I brevet viser sametingspresidentene til prosessen med en ny sametingslov i Finland. FN har krevd ny sametingslov i Finland og har gitt merknader om at Finland ikke sikrer samenes rettigheter.

Sametingspresidentene er dypt bekymret over den manglede progresjonen og at den finske regjeringen ennå ikke har forelagt loven for Finlands parlament.

Sametingspresidentene skriver også at det spres desinformasjon i Finland og at det feilaktig hevdes at de endrede kriteriene i den nye loven vil gjøre kriteriene mye strengere på finsk side enn svensk og norsk side. Faktum er at de endrede kriteriene vil være lik kriteriene på norsk side og i full overensstemmelse med kriteriene i den nordiske samekonvensjonen, og som alle partene (Sverige, Finland, Norge og de tre sametingene) har blitt enige om.

Her er brevet sametingspresidentene har sendt til den finske regjeringen:

2022-11-15

Government of Finland

Sami Parliament Act in Finland

The Sámi Parliamentary Council, the co-operational body for the Sámi parliaments in Finland, Norway, and Sweden, refers to the process of a new Sami Parliament act in Finland.

The Sámi Parliamentary Council is deeply concerned about the lack of progression and that the Finnish government has not yet submitted the act to the Parliament of Finland, in line with the negotiated result between the Finnish government and the Sami Parliament in Finland.

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.

We further recall 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 2668/2015 and CERD 59/2016).

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 Sami Parliamentary 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.

Håkan Jonsson
President

Silje Karine Muotka
Vice president

Tuomas Aslak Juuso
Vice President