Saami Council: Finland must repair the human rights violations and ratify ILO 169 Convention

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The United Nations Human Rights Committee considered the 7th periodic report of Finland in its 131st session in March 2021. Saami Council participated to the briefings of the Committee in the session. Saami Council also made a shadow report to Committee in September 2020.

 

Saami Council stressed in the briefings Finland should respect the self-determination right of the Sámi people, recognize the land and water rights of the Sámi and finally ratify ILO 169 Convention.

 

In the Concluding Observations the Committee urged Finland to speed up the process to revise the Sámi Parliament Act, on the principle of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), with a view to respecting the Sámi people’s right of self-determination, in accordance with article 25, read alone and in conjunction with article 27, as interpreted in the light of article 1 of the Covenant and implementing the decisions, Sanila-Aikio v. Finland and Näkkäläjärvi et al. v. Finland, published in 2019. The Committee stressed these two decisions have not been implemented by Finland. On the contrary, the decisions of the Supreme Administrative Court in 2019, reinstating 97 individuals to the electoral roll of the Sámi Parliament, appear to run counter the Views of this Committee.

 

The Committee also urged once again Finland to consider ratifying the ILO Convention No. 169. Saami Council points out the Committee’s recommendation in its 2013 Concluding Observations that Finland should increase its efforts to revise its legislation to fully guarantee the rights of the Sámi people in their traditional land has not been implemented by Finland.

 

- Finland wants to become a member of the Human Rights Council for 2022-2024. To prove themselves worthy of this position, Finland must repair these human rights violations identified by the Committee in its 2019 decisions and also ratify the ILO 169 Convention, says the Vice president of the Saami Council Áslat Holmberg.

 

Committee urged that Finland should review existing legislation regulating activities that may have an impact on the rights and interests of the Sámi people, with a view to ensuring, in practice, meaningful consultation with the Sámi people to obtain their FPIC. According to Committee Finland should also step up its efforts to provide government and local officials, police officers, prosecutors and judges with appropriate training on the need to respect Sámi’s rights as an indigenous people.

 

Committee also noted that Finland should strengthen the mechanisms for human rights assessment of legislative and policy proposals prior to their adoption to ensure their compatibility with the Covenant, particularly with respect to any legislative and policy proposals concerning the rights of persons belonging to vulnerable groups such as Sámi people.

 

- Human rights impact assessment is indispensable and the mechanism to ensure its implementing in legislative work should be stronger, says Oula-Antti Labba the Lawyer of the Human Rights Unit.