News

Bringing The Sámi People Together

 

The Barents Working Group on Indigenous Peoples (WGIP) convened a face-to-face meeting for the first time in over two years at the end of December. It addressed the key issues of the working group and its future. This meeting served as an important platform for cross-border cooperation.

The first Summit of Barents Euro-Arctic Indigenous Sámi People, taking place in the European Parliament, Brussels, on 22–24 March 2023. Photo: Rune Fjellheim / Barents Council

One of the most significant decisions of the meeting was to organize a second EU Sámi Summit, which aims to create and strengthen cooperation at the EU level. The chairman of the working group, Janne Hirvasvuopio, expressed his hope that the Sámi community will work together cross-border to increase EU awareness of Sámi issues:

We need to actively remind Brussels that we are here and the Sámi are leading the way for their own future.

Janne Hirvasvuopio. Source: Yle

The Sámi Summit will be financed by the working group’s own funding from outside the Sámi Parliament, and other external funding opportunities are being explored. In addition, partnerships will be sought across borders between Sámi civil society, Sámi institutions and all Sámi Parliaments.

“I hope that this second summit will bring the Sámi people together in a common effort that will benefit all Sámi people,” Hirvasvuopio says.

The working group also used the opportunity to address critical human rights issues in the Nordic countries. The working group raised these concerns with the Finnish Centre for Human Rights, which is committed to working together to address these challenges.

The working group also met with the Finnish Ambassador to the Barents Region, Marja Joenusva, and expressed its gratitude for her respectful approach in all negotiations between her office and the Sámi Parliament of Finland. As Finland's final year of Barents cooperation begins, the working group reaffirmed its commitment to effective cooperation and to maintaining a constructive dialogue between the working group and the Finnish government.

The discussions and decisions of the meeting mark significant progress in addressing the challenges of Barents cooperation across the borders of Sámiland. They also highlight the importance of continuing multilateral cooperation.

Source: Samediggi (in Finnish)

20.01.2025