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Sami Parliament
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Sami Parliament (Sámediggi in Northern Sami, Sämitigge in Inari Sami, Sää´mte´ǧǧ in Skolt Sami, Sametinget in Swedish and Norwegian, Saamelaiskäräjät in Finnish) is the name given to the representative bodies for peoples of Sami heritage in Finland, Sweden and Norway. There is no single, unified Sami Parliament. Rather, each of the aforementioned three countries has set up their own separate legislatures for Sami people, even though the three Sami Parliaments often work together on cross-border issues. In all three countries, they act as an institution of cultural autonomy for the indigenous Sami people.
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The Sami peoples had the following hierarchical organisation structure about 18th century. Siita or Kiile, Særvve and Riikka. Masters was termed Ised, and each Siite had its own chief termed Siite-ised or Siite-olmai. He was chosen on larger trading days during the winter period, thus not only by the local inhabitant but also foreign traders had influence in the election. Særvve is a collection of Siitas and corresponds to (Finnish) seurakunta. Riikka or Riikkagodde corresponds to (Finnish) kihlakunta and was larger than Særvve. As Siites had their Siite-ised, so did Særvve had their Særvve-olmai and Riikka had their Raadeädje.
The act establishing the Finnish Sami Parliament as passed on 9 November 1973. The original name of was Sámi parlameanta in Northern Sami. Martti Ahtisaari passed an act called Laki saamelaiskäräjistä(The Sámi Parliament Act) on 17 July 1995. This law was amended and a decree passed on 22 December 1995 and on 2 March 1996, Sámi parlameanta officially became Sámediggi.
The Finnish Sami Parliament has 21 representatives and 4 deputy representatives, who are elected every 4 years from the Sami Domicile Area.
The Saami Act (1987:56), which stipulates the responsibilities and powers of the Norwegian Sami Parliament, was passed by the Norwegian Parliament on 12 June 1987 and took effect on 24 February 1989. The first session of the Sami Parliament was convened on 9 October 1989 and was opened by King Olav V.
Norway's Sami Parliament currently has 43 representatives, who are elected every four years by direct vote from 13 constituencies. Unlike in Finland, the 13 constituencies cover all of Norway.
The Sami Parliament of Norway is located in Karasjok, Norway and the building was inaugurated on 2 November 2000.
One of the responsibilities of the Sami Parliament in Norway is ensuring that the section 1–5 of the Saami Act (1987:56) is upheld, i.e., that the Sami languages and Norwegian continue to have the same status. A good example of this is the current situation in Tysfjord, where speakers of Lule Sami cannot conduct their official business in that language as the municipality has not provided anyone who can speak it to assist them. This is the only municipality in Norway where speakers of that language should theoretically be able to speak it with officials, but this has not come to fruition; therefore, the Saami Parliament must fight for this cause with Tysfjord and must bring it to the attention of the Norwegian Government, if Tysfjord fails to rectify the situation.
The Sametingslag (1992:1433) established the Swedish Sami Parliament as of 1 January 1993. By law, the first official elections were held on 16 May 1993. Its first session was opened by the King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf, on 26 August 1993 in Kiruna. It has 31 representatives, who are elected every four years by general vote.