Sámi Council

Called the Nordic Sámi Council from 1956  to 1992, this is an autonomous cooperative umbrella organization for the Sámi organizations in Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden. The task of the Council is to enhance the economic, social and cultural position of the Sámi and to promote the affairs of the world's indigenous peoples. The council prepares and organizes the Sámi Conferences.

The Sámi Council was officially established at the Second Sámi Conference in Karasjok, Norway on 18th August 1956. The organizations of the Society for the Promotion of Sámi Culture in Finland and the Same Atnam in Sweden and Oslo Sámi Searvi cooperated to organize the first Sámi Conference in 1953, in which a committee was appointed to draft a proposal fro the establishment of a council to deal with Nordic Sámi affairs. The Nordic Council has been established several years previously , and it provided the committee with a suitable model for the Nordic Sámi Council.

From the outset, the strategy of the Nordic Sámi Council was to influence national governments through the Nordic Council in order to promote Sámi affairs in the Nordic countries. The Nordic Council did make a recommendation to the governments of the Nordic countries to initiate discussions to create a common Sámi policy, but the results were disappointing.

In the 1960s, a joint Nordic advisory body was set up to deal with questions concerning reindeer husbandry. This body still continues to function as a kind of cooperative organ between the national governments and the Sámi Council. The so-called 'Friends of the Sámi,' ie the members of the founding organizations, had by the mid-1960s succeeded in arousing the interest of the state decision-makers in Sámi affairs and the Nordic Sámi Council, but support from the Sámi regions was weak because the activities of the Sámis' own organizations were still not coordinated. In Norway and Sweden, local organizations unified themselves into national organizations at the end of the 1960s, but in Finland no corresponding organization was formed, although the Sámi Delegation was created, and through it Finnish Sámi were able to participate in joint Nordic activities.

In the 1970s, the Nordic Sámi Council helped to lead the Sámi into new age of political awakening. In the following decade, the Russian Sámi were invited to participate in the Nordic Sámi Conference as observers. In the 1992 Sámi Conference in Helsinki, the Organization of the Kola Sámi (AKS) was accepted as an official member of the Nordic Sámi Council. Subsequently, another Kola Saami organization, the Social Organization of Sámis of the Region of Murmansk (OOSMO) was made a member. In the Helsinki Conference, the name of the Nordic Sámi Council, which thereby became an organization uniting the Sámi of all countries.

In the Helsinki Conference, the rules governing the number of members of the Sámi Council were changed. The members of the Council are appointed from the member organizations of the different countries so that Norway has five members, Finland and Sweden four and Russia two members, all with their own deputy members. In the late 1990s a new Finnish central organization was made a member although it represented only a few local Finnish associations. This central organization thus did not succeed in uniting a wide spectrum of Finnish Sámis under one national organization.

Since the Sámi Council was founded, it has worked actively in order to ensure that the Sámi are acknowledged and treated as one people. The goal of the Sámi Council is to protect and develop the Sámi people's economic, cultural, linguistic and social rights and the right to a livelihood. The Sámi people's rights to land and water and the resources residing in them have had a central place in its politics since its establishment. The Sámi Council's present goals are formulated in the Sámi Political Programme adopted by the Sámi Conference in 1980 and revised in 1986.

Since the middle of the 1970s, the Sámi Council has increasingly worked internationally. The international effort is based on an acknowledgement of the fact that protection of Sámi interests also requires an international engagement. National and international efforts are not carried out on two separate and independent levels, because the two levels are mutually dependent.

In 1976 the Sámi Council became a member of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples (WCIP). After that the Sámi Council has defined itself as an NGO (non-governmental organization), the activities of which are focused on questions relating to the world's indigenous peoples. The Sámi Council was given an advisory position, ie, the status of an NGO, within the UN in 1989, which means that it may participate in the meetings and processes of the UN relating to indigenous peoples. Today other 14 indigenous organizations have this status as well. It is also represented in the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations, in which it participated in drafting the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. In addition, the Sámi Council coordinated a number of international development projects, for example in Africa.

Nowadays, the Council is a permanent member of the Arctic Council. Like the Inuit Circumpolar Conference and RAIPO, the organization of the indigenous peoples of Russia, The Sámi Council has not, however, been accepted as a member of the Nordic Council, nor have the Sámi Parliaments been accepted as members of this joint forum of the Nordic peoples.

The position of the Sámi Council and the Sámi Conference as the supreme decision-making organization in Sámi affairs changed after the Sámi Parliaments were established in Finland, Norway and Sweden. But it still needed especially as an international body for the Saami people and especially for the Sámi people in Russia. The interaction between authoritative bodies and NGOs is generally considered to enrich political activity and political development in all democratic systems. Numerous different kinds of projects have been initiated in 2001-2004, for example an indigenous educational centre, the so called Guatemala- and Nicaragua development projects, the Sámi Summer Camp and aid projects in for Kola Peninsula such as the establishment of Kola Sámi Radio.

The activities of the Saami Council was funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers. Its secretariat is located in Utsjoki (since 1979 after been moved from Helsinki). A Cultural Committee appointed by the Council allocates annual grants for culture and the arts amounting to 600,000 euros to Sámi organizations, artists and other individuals in the field. It also awards an annual prize to a well-known artist or association. For example, the 1999 prize was awarded to the Kola Sámi Association. The Cultural Committee also awards a prize for literature and organizes the distribution and dissemination of literature in Sámi languages to various institutions.

Source courtesy of: The Saami. A Cultural Encyclopaedia. Ed. Kulonen, Seurujärvi & Pulkkinen (2005)