Welcome to participate in a Nordic online seminar: Indigenous peoples: Language, culture and life cycle

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Date and time: 31 August and 1 September 2021 at 12.30 – 16.00 EEST both days
Venue: Online seminar

How do we respect and implement rights of indigenous peoples with disabilities in the Nordic region?
What are the challenges to meet the needs of indigenous peoples with dementia in sparsely populated areas?

This two day online event will focus on the rights of indigenous persons with disabilities, while taking special account of people with dementia. The first day of this webinar will raise the issue of how the human rights intersect, highlighting key human rights obligations and recommendations from the perspective of both indigenous peoples and persons with disabilities. The second day of this webinar will focus on a vision and provision of future language- and culture-sensitive services particularly in sparsely populated areas, with a life cycle perspective.

The seminar is organised in cooperation between Nordic Welfare Centre, Nordic dementia network, Council of Nordic Cooperation on Disability, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in Finland, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), the Sámi Parliament in Finland, SámiSoster, Finnish Advisory Board for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities VANE and Finnish Human Rights Centre.

The event is open to anyone interested but registration is required (by 31 August at 12.30).

The program, more information and link to registration:

Indigenous peoples: language, culture, and life cycle (link to Nordic Welfare Centre’s website)
https://nordicwelfare.org/en/evenemang/indigenous-peoples-language-culture-and-life-cycle/   

Expert Workshop to assess proposals for amending the Sámi Parliament Act in Finland on 2 September

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An Expert Workshop to assess proposals for amending the Sámi Parliament Act in Finland will be held at the Faculty of Law at the University of Lapland on Thursday 2 September 2021. The Worksop is organized in collaboration with the Sámi Parliament and the Ministry of Justice. The organizer of the workshop is Professor Martin Scheinin in his capacity as part-time professor in indigenous peoples’ rights at the University of Lapland. The main purpose of the event is to provide a forum for a range of international, Finnish and Sámi experts to provide and discuss their assessment of the draft by the drafting commission. 

Kuva: Ville Fofonoff

The President of the Sámi Parliament Tuomas Aslak Juuso will participate in the seminar and give one of the opening speeches. – The reform of the Sámi Parliament Act is a very current topic and I look forward with great interest to the expert workshop. It is important that the workshop provides a forum for international human rights experts to evaluate and discuss their assessment of the draft by the drafting commission, says Juuso. 

The members of the drafting commission appointed by the Sámi Parliament will also attend to the workshop.  

The event will be organized in hybrid mode, so that speakers and other participants will be able attend either in person or remotely through online videoconferencing. Registration to the workshop has ended on 15 August. Registered participants will receive materials and logistical information related to the event.  

In May 2021, a government-appointed Drafting Commission chaired by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice and composed, in equal numbers, of persons nominated by the Sámi Parliament in Finland, and the five political parties forming the government coalition, delivered a draft for amendments to the Sámi Parliament Act. The proposed amendments would recognize Sámi self-determination, implement Final Views issued by the UN Human Rights Committee related to the criteria and procedure for determining who may be included in the electoral roll of the Sámi Parliament, and strengthen domestic law provisions related to the principle of free, prior and informed consent, as enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 

The full report exists only in Finnish but the summary and the proposed legal texts are included also in Sámi and Swedish languages. Persons who register for the 2 September workshop will be sent English-language excerpts, as far as they already exist or will become available.  

More information: 

Tuomas Aslak Juuso 
The president of the Sámi Parliament 
+358 40 687 3394 
tuomas.juuso@samediggi.fi  

Sámi youth come together to fight climate change in a conference on 26 August

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The Nordic Sámi Youth Conference will be organised on 26 August 2021. The theme of the conference is climate change and the conference will be organised virtually. The conference is free of charge and open to all Sámi youth.

Sámi Parliament project worker Milla Pulska and chair of the Youth Council Anni-Sofia Niittyvuopio welcome Sámi youth to the online conference.

“It is great that Sámi youth can once again discuss current and important matters across international borders. I believe that we will come to important realisations about climate change and how to battle it, but also realisations about how we can adapt,” rejoices the chair of the Youth Council, Anni-Sofia Niittyvuopio.

At the conference we will hear interesting speeches from the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Krista Mikkonen, the Chair of the Sámi Parliamentary Council, Aili Keskitalo, young reindeer herder Jussa Seurujärvi and the Chair of the Sámi Parliament in Finland, Tuomas Aslak Juuso. The conference also includes workshops. The workshops will be held by the youth-led global organisation Youth4Nature, social media influencer Emmi Nuorgam and activist, director and screenwriter Pauliina Feodoroff.

“We hope that the young people participate boldly in the workshops. In the workshops, we will try to find everyone a suitable way of making an impact. Climate change can feel overwhelming, but we want to encourage people to find common strength and a message in the societal work against climate change,” explains the project worker of the conference, Milla Pulska.

Arctic indigenous peoples experience climate change most drastically and Sámi youth are worried about the impacts of climate change on the traditional livelihoods and culture of the Sámi people. At the conference, we will compile a declaration against climate change and plan shared operation models for Sámi youth across borders.

The Youth Council, which is under the Sámi Parliamentary Council, organises the Nordic Sámi Youth Conference every two years.  The conference is organised in cooperation with youth from the Sámi Parliaments of Norway, Sweden and Finland. The main organiser of the conference is the Sámi Parliament’s Youth Council. The goal of the conference is to encourage Sámi youth to develop Sámi society.

More information about the conference: www.nuor.fi

More information:

Anni-Sofia Niittyvuopio
Chair of the Sámi Parliament Youth Council
040 7082 072
anni-sofia.niittyvuopio(at)samediggi.fi

Milla Pulska
project worker
040 669 5295
milla.pulska(at)samediggi.fi

Welcome to the Nordic Sámi Youth Conference

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When: 26.8.2021 Finnish time from 9:00 to 15:00

Place: Zoom

The conference is free of charge and open to all Sámi youth. We will divide the attendants into workshops and we strive to base this on their wishes. The conference will have simultaneous interpretation. All attendants will be sent a t-shirt designed by artist Arsi Keva.

The theme of the conference is climate change. The indigenous peoples of the Arctic are most affected by climate change. Sámi youth are especially worried about the impact of climate change on the traditional livelihoods and culture of the Sámi people. As a part of the conference, the Sámi youth will outline a common declaration against climate change and plan operation models for this.

The Youth Council, which is under the Sámi Parliamentary Council, organises the Nordic Sámi Youth Conference every two years.  The conference is organised in cooperation with youth from the Sámi Parliaments of Norway, Sweden and Finland. The main organiser of the conference is the Sámi Parliament’s Youth Council.

Registration before 25.8. Finnish time 12.00: https://link.webropolsurveys.com/S/762D510FDD3DA894

Invitation

Programme

9:00 Start

9:15 Speech: Chair of the Sámi Parliamentary Council, Aili Keskitalo

9:30 Speech: Young reindeer herder Jussa Seurujärvi

9:45 Speech: Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Krista Mikkonen

10:00 Workshops

  1. Youth4Nature: Mobilising Youth to Lead for Nature and Climate, Storytelling
    Language: English
  2. Emmi Nuorgam: Social Media and Influencing
    Language: Finnish
  3. Pauliina Feodoroff: Climate Activism Sápmi
    Language: English

12:00 Lunch break

12:45 Speech: Chair of the Sámi Parliament in Finland, Tuomas Aslak Juuso

13:00 Declaration workshops in groups

14:14 Wrapping up             

15:00 End

Additional information:

project worker Milla Pulska
tel. +358 40 6695295
e-mail: milla.pulska(at)samediggi.fi