Girjas Sami village is located in Gällivare, Northern Sweden. For more than a decade, the little indigenous community has been in a court battle with the Swedish State. The core of the matter is the question who is allowed to manage hunting and fishing rights in the Girjas land management area – the Sami reindeer herding community or the Swedish State?
On Thursday, 23 January 2020, the Swedish Supreme Court ruled that the Girjas Sami Village holds exclusive rights to decide who gets the right to hunt and fish within its land management area. The Sami of the Girjas community can now issue the hunting and fishing licenses themselves and thus effectively counteract overfishing and hunting by non-Sami. They do no longer need the state’s appproval.
BACKROUND
Sápmi, as the up to 100,000 Sami themselves call their traditional territory, covers northern Scandinavia and most of the Kola Peninsula. About 20,000 of them live in Sweden, earning their livelihoods by reindeer husbandry, agriculture, hunting, gathering and fishing. About 2,500 still live exclusively on reindeer husbandry. In Sweden, they have the exclusive right for this economy and are regarded as guardians of traditional Sami culture.
There are 50,000 to 70,000 Sami in Norway, around 8,000 in Finland and about 2,000 in Russia.[1] In Norway, Sweden and Finland, they each have their own representations through Sami Parliaments (SAMEDIGGI), on the Kola Peninsula there is an association of Kola Sami. In 2000, the three Scandinavian Sami Parliaments founded the Sami Parliamentary Council. In addition, the Sami Council (Sami Council) represents the interests of Sami NGOs in all four countries.
The economic development of the Arctic through extraction of natural resources, energy management and the associated infrastructure impedes the freedom of movement of the reindeer herds and increasingly leads to the loss of pastures. In an emergency, Sami herders have to buy food for their animals or - if they don't have the money - reduce the size of the herds. As a result, sooner or later they will no longer be able to make a living from reindeer husbandry and will be forced to give up their profession and thus a centuries-old culture.
[1] Figures from: Indigenous World 2019, IWGIA, Copenhagen, April 2019
LEGAL FRAMEWORK
The ruling is the final say in a legal battle that started in 2009 when Girjas Sameby and SSR, a national group representing Sami associations, challenged a 1993 reform of hunting regulations that transferred responsibility for granting permits to the state. The verdict acknowledges the immemorial use and customary law of the Sami. It has been argued that these have formed the basis of the Sami rights, and the Court has agreed with that.
Before this decision of the court, the district won its case in the District Court of Gällivare and in high court, only for the Swedish State to appeal each time. In its final ruling, the Supreme Court cited historical evidence showing that by the middle of the 18th century, individual Samis had established exclusive rights over small game hunting and fishing in their territories.
“Our investigation shows that the Swedish crown, when it began to encourage the colonisation of Lapland, was careful to safeguard the Samis’ opportunities for hunting and fishing,” the judges wrote in the judgment. “And the hunting and fishing rights that the Sami in the area had at the time of the 1886 law and the following reindeer grazing laws have been transferred to members of the Sami district today.”[1]
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/23/indigenous-reindeer-herders-sami-win-hunting-rights-battle-sweden
OPINION - by the Society for Threatened Peoples
The Girjas verdict is an important landmark judgment, because it is one of the few in which indigenous law overrides the laws of the state. However, Sweden is still far from routinely solving conflicts between the Sami and the state in this way. The hate campaign after the judgment clearly shows that more respect for indigenous peoples and indigenous rights needs to be fostered. A legal win for the Sami is a start, but sustainable protection of indigenous rights can only be achieved if the court decision is accepted by the majority society and discrimination and racism are countered. The Society for Threatened Peoples therefore urges Sweden to prosecute these hate crimes, prevent new outbreaks of this racism and adopt the rules of international law into its own laws by ratifying UN Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Picture: (C) Liane Gruda, 2005
READ MORE:
https://www.gfbv.de/de/informieren/laender-regionen-und-voelker/voelker/sami/
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/victory-sweden-colonialism-200205092318758.html
https://www.sametinget.se/indigenous_Sami_regional_development
https://taz.de/Morddrohungen-gegen-Schwedens-Indigene/!5658014/
