The rise of indigenous rights: a critical re-examination of various policies and their implications for the Swedish Sámi

摘要

The aim of this article is to re-examine critically the development of various indigenous rights and evaluate their relevance and implications for the Sámi people of present-day Sweden. Four main documents will be analytically discussed in this paper: the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People, the ILO Convention No. 169, the Finnmark Act in Norway and the draft of the Nordic Sámi Convention. Each set of rights will be analysed in terms of the way the policies are worded and structured around the various significant issues that define indigenous people, such as land rights, culture, self-determination and general articles. After examining the broad-ranging indigenous rights, the article will go on to take a closer look at policies directly targeted at the Sámi. This will be done by analysing the relevance of these policies in their attempts to provide justice to the Sámi as indigenous representatives. The Finnmark Act, even though not specifically known as an indigenous rights act, plays a key role in the way the Norwegian Sámi exercise their rights. The draft of the Nordic Sámi Convention is a perfect example of how people are working to further Sámi rights over and above global indigenous policies. This draft represents the advances being made to produce a convention of rights for all Sámi in Norway, Sweden and Finland. The article then leads to an analytical discussion of how the rise of indigenous rights has affected the Swedish Sámi. Overall, this study re-examines the rise of indigenous rights and assesses the relevance of this progress on the Swedish Sámi by demonstrating that there has been some amelioration of their ability to exercise their rights, though much work is still needed to cement their integrity as an indigenous people.