While the objective of the 2007 Reindeer Act is to promote ecologically sustainable reindeer husbandry based on Sámi culture, traditions and customs, the Act alone does not fully regulate the rights of Sámi pastoralists.
In 1988, the so-called Sámi Section was incorporated into the Norwegian Constitution as a measure to redress past injustices towards the Sámi (Skogvang, 2017). The
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Section states that “[t]he authorities of the state shall create conditions enabling the Sámi people to preserve and develop its language, culture and way of life” (§108).
To contextualise the Sámi Section, we need to examine the ethnopolitical context of Finnmark: For close to 100 years, from approximately 1850 until the end of World War II, the official state policy was to assimilate the Sámi (and the Kven13) in Finnmark into the majority society (Minde, 2003; NOU, 2008). The assimilation politics are often referred to as the “Norwegianization policies” (Minde, 2003). The schools promoted the Norwegian language and culture, while the Sámi language was prohibited. Crown land could only be sold to individuals who read and wrote Norwegian and used it as their first language (NOU, 2015). Minde (2003, p. 133), who has assessed the consequences of the period of Norwegianisation, concludes:
Based on history, one can safely conclude that the state’s efforts to make the Sami (and the Kven) drop their language, change the basic values of their culture and change their national identity, have been extensive, long lasting and determined.
The postwar initiatives to revitalise the Sámi language and culture focused on the interior of Finnmark, as this area was considered the heartland of the Sámi (NOU, 2008). Here, the strong and autonomous position of reindeer husbandry had kept the Sámi culture and language alive. For example, the Sámi language was re-introduced in schools in Kautokeino in 1967, but the same did not happen until the 1980s on the coast of Finnmark (Hermansen & Olsen, 2012).
The resistance of the Sámi and environmentalists to the construction of a high dam in the Alta River in the late 1970s and early 1980s increased national awareness of the rights of the Norwegian Sámi. The struggle against the dam was lost, but it led to some compensatory initiatives from the state. In 1988, the rights of the Sámi were
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institutionalised in government and law through the Sámi Section of the Constitution.
In 1989, the Sámi Parliament (Sámediggi) was established. And in 1990, Norway was the first country to ratify the Convention concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries (often referred to as ILO Convention 169). The preamble of the Convention recognises “the aspirations of [indigenous and tribal] peoples to exercise control over their own institutions, ways of life and economic development and to maintain and develop their identities, languages and religions, within the framework of the States in which they live” (ILO Convention no. 169, 1989).
The Norwegian Sámi people’s right to participate in decision-making processes were formalised in 2005 with an agreement on the Procedures for Consultations between the State Authorities and the Sámi Parliament. The Procedures for Consultation were a practical follow-up of the ILO Convention 169 and had several objectives: facilitating the authorities’ obligation to consult with and ensure the participation of indigenous peoples; increasing the efficiency of decision-making and the implementation of measures; developing shared perspectives on the situation and needs of the Sámi; and strengthening Sámi culture and society (AID, 2006). The Procedures for Consultation require that the authorities provide prior and full information and consult with the Sámi Parliament on matters that might affect Sámi interests directly. In matters that affect Sámi livelihoods (for example, reindeer husbandry), the authorities are also obliged to consult with other representative bodies (such as herders’ organisations and herding districts) (AID, 2006).
Today, the state clearly recognises that the Sámi have acquired collective and individual rights to land through the prolonged use of land and water areas (MD, 2009). Norway has signed the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the country is bound by the 1966 UN Convention on Civil and Political Rights, which grants ethnic minorities the right to practise their own culture, religion and language (Article 27). Some 30 years after the Alta conflict, there is now a general assumption in Norway that the historical injustices against the Sámi have been rectified and that the Sámi enjoy extensive rights in the management of land and
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natural resources. Some have argued that the rights allocated are too extensive and that they are at the expense of majority needs and interests (see abc nyheter, 2009;
Fremskrittspartiet, 2014).
Meanwhile, the Sámi Parliament holds that state authorities constantly contest Sámi ownership and their use of traditional land and resources and challenge the Sámi’s prerogative to exercise control over their own economic, cultural, and social development (Sámediggi, undated). The government appointed the Finnmark Commission in 2008 to investigate individual and collective customary rights to land and water and settle land disputes among the people of Finnmark (Sámi and non-Sámi), but the investigations of the Commission are slow. So far, it has only examined five areas and it has yet to recognise actual land and water areas to which Sámi have acquired ownership or usage rights (Finnmarkskommisjonen, 2018). The aim of the Commission is to complete the investigations of use and ownership rights in Finnmark by 2033.
Ravna (2015) argues that the legal protection of Sámi rights to natural resources and lands in Norway is not adequate. Reindeer pastures all over Norway are increasingly pressured by the exploration for minerals, military activities, snowmobile tourism, and the development of new areas for recreational homes. National conservation
programmes, such as national parks and regulation of the predator populations, further increase the competition for pastures (Øseth, 2010). The national need for greater capacity on the power grid and the development of renewable energy from wind and water, combined with the municipal interest in creating jobs, also require land. In the public debate, northern Norway is frequently referred to as a frontier for commercial development of natural resources. The competition for pastures and land-use conflicts are also increasing within the reindeer-herding community.
However, while the material basis for Sámi pastoralists’ culture and livelihoods is access to seasonal pastures, it is still unclear – despite national and international laws protecting indigenous cultures and livelihoods – to what extent Sámi customary land
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use is protected against encroachment in Norway (Einarsbøl, 2005; Bjørklund, 2013).
According to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Norwegian legislation does “not provide sufficient safeguards regarding the obligation to consult the Sámi, in particular the rights to free, prior and informed consent, for all projects [...]
that have an impact on their livelihood” (CERD, 2015).