Abstract
For decades, Norway has been viewed as a role model when it comes to safeguarding Sámi rights as an Indigenous people in the Nordic Countries. Among other reasons, this is because Norway is the only country with a Sámi population that has ratified ILO Convention No. 169. Also, Norway has adopted a particular land law where one of the purposes is to survey Sámi rights to land and water. It is also said that Norway has worked actively to ensure adoption of the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Norway has gained international recognition for this work, among others from former UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous People James Anaya, who in his report on the situation of the Sámi people in Norway, Sweden and Finland, stated that Norway, since passing the Finnmark Act 2005, has set an important example for the other Nordic countries (para 44).
Highlights
Norway has been viewed as a role model when it comes to safeguarding Sámi rights as an Indigenous people in the Nordic Countries
It is said that Norway has worked actively to ensure adoption of the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
In a letter to the editor in the regional newspaper Nordlys 19 February 2021, President of the Sámi Parliament Aili Keskitalo, and Councilor of the Parliament Silje Muotka, stated that the courts have a lack of understanding of Sámi customs
Summary
Especially after controversial cases regarding the culling of reindeer herds and judgments passed after the survey of Sámi land rights in Finnmark, the image of Norway as an example to follow has faded and been replaced by criticism from the Sámi side. It was established that Sámi use could not lead to any rights which committed the landowner, or which the Norwegian state could not set aside by law.
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