The United Nations has again called Finland to task for its continued failure to recognise the land rights of the Sámi in Finnish Lapland – Europe’s last indigenous people.
Finland is home to about 8,000 Sámi people, whose traditional culture is largely based on nomadic reindeer herding, fishing and hunting. The Finnish Constitution recognises the Sámi’s status as an indigenous people. But in practice they have only been given similar rights to the Swedish-speaking linguistic minority in the south of the country, and even in their officially recognised northern homeland region many Sámi speakers still find it hard to obtain public services in their own language.
The Sámi are also angry that it is becoming harder to graze their reindeer in the forests and hills of Lapland, as increasing areas in their homeland are exploited for forestry, mining and tourism.
“Finland’s laws don’t adequately take into account the special needs of the Sámi as an indigenous people. We’re facing the threat of comprehensive assimilation into Finnish society, and the loss of our unique language and culture,” explains Pekka Aikio, former president of the Sámi Parliament of Finland, who participated at the annual forum of the Finnish League for Human Rights in Helsinki last month.
According to Aikio, researchers in Sweden have found that the spread of mining, tourism and hydropower developments into traditional Sámi lands has reduced the quality of life for many Sámi in the Nordic countries. Sámi families are increasingly suffering from psycho-social problems and struggling to make a living from reindeer herding.
In total about 100,000 Sámi today live across four countries in Northern Europe: Norway (70,000), Sweden (20,000), Finland (8,000) and Russia (2,000).
Unkept promises
“We’re very frustrated that so many reports and proposals made over the years in Finland have not led to action, and meanwhile all the time our traditional lands are being gradually lost to economic developments,” says Aikio.
The Sámi are hopeful that they will finally be able to gain concessions from the present Finnish government, but they see little room for any more compromises on their side. “We are not calling for the establishment of a Sámi state, or even land ownership rights. We would just like guarantees that lands in Lapland owned by the Finnish State should be preserved to prioritise reindeer herding, and administered with the participation of the Sámi to ensure our rights to our traditional land use,” explains Aikio.
Finland was appointed to the new UN Human Rights Council in 2006 on condition that the ongoing land rights conflict with the Sámi would be promptly resolved. But the issue still remains an obstacle to Finland’s ratification of the International Labour Organisation’s Convention on Indigenous People’s Rights. Finnish representatives were called to report to the UN last month on the reasons for the continuing delay.
Speaking at the Helsinki human rights forum, the UN rapporteur on indigenous peoples rights Rodolfo Stavenhagen expressed his surprise that the Finnish government had not yet given due recognition to the rights of its own indigenous people. “Finland plays an important role in supporting the human rights of indigenous peoples internationally, but the UN would like to see this reflected in progress at national level,” he stressed.
Europe’s last surviving indigenous people
Finland’s Minister of Justice, Tuija Brax, admits that Sámi rights have been seriously neglected in Finland in the past. But she sees the next couple of years as a window of opportunity for the present government to make the necessary changes in legislation on land use rights, forestry and reindeer herding in Lapland that would enable Finland to come in from the cold on indigenous rights issues.
“It would be shameful to have to tell my grandchildren that during my time in politics Europe’s last indigenous language and culture died out here in Finland,” says Brax. “The most important unresolved issue is the need to find a balance between the rightful claims of the Sámi and the demands of other people living in Finnish Lapland.”
Tempers have yet to cool in Lapland following a bitter campaign by reindeer herders and environmentalists against the logging of Finnish State-owned forests that have traditionally been grazed by Sámi herders’ reindeer.
The Finnish government has always been reluctant to hand over any exclusive rights to the Sámi – who are today a minority of the population even in their homeland region in the far north – fearing that this could limit job-creating activities such as forestry and mining in a region of high unemployment. In practice there is little difference today between the modern lifestyles of the Sámi and the Finns who live in the same region. Many Sámi earn at least part of their income from forestry, while many Finns also keep reindeer.
Unrecognised land claims
The Helsinki human rights forum also highlighted the recently signed UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This blueprint calls on signatory governments, including Finland, to fully respect indigenous peoples’ rights to own, use, develop and control the lands, territories and resources that they possess through traditional ownership or occupation.
“Before new international borders were drawn by outsiders across Lapland in the 1750s, the land was shared collectively by Sámi communities, and not owned by any state,” explains Pekka Aikio. Many Sámi believe that taxes paid by their ancestors long ago also justify their claims to the land.