The Indigenous World 2026: Sápmi

Written on 22 April 2026. Posted in Sápmi

Sápmi^[1] is the Sámi people’s own name for their traditional territory. The Sámi people are the Indigenous people of the northern part of Finland, Norway, Sweden and large parts of the Kola Peninsula in Russia. Despite being separated by the borders of four states, the Sámi remain one people, bound by shared history, cultural and linguistic ties and a strong common identity.

There is no reliable information on the population of the Sámi people, as ethnicity is not registered in Finland, Norway, or Sweden. They are, however, estimated to number around 100,000 in total. Some 20,000 live in Sweden, out of a total population of approximately 10.5 million. Some 50,000–65,000 live in Norway, which has a total population of approximately 5.5 million. Around 8,000 live in Finland, which also has a total population of around 5.5 million. And some 2,000 live in Russia, which is a very small proportion of the total population of Russia.

The Sámi languages are classified as endangered by UNESCO^[2] but significant efforts are being made to preserve and revitalize them. There are 11 identified Sámi languages; one is extinct, while others are facing possible extinction or are on the verge of it.

Traditionally, livelihoods such as reindeer herding, fishing, hunting, gathering, small-scale farming, and handicrafts are central to Sámi culture.

The Sámi people are acknowledged as either a people or an Indigenous people, or both, in the constitutions of Finland, Norway, and Sweden,^[3] while the Sámi in Russia are considered one of the “Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples” in the Russian Constitution.^[4]

Finland, Norway, and Sweden voted in favour of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in September 2007, while the Russian Federation abstained. However, in 2014, the Russian Federation voted in favour of the Outcome Document of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, which is considered an acknowledgement of the declaration. Norway ratified ILO Convention No. 169 in 1990, and there have been discussions in Sweden and Finland, without these resulting in ratification of the Convention.

Politically, the Sámi people are represented by three Sámi parliaments, one in Sweden, one in Norway and one in Finland, while on the Russian side they are only organized into non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In 2000, the three Sámi parliaments established a joint council of representatives called the Sámi Parliamentary Council. The Sámi Parliamentary Council is not to be confused with the Saami Council, which is a central Sámi NGO representing nine large national Sámi associations in all four countries.

There are also other important Sámi institutions, both national, regional and local, inter alia, the Sámi University of Applied Sciences, which is a research and higher education institution dedicated to the Sámi society’s needs and where the Sámi language is mainly used throughout the academic system. Sámi youth are central to the vitality of their society, connecting across borders through independent organizations such as Suoma Sámi Nuorat in Finland, Noereh in Norway, and Sáminuorra in Sweden.^[5]

Complementing these political structures is a robust Sámi media landscape. National public broadcasters in Norway (NRK Sápmi), Finland (Yle Sápmi), and Sweden (SVT Sápmi and Sameradion) maintain dedicated divisions that provide news, cultural programming, entertainment, and children’s content in various Sámi languages. Furthermore, independent print and digital media include the North Sámi newspaper Ávvir, the Norwegian-language Sámi newspaper Ságat, and the Swedish Sámi magazine Samefolket.

This article is part of the 40^th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. Find The Indigenous World 2026 in full here

Peace and security: geopolitics and infrastructure in Sápmi

The shifting geopolitical landscape has brought increased global attention to the Arctic, deeply impacting Sápmi. With Finland, Norway, and Sweden unified within the NATO alliance since 2024, standing in opposition to Russia, Sápmi finds itself effectively partitioned by a hardened security frontier. This geopolitical reality has driven an expansion of national defence infrastructures and an intensification of military training exercises, occurring alongside a heightening of conflict rhetoric that places Sápmi at the centre of northern strategic planning.

Central to the new circumstances is the development of dual-use infrastructure that serves both military logistics and industrial extraction. While state authorities frame such projects as essential for security and operational mobility, these developments may represent threats to Sámi livelihoods.^[6] This dynamic illustrates a security dilemma whereby measures taken to enhance state security, such as new roads, railways, and military training zones, simultaneously generate existential insecurity for Indigenous Peoples by eroding the material basis of their culture.^[7]

The transition toward a “Total Defence” model has further highlighted a structural invisibility of the Sámi parliaments within national and international security discourse. Although Sámi communities maintain high levels of self-preparedness and possess critical knowledge regarding Arctic terrain and climate resilience, they remain largely excluded from formal decision-making processes. In June 2025, the Sámi Parliament in Norway addressed these developments in its plenary session, asserting that Indigenous Peoples’ perspectives must be integrated into emergency preparedness planning. The Parliament noted that, while reindeer husbandry has historically contributed to national food security and regional stability, these contributions are conspicuously absent from recent government reports on total preparedness.^[8] In a historic move to counter this exclusion, the Sámi Parliament in Norway formally designated security and defence policy as a specific area of responsibility for both a subject committee and a member of the Governing Council.

“Strategic” mineral extraction

The 2025 implementation of the European Union’s Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) introduced a transformative regulatory framework that has intensified land-use conflicts, particularly on the Swedish side of Sápmi.^[9] By designating several specific mineral developments on the Swedish side, and one on the Norwegian side, as “Strategic Projects”, the European Commission has provided industrial actors with accelerated permitting timelines and a legal status of “overriding public interest”.^[10] This shift represents a significant reordering of legal priorities whereby the pursuit of European mineral sovereignty is positioned above the procedural and substantive rights of Sámi communities to exercise Free, Prior, and Informed Consent. This streamlining of industrial expansion facilitates the expropriation of traditional territories by diminishing the legal weight of Sámi land use in the face of continental supply-chain demands.

Examples of this industrial intensification include the Talga Resources graphite project at Nunasvaara South and LKAB’s Per Geijer deposit in Giron/Kiruna. Both developments are situated within critical pasturelands and migration corridors of the Talma, Gabna, and Laevas Sámi Reindeer Husbandry Communities. These communities have documented how the cumulative impact of these “strategic” expansions creates an industrial encirclement that threatens the long-term viability of reindeer husbandry. From a Sámi perspective, this framework exemplifies “green colonialism”, a process in which climate mitigation strategies and the transition to a low-carbon economy are achieved through the further marginalization of Sámi cultural and land rights.

The legitimization of these projects is increasingly tied to a discourse of securitization. By framing mineral-rich regions as “strategic assets” essential for European security and defence, the state creates a scenario in which industrial encroachment is viewed through a lens of national and regional necessity. This securitization often marginalizes established human rights mechanisms and environmental protections, as the security of supply becomes a paramount objective that supersedes the state’s obligations to the Sámi people under international law. Consequently, the convergence of green energy goals and military-security logic in 2025 has placed Sápmi at the forefront of a systemic conflict between state-led strategic planning and the material basis of Sámi culture.^[11]

Amendment of the Sámi Parliament Act in Finland

The long-awaited reform of the Sámi Parliament Act in Finland reached its definitive conclusion in 2025 after facing continued delays and legal complexities for many years.^[12] Despite being a stated priority of the Government of Finland, the reform process was historically stalled by deep-seated disagreements regarding the Sámi people’s right to self-determination. The primary objective of the reform was to rectify the Act's long-standing violations of international human rights conventions, particularly concerning the definition of who is eligible to vote in Sámi Parliament elections. This issue has been a focal point of criticism from the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, UN Human Rights Committee, and Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, all of whom have urged Finland to respect the Sámi people’s right to determine their own community membership.^[13]

In December 2023, the Finnish government submitted a formal proposal to the Parliament of Finland aiming to ensure the electoral roll would be determined by the Sámi people themselves rather than through external judicial definitions. However, the legislative process was temporarily halted in the spring of 2024 following a series of controversial rulings by the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland. The Court issued decisions ordering that 65 individuals be retroactively added to the 2023 electoral roll and mandated a repeat election of the Sámi Parliament. This intervention led the Finnish Parliament’s Constitutional Law Committee to suspend its review of the amended Act until the conclusion of the repeat elections. The Sámi Parliament expressed deep disappointment at this delay, arguing that the legislative proposal under review was specifically designed to resolve the very legal ambiguities the Court had cited. The repeat elections were subsequently carried out later in 2024.

The political impasse was finally resolved in June 2025 when the Finnish Parliament approved the reform. The amended Act, which entered into force on 1 August 2025, removed the contentious “Lapp criterion” and established an independent Board of Appeals to handle electoral disputes, thereby reducing state interference in Sámi internal affairs. In addition, the amended Act improves self-governance regarding Sámi language and culture, and enhances the operating conditions of the Sámi Parliament. The reform of the obligation to cooperate and negotiate holds particular significance for the future as it brings greater predictability and streamlines negotiation processes with government authorities.^[14]

Developments in Nordic Sámi truth and reconciliation processes

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Concerning the Sámi people in Finland reached a historic milestone on 4 December 2025 when it officially submitted its final report to the Finnish government. Established in 2021, the commission was mandated to investigate the historical and ongoing injustices committed by the Finnish state against the Sámi people and the Skolt Sámi. The final report is the result of years of work, including the collection of over 300 individual and collective testimonies that document the deep scars left by forced assimilation, particularly through the boarding school system and the suppression of Sámi languages.^[15]

In its final report, the commission presented 68 specific recommendations aimed at fostering genuine reconciliation. These measures cover a wide range of issues, from the legal protection of Sámi livelihoods and land rights to the strengthening of psychosocial support and Sámi-language services. One key proposal is the establishment of a permanent body to monitor the implementation of these recommendations, ensuring that the report leads to concrete political action rather than remaining a symbolic document. The commission’s work highlights that reconciliation is not a single event but a continuous process that requires the Finnish state to take full responsibility for past policies that have marginalized the Sámi community.

During the handover ceremony, representatives of the Sámi Parliament and the Skolt Sámi Village Council emphasized that the 68 measures must be viewed as a minimum requirement for moving forward.

While 2025 in Norway was characterized by the parliamentary follow-up to the 2023 report, the Swedish Truth and Reconciliation Commission continues its work toward a final reporting phase, expected in October 2026. Further background on the Nordic Sámi truth and reconciliation processes can be found in the IWGIA Yearbooks: The Indigenous World 2022 and The Indigenous World 2023.^[16]

Mr. Eirik Larsen (Lásse Ivvár Erke) is a Sámi lawyer, Head of the Human Rights Unit at the Saami Council, and a lecturer at the Sámi University of Applied Sciences. He has previously served as a member of the Sámi Parliament in Norway and held advisory roles on Indigenous affairs within the Norwegian government.

This article is part of the 40^th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. Find The Indigenous World 2026 in full here

Notes and references

^[1] Sábme in Lule Sámi, Saepmie in the Southern Sámi, Säämi in Inari Sámi, Sääʹmjânnam in Skolt Sámi, and Са̄мь еммьне in Kildin Sámi.

^[2] “Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger”, 2010, page 35, UNESCO.

^[3] Eirik Larsen, "Divided Land, Denied Rights: Sámi Constitutional Recognition, Self-Determination, and the Right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent," The State of Sápmi: Sámi Sociopolitical Journal, no. 1 (2025): 4-32. https://iwgia.org/en/resources/publications/5840-stateofsapmi012025.html

^[4] Anonymous, "Russia," in The Indigenous World 2025, ed. Dwayne Mamo (Copenhagen: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), 2025). https://iwgia.org/en/russia/5758-iw-2025-russia.html

^[5] Read more about Sámi Youth in the Sápmi article in The Indigenous World 2025: Eirik Larsen, “Sápmi," in The Indigenous World 2025, ed. Dwayne Mamo (Copenhagen: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), 2025). https://iwgia.org/en/sapmi/5650-iw-2025-s%C3%A1pmi.html

^[6] Laura Junka-Aikio, "Re-imagining and Re-making the North? The Kuttura Road and the Geopolitics of Infrastructure in the Finnish-Norwegian Borderland," Journal of Borderlands Studies (2024). https://doi.org/10.1080/21624887.2024.2358645

^[7] Laura Junka-Aikio, "Decolonizing Arctic Geopolitics and Security: Subaltern Security Dilemmas of the Sámi in Times of the Green Transition and Militarization of the Arctic," Nordic Review of International Studies 4 (2025). https://nris.journal.fi/article/view/156181/105845

^[8] Sámi Parliament in Norway, "Plenuary issue 033/25: Defence and preparedness – Sámi Participation and rights” (In Norwegian and Sámi only), June 2025. https://innsyn.onacos.no/sametinget/mote/norsk/wfdocument.ashx?journalpostid=2021190422&dokid=1380057&versjon=7&variant=P&

^[9] Read more about critical raw materials in the Sápmi article in The Indigenous World 2024: Eirik Larsen, "Sápmi," in The Indigenous World 2024, ed. Dwayne Mamo (Copenhagen: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), 2024). https://iwgia.org/en/sapmi/5392-iw-2024-s%C3%A1pmi.html

^[10] European Commission, "Commission selects first set of Strategic Projects under the Critical Raw Materials Act to bolster EU's security of supply." 15 May 2025. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_25_864

^[11] Laura Junka-Aikio, "Decolonizing Arctic Geopolitics and Security: Subaltern Security Dilemmas of the Sámi in Times of the Green Transition and Militarization of the Arctic," Nordic Review of International Studies 4 (2025), https://nris.journal.fi/article/view/156181/105845

^[12] For a comprehensive overview of the legal obstacles and human rights challenges that preceded these recent developments, see the reporting in The Indigenous World 2023: Laila Susanne Vars, “Sápmi," in The Indigenous World 2023, ed. Dwayne Mamo (Copenhagen: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), 2023). https://iwgia.org/en/sapmi/5073-iw-2023-sapmi.html

^[13] UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on the Human Rights Situation of the Sámi People in the Sápmi Region of Norway, Sweden and Finland, UN Doc. A/HRC/33/42/Add.3 (2016); UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Concluding Observations on the Twenty-Third Periodic Report of Finland, UN Doc. CERD/C/FIN/CO/23 (2017); UN Human Rights Committee, Concluding Observations on the Sixth Periodic Report of Finland, UN Doc. CCPR/C/FIN/CO/6 (2013); UN Human Rights Council, "Country Engagement: Finland," Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Advisory Note (2018), https://www.ohchr.org/en/hrc-subsidiaries/expert-mechanism-on-indigenous-peoples/country-engagement.

^[14] Sámi Parliament in Finland, "The Parliament of Finland has passed the amendment to the Sámi Parliament Act – thirty years of work by the Sámi Parliament pays off," news, June 20, 2025, https://samediggi.fi/en/blog/news/the-parliament-of-finland-has-passed-the-amendment-to-the-sami-parliament-act-thirty-years-of-work-by-the-sami-parliament-pays-off/.

^[15] Truth and Reconciliation Commission Concerning the Sámi People, "The Commission’s Work and Objectives," accessed February 4, 2026, https://sdtsk.fi/en/home/.

^[16] Laila Susanne Vars, “Sápmi," in The Indigenous World 2022, ed. Dwayne Mamo (Copenhagen: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), 2022). https://iwgia.org/en/sapmi/4679-iw-2022-sapmi.html

Tags: Global governance