The Sámi Parliamentary Council deeply concerned about the lack of progression with the Act on the Sámi Parliament
The Sámi Parliamentary Council (SPC) is deeply concerned that the Finnish government has not yet submitted the act to the Parliament of Finland. The council demands the end of the current human rights treaty violations in Finland and necessary actions to secure the Sámi Peoples’ right to self-determination through the Sámi Parliament in Finland as a representative body.
The Sámi Parliamentary Council, the co-operational body for the Sámi parliaments in Finland, Norway, and Sweden, has referred to the process of a new Sámi Parliament Act in Finland. The statement was signed by the President of the Sámi Parliamentary Council and the Sámi Parliament in Sweden Håkan Jonsson, the Vice President of the Sámi Parliamentary Council and the President of Sámi Parliament in Norway Silje Karine Muotka and the Vice President of the Sámi Parliamentary Council and the President of the Sámi Parliament in Finland Tuomas Aslak Juuso.
The Sámi Parliamentary Council recalls that, under article 33 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Peoples have the right to determine their own identity or membership in accordance with their customs and traditions, and the right to determine the structures and to select the membership of their institutions in accordance with their own procedures.
The Council further recalls that the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination have concluded that the current Sami Parliament Act violates human rights treaties (CCPR/C/124/D/2668/2015 and CERD/C/106/D/59/2016).
The Council corrects misinformation concerning the election criteria
The Sámi Parliamentary Council has also noticed misinformation in Finland about the electoral role, falsely claiming that the amended criteria in the new act would make the criteria much stricter on the Finnish side than the Swedish and Norwegian sides.
– The fact is that the amended criteria would be similar to the criteria on the Norwegian side and in full compliance with the criteria in the Nordic Sami Convention, in which, at this point, all the parties (Sweden, Finland, Norway, and the three Sámi Parliaments) have agreed on, the Council notes.
Inquiries:
Tuomas Aslak Juuso
President of the Sámi Parliament
Tel. +358 40 687 3394
tuomas.juuso@samediggi.fi
More information on the Sámi Parliamentary Council
The Sámi Parliamentary Council (SPC) is the co-operational body for the Sámi parliaments in Finland, Norway and Sweden. The Sámi parliaments in Norway, Sweden and Finland each lead the council for a period of 16 months. The secretariat is the Sámi Parliament which is in charge of the council at that time. Sámi Parliament’s Plenum chooses the representatives for the electoral period.
