Sweden’s indigenous Sami people complain about human rights violations
LONDON
The Sami indigenous people have lived longest in Europe for thousands of years in a borderless region known as Sapmi, the land of the Sami, where they live sustainable, culture-rich lives close to nature.
One of Europe’s most distinctive indigenous peoples, they live in stunningly untouched parts of Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia, where they work to co-exist with the modern world while retaining their ancient traditions and culture.
However, the Sami have endured human rights violations and discrimination in the Nordic countries, which have a long history of racism, where they were exposed to pseudo-racist “science” and forced to change their way of life.
The Sami still face the possibility of losing their culture, livelihood and identity because the Swedish government does not respect their human rights, says Aslat Holmberg, vice president of the Sami Council, which represents the interests of the Sami people in the four countries where they live .
Assimilation policies based on the assumption that Sami populations were “uncivilized” have existed in Sweden since the 19th century and were still implemented as recently as the 1970s.
Sweden was the first country to open a “racial biology” institute in 1922, and it was only in 2019 that the Historical Museum returned the remains of indigenous Sami people to their communities for proper burial and mourning.
These remains had previously been used and exhibited since the 1950s for research to “prove” racial theories.
Forced conversions to Christianity that often resulted in imprisonment and even the death penalty for those who resisted as well as bans on indigenous languages and segregated schooling took place in the Nordic country.
According to the UN, the Sami are still exposed to violations of human rights, violations and racism to this day. It has also issued criticism of the country’s policies aimed at forcibly assimilating the indigenous group.
“Colonized People”
Holmberg said one of the most important injustices has to do with land ownership.
“I am talking about colonization in general, which is rooted in the possession of land. So slowly, throughout history, we’ve been pushed into smaller areas that remain for our traditional uses, and that’s a trend that continues today,” he said.
Political marginalization and the right to self-determination is the “underlying factor” in all the issues facing the group, Holmberg said.
“We do not make the decisions about our countries or about our culture, but these decisions are made by our neighbors, our neighboring countries, and since we have no say in how our territories are used, believe that they can only take our areas and develop them in whatever way they want,” he added.
The decisions are made “far from our homelands and not in accordance with our culture”, without the right knowledge of how to govern “our territories”, he said.
Sara Andersson Ajnnak, a Sami artist and activist, described the Sami as a “colonized people”.
Threatened by “green” project
Traditionally, the Sami have made a living through reindeer husbandry, fishing, agriculture and hunting. But Ajnnak said that reindeer husbandry, which has cultural significance and value for the Sami, is threatened by Sweden going green.
The green shift is something that limits “our ability to continue our traditional way of life, and so the young children growing up right now” in Sapmi “may be the last generation” that will be able to live according to their culture, she said.
“So it’s really a stressful time right now, and it’s hard to imagine our culture slowly disappearing,” she added.
Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg has condemned the government’s “short-sighted, racist, colonial and anti-nature” decision to allow an open-pit iron ore mine in Sapmi – part of an effort to enable sustainable steel production to reduce carbon emissions – because of its disregard for clean migration and the impact it would affect the Sami culture and livelihood.
In February, UN human rights experts urged Sweden not to greenlight the project, saying open-pit mining would endanger the protected ecosystem and reindeer migration through dams containing heavy metals and toxic waste ending up in water resources.
UN criticism
Sweden ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in 1971, but according to the UN’s statement, “it is not sufficiently implemented in practice”.
In a 2018 hearing between the UN Racial Discrimination Committee and Sweden, the UN body specifically targeted the lack of protections from the Swedish government regarding discrimination, indigenous rights and hate crimes, according to the UN statement.
It was not the first time that “Sweden had been the subject of such criticism”, it said.
In 1998, the Swedish government formally apologized to the Sami community. But despite the adoption of the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, according to Holmberg, no measures have been taken in a positive direction and their rights have not been fulfilled.
– We expect and demand that the nation-states respect our human rights, because that is the basis for us staying and continuing our existence here, says Holmberg.
He also emphasized the importance of adhering to human rights commitments, demanding “that we have our rights to our territories and the right to practice our culture and effectively participate in decision-making on matters relevant to us.”
Ajnnak urged the Swedish government to take action, saying there is no need for further studies that “say nothing” because “we know that we already existed before the Swedish state was formed. And we already know that we have our own language, and we have our own culture, and we have our own traditions.”
Now, she said, “I need real tools to be able to continue being myself, to be able to live by my culture and my traditions.”
Ajnnak said it is difficult for her to have “any expectations from the Swedish government” because the injustice is something that has been going on “for so many generations”.
“But in my wildest dreams, our culture and our language and our people would be maintained in the future,” she said.
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