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<p class=MsoNormal>The Traditional Knowledge Bulletin blog has a link to this IPS
article at
http://tkbulletin.wordpress.com/2008/04/08/this-week-in-review-finlands-sami-fear-assimilation/
. The full article and link to it are below:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Inter Press Service News Agency<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41887<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>RIGHTS: Finland's Sami Fear Assimilation<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>By Linus Atarah<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>HELSINKI, Apr 7 (IPS) - There are growing concerns among the
Sami people in Finland that their traditional way of life as an indigenous
people is under threat.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>"The difficulty facing us is that we are facing
comprehensive and complete assimilation all the time," Pekka Aikio, former
president of the Sami Parliament told IPS.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>The Sami are recognised in the Finnish Constitution as an
indigenous people. They have an elected parliament that handles their affairs,
and have the right to receive services in their own language. But parts of the
state administration do not pay attention to the constitutional recognition,
says Martin Scheinin, professor of international law at the Åbo Academy in
Turku city, 170km from capital Helsinki.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>"They keep treating the Samis as a linguistic
minority," Scheinin told IPS following a meeting on the rights of the Sami
organised by the Finnish League for Human Rights last week.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>The Sami are an indigenous people of Northern Europe
inhabiting mostly Sweden, Norway and Finland, with an estimated population of
about 100,000. About 8,000 of them live in Finland.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Hundreds of Sami families are involved in reindeer herding,
their traditional source of livelihood. But the process of assimilation means
many of the Sami have taken on the lifestyle of other Finns.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Scheinin says the Sami way of life is threatened
significantly by competing usage of land -- often by the government itself --
through cutting down forests. This destroys pastoral lands of the reindeer, and
besides the harm done to reindeer herding, brings social and emotional stress.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>A central issue, according to Scheinin, is that the Sami
have no secure land rights in Finland. Large areas of land in the north where
many Sami live is state-owned. "Nobody knows how the government got this
land, from whom they bought it. They simply took it," said Prof. Scheinin.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>The Reindeer Act protects the rights of the Sami people.
"Nevertheless, it is the government that decides, and over and time again
the state forestry agency decides that they can continue cutting the forest
while claiming that it is a small project that would not negatively affect Sami
reindeer herding. But when you look at the totality, it has huge impact,"
Scheinin said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Aikio says reindeer herding is a general right. "It
means others can own that land and we can be there with our reindeer but we
have no right to complain if others are harvesting their timber or if they are
starting a mining project or they are constructing a lake. In such circumstance
we lose the pastoral lands almost without any compensation. Samis can use the
land insofar as it is not being used."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>In Norway, Aikio says, where a majority of the Sami people
live, the situation is better because the government has given joint land
ownership to the Sami and other local people. Norway has also allocated more
money for the Sami than other countries have, he said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>The land usage rights of the Sami people is complicated by
the fact that Finland has not ratified International Labour Organisation (ILO)
Convention 169 on land rights for indigenous and tribal peoples. The Convention
was adopted in 1989 and came into effect in 1991.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Article 14 of the Convention says: "Governments shall
take steps as necessary to identify the lands which the peoples concerned
traditionally occupy, and to guarantee effective protection of their rights of
ownership and possession."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>ILO Convention 169 would require Finland to start
demarcation of land that belongs to the Sami either through ownership or
through protected usage rights.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>According to Prof. Scheinin, the resource rights related to
land are crucial to the maintenance not only of the nature-based way of life of
the Sami people, but also their language and culture.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>"The Sami language lives and dies with the Sami way of
life because the social activities around reindeer herding and in the
nature-based forms of livelihood really keep up the living language. If it is
isolated to a museum piece I think there will be no future for the Sami
language," Scheinin said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Finland's Minority Ombudsman Johanna Suurpää says the
government is not pursuing a deliberate assimilation policy. "The
situation in the northern part of the country is not very simple because there
are also non-Sami people who are engaged in reindeer herding, and so there are
no simple solutions that would be fair for all parties," Suurpää told IPS.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Suurpää acknowledged difficulties over language. "The
law provides that Sami people have the right to receive services in their own
language but what is received is inadequate," she said. This is because
there are no civil servants in the north who know the Sami language well
enough. The usual focus is on land rights, but the language issue is becoming a
"crisis", she said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>"It is only the artificial support that they are
receiving across the borders from their brother and sisters that in way has
enabled the continuation of their way of life," said Scheinin. "If it
were the question of Finland alone, it would have resulted in destruction of
the Sami way of life if not earlier, then during the last two decades."
(END/2008) <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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