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Jull, Peter --- "Finnmarksloven ('The Finnmark Act'): A Brief Commentary" [2003] AUIndigLawRpr 43; (2003) 8(3) Australian Indigenous Law Reporter 69

Legislative Developments - Norway

Finnmarksloven (‘The Finnmark Act’):

A Brief Commentary

Professor Peter Jull[∗]

Finnmark, or ‘Lapp-land’, is the large district lying east-west along Norway’s Arctic coast. Inland are the high reindeer tundras of dwarf birch which form a large Sami heartland cross-cut by the national boundaries of Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Rushing salmon rivers and reindeer passes reach northwards to the fjords and rich Barents Sea fisheries of the Arctic coast. In the north-east is the great Varanger Fjord, while the Tana River today defines a national boundary but also centres a distinct Sami ‘river’ culture. (Sami is variously transliterated Sámi, Saami, Same.) Like northern territories in Australia or Canada, or Alaska and Siberia, Finnmark has an iconic status amid the wider Sami north, Sápmi, of Norway and adjoining countries.

Crown title is murky in Finnmark, and a rush of official activity in 1980s and 1990s to provide paper title for its territory and resources has left sceptics even more sceptical of Crown assertions. The 1990s reports of a Sami Rights Committee, now derided by many as a ‘Sami extinguishment committee’, essentially mounted the case rejected in Mabo, Wik, Canadian, New Zealand, and American native title cases, ie, that the existence of our governments displaced and replaced all other rights.

Sami rights recognition has been a careful process since the Alta River case brought down one prime minister and caused national and international uproar in 1979–81. The draft Finnmark Act, introduced on 4 April 2003, simply ignores the ongoing consultation and study process of the past 23 years. The Sami have been patient and restrained throughout this process. The Act envisions the north as a resource hinterland open to all comers and no special respect for Sami who feel, and indeed are, betrayed.

Justice state secretary Jørn Holme added a gem to the global litany of terra nullius trash talk when he said the Act would ‘stress that Finnmark, and especially inner Finnmark with its fantastic natural resources, is for everyone. With this bill we have given everyone in Finnmark special rights’. Inner Finnmark is the Sami reindeer herding and population heartland, a large part of Europe’s last ‘wilderness’. One might similarly turn Paris over to Disney for a theme park so everyone could enjoy French culture. The Justice minister, Odd Einar Dørum, boasted that ‘[w]e have chosen to present a totally new model of our own, not based on any of the previous suggestions’. In fact, the Justice ministry role requires formal consultation with Sami authorities and conformity with the national Constitution and international law (notably International Labour Organisation Convention (No 169) concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries)^[1] in this matter.

Former longtime Sami leader Ole Henrik Magga, who heads the new UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, says the government has ‘spit in the face’ of Sami and undone 25 years’ work. Sven Roald Nystø, President of the Sami Parliament in Norway, notes that the UN rarely expresses itself so explicitly as the CERD committee has done in this matter. These two are widely known and respected around the world for decades of service to human rights. The cabinet of Prime Minister Bondevik should pay attention.

The full Norwegian text of the Finnmarksloven is available online at <http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/nrk_finnmark/2667471.html> .

An English translation of the Finnmark Act, and other background information, is also available via the website of the Sami Parliament at <http://www.samediggi.no/default.asp?selNodeID=313 & lang=no> .

^[∗] Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Political Science and International Studies, University of Queensland, Brisbane. This overview is extracted from Peter Jull, ‘Norway’s Bucketloads of Extinguishment’ (2003) 67 Arena Magazine 32.

^[1] The International Labour Organisation Convention (No 169) concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries is available online at <http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/62.htm> .