Cross-Border Cooperation between Indigenous Peoples: Focusing on the Proposed Nordic Saami Convention in 2005

抄録

This paper examines the potential cross-border cooperation among the Saami people in Sweden, Norway, and Finland, focusing on the proposed Nordic Saami Convention in 2005. It argues that the proposed convention is more progressive than the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples for several reasons. First, the proposed convention requires states parties to minimize the impact of national borders on Saami people; second, it contains several provisions that require states parties to promote their activities across national borders and stipulates their custom right to conduct reindeer husbandry across national borders; and third, it recognizes the possibility of excising their right of self-determination transnationally.

On the contrary, the proposed convention encountered the following limitations and difficulties. First, Saami people living in Russia were not protected under this convention. Second, Finland was strongly opposed to the obligation to obtain consent from the Saami Parliaments, while they supported the obligation to consult with them. Third, Norway was strongly against the custom right of Saami people to conduct reindeer husbandry across national borders.

As a result, the new draft of the Nordic Saami Convention in 2017 weakens the status of the Saami Parliaments and the rights of Saami people in many ways although it retains some provisions that require the states parties to only promote their activities across national borders. For example, the Saami Parliaments are no longer regarded as a formal party of negotiation of the Saami Convention, thus the provision that requires states to obtain consent from the Saami Parliaments before ratifying the convention had been deleted. The reference to the Saami peopleʼs custom right to conduct reindeer husbandry across national borders was deleted. The nearly equal relationship between the Saami and Nordic States assumed in the proposed convention in 2005 is unlikely to be currently realized, though it would retain its significance by showing the future direction for indigenous peoples.