Indigenous herdsmen claimed stone quarrying interfered with traditional livelihoods and therefore cultural rights; Committee found that right to culture contains some limit on development activities that States Parties have no margin of discretion in development activities; but mining not significant in this case enough to breach right; importance of consultation in development.
This case is one of a number brought by Sami Indigenous people to the Committee concerning permits granted by government ministries to companies to develop on ancestral lands: e.g., Jouni E. Länsman v Finland, No. 671/1995. Finland’s Supreme Court has subsequently quashed at least 109 agreements made by the Ministry of Trade and Commerce on the basis of cultural rights. However, political progress has been slow and, in 1998, the Human Rights Committee noted in concluding observations that “the proposed Sami Act, by which forests within the Sami homeland would be turned into commons owned by the Sami villages, has not passed the Parliament and that the issue of land rights of the Sami have not been resolved.” In 2005, a case was filed with the Human Rights Committee by Sami alleging significant harm in one herding area.
The case is significant in establishing that the right of minorities to culture protects traditional economic livelihoods, that there is a right to consultation before development activities proceed and that no significant harm to culture can be caused by such activities.
Advocate: Martin Scheinin Director of the Institute of Human Rights Abo Akademi University Department of Law FIN -20500 Turku/Abo Finland Fax: (358 -2) 215 –4699 Email: maschein@abo.fi