UN Human Rights Committee requests Finland to refrain from retaliation measures in case of Sámi Parliament electoral roll – Human rights complaint by members of Executive Board registered

The UN Human Rights Committee has registered the human rights complaint of all the members of the Sámi Parliament’s Executive Board related to the decisions of the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland on the electoral roll of and the repeat election of the Sámi Parliament in Finland.

The matter concerns a human rights complaint that the Executive Board of the Sámi Parliament in Finland supported in its meeting of April 29, 2024.

The UN Human Rights Committee requests the State of Finland to refrain from all retaliation measures against the authors of the complaint for exercising their rights under the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights as related to their complaint to the Committee and as long as their case is under consideration by the Committee.

– This is important news. In light of the material submitted to them, the UN Human Rights Committee considers it necessary to ensure that there will be no retaliation measures as related to the matter of the electoral roll and the repeat election. Retaliation measures are a forbidden form of discrimination, and in my opinion such discrimination can, for example, in this case pertain to criminal investigation, coercive means by the police, and raising charges, says Pirita Näkkäläjärvi, President of the Sámi Parliament in Finland.

The matter relates to prevailing violations of human rights

The human rights complaint submitted by all the board members of the Sámi Parliament in Finland concerns the decisions the Supreme Administrative Court made about the Sámi Parliament’s electoral roll and repeat election on March 27, 2024.

The Court ruled that 65 persons were to be retroactively entered into the legally valid 2023 electoral roll of the Sámi Parliament in Finland against decisions made by the bodies of the Sámi Parliament, and that a repeat election was to be held. The repeat election of the Sámi Parliament in Finland was held between June 3 and July 1, 2024.

According to the view of the Sámi Parliament in Finland, the latest decisions of the Supreme Administrative Court violate against the right of the Sámi, as an Indigenous People, to self-determination, and are also against Finnish law since the window offered by Finnish law to the Supreme Administrative Court to intervene in the decision-making of the Sámi was closed already last autumn when the electoral process was completed.

The UN treaty bodies, such as the Human Rights Committee, will receive and consider individual complaints from a person or group of persons claiming to be victims of violations against rights guaranteed by UN human rights covenants.

– Continuous violations of human rights conventions in Finland related to the electoral roll of the Sámi Parliament are a serious issue. They are an unreasonable burden to the Sámi community. We are grateful for the UN for offering us again a glimmer of light, says Chair Näkkäläjärvi.

UN treaty bodies adopted in 2019 and 2022 three condemnatory decisions against Finland relating to the electoral roll of the Sámi Parliament. In these decisions, the UN Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) required that the State of Finland amend the Act on the Sámi Parliament so that it will respect the right of the Sámi to self-determination.

The amendment process of the Sámi Parliament Act has been launched but not completed. Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s (Coalition Party) government unanimously introduced a proposal of the Sámi Parliament Act to the Finnish Parliament in December 2023. The readings on this unanimous government bill are expected to continue in the Finnish Parliament after the repeat election of the Sámi Parliament in the autumn of 2024.

In the spring, a UN human rights expert became concerned about possible retaliation measures against the Sámi

In connection with his visit to Finland last spring, Fabian Salvioli, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice and reparation, took up the possibility of retaliation measures.

Salvioli became concerned in March 2024 about a piece of news that the police is investigating whether the members of Sámi Parliament’s Electoral Committee committed a crime by applying Sámi Parliament Act according to the international human rights norms. In May, the police announced that, in addition to the members of the Electoral Committee, the members of the Executive Board of the Sámi Parliament in Finland from the term 2020–23 are now suspected of a crime.

Salvioli said in this statement in March that he was deeply concerned that accusing a person for an offence can be used as a form of retaliation measure against the Sámi, who are an Indigenous People, because they use their right to self-determination when defining their identity and membership in their community.

The present members of the Executive Board of the Sámi Parliament in Finland are Pirita Näkkäläjärvi (President), Leo Aikio (First Vice President), Tuomas Aslak Juuso (Second Vice President), Karen-Anni Hetta, Tauno Ljetoff, Asko Länsman and Inka Musta. The board members represent all the three living Sámi languages spoken in Finland (Skolt, Inari and North Sámi), all the areas of the municipalities of the Sámi Homeland, and the region outside the Sámi Homeland.

Further information

Pirita Näkkäläjärvi
President
+358 44 7533 766
pirita.nakkalajarvi@samediggi.fi