who is a Sámi. According to international law, the indigenous people should have the right to decide for themselves who belongs to the people.

In 2011, KHO approved four persons to the electoral list of Sámi assemblies with a “whole consideration”, which was not based on the Sámi assembly law.

“

“It causes quite a blow to a young person’s self-esteem when they see hate speech about their own people.”

The UN Committee on Racial Discrimination stated in 2012 that the Supreme Court has expanded the definition of Sámi too broadly. The committee saw signs of the finnishing of the assemblies, unless the Sámi people were allowed to define themselves who is allowed to vote in the elections of the Sami assemblies.

In spite of this, in 2015, the Supreme Court again approved 93 new persons to the election list of the Sámi assemblies. Related to this are the last remarks that Finland received from the UN Committee on Human Rights and Racial Discrimination.

“If the law reform does not go through, it will still allow an unclear situation where non-Sámi people can apply for the vote list. At worst, the Sámi representative body would come under the control of non-Sámi people themselves,” says Niittyvuopio.

The Sámi District Court Act there have been some racist discussions around it.

“I know from experience that it does cause quite a blow to a young person’s self-esteem when they see hate speech about their own people.”

Niittyvuopio is worried about how many more times young people will have to see the fall of the Sámi district law.

Niittyvuopio was 15 years old when the reform of the Sámi District Act failed for the first time in the parliament in the spring of 2015. Then the MPs voted in favor of the valid Sámi definition.

“It was a big setback for the Sámi community.”

“

“In Finland, Finns decide on Sámi issues.”

The next time the law reform failed was in 2018, when no consensus was reached on the long transition period proposed by the state.

According to Niittyvuopio, Finns decide on Sami affairs in Finland.

“A few MPs from Lapland seem to present themselves as experts on the Sámi and they seem to have a right of veto over the Sámi culture, which even the Sámi themselves do not have in relation to their own culture.”

Prime minister Sanna Marin (sdp) apologized to the Sámi people in Ylen Ykkösaamu on October 29 that the government has not been able to move forward with the proposal so far.

“

“We have to fight for our basic rights every day.”

The Sámi community is disappointed with Marin, because the prime minister would have the opportunity to take the proposal to the parliament as a dispute without the support of the center.

The presentation must also be approved by the Sámi Assembly.

Nittyvuopio considers the law reform to be the first step in the right direction.

“However, there is still work to be done for decades to promote the indigenous rights of the Sámi people. With this law reform, we young people could focus on developing language, culture and livelihoods without having to fight for our basic rights every day.”

The law would improve the Sámi’s voting activity and facilitate voting practices.

According to the outdated current law, voting in Sámi district elections takes place by mail. In northern Finland, many people have to drive up to hundreds of kilometers to pick up and take a registered voting paper from a post office.

“

“We must have the right to define ourselves how we want to develop the home region of the Sámi people.”

In the current one in the Sámi district law, the authorities’ obligation to negotiate is not strong enough and it has been neglected, which the chancellor of justice has also stated.

The Sámi region is subject to many types of land use pressures, such as mines, mechanized gold mining, tourism and deforestation. The Sámi are brought in when the decisions have already been made, Niittyvuopio states.

“The law reform would bring better security to the Sámi and would strengthen the authorities’ obligation to negotiate. It would not mean a veto right, but actual democratic negotiation and discussion about projects and plans that affect the Sámi language and culture,” he says and continues:

“We should have the right to define ourselves how we want to develop the Sámi’s home region and what is more of a minor inconvenience.”

Niittyvuopio hopes that the Sámi District Act would be reformed and that traumas would no longer be passed on to the next generations.

“This is very difficult for the Sámi youth, because our future is being built here.”

Read more: Research group: Finland violates the constitution in relation to the Sámi, and the Supreme Administrative Court is illogical in its decisions about who is a Sámi