Indigenous Peoples as Peoples: The Quest for Self-Determination by the Nordic Sámi People

Le Centre sur les droits de la personne et le pluralisme juridique accueille le professeur Martin Scheinin (European University Institute, Florence, Italie) pour une conférence sur la quête pour l'autodétermination du peuple Sami des régions nordiques d'Europe.

La conférence sera présidée par le professeur Payam Akhavan et le professeur Mark Walters agira comme répondant.

Résumé

[En anglais seulement] International law promises to all peoples the right of self-determination. A breakthrough that allowed the adoption of the 2007 UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was made with a drafting compromise that affirms this right also for indigenous peoples but at the same time may be understood as suggesting that their right of self-determination may be different from the general international law right of self determination. The Sámi are the Indigenous people of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula in northwestern Russia. The lecture will address the Sámi People’s quest for self-determination and relate it to the UN Declaration and to the practice of the Human Rights Committee acting under the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights.

Le conférencier

[En anglais seulement] Martin Scheinin is Professor of International Law and Human Rights at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. In 1997-2004 he was a member of the UN Human Rights Committee. In 2003-2005 he was a member of an expert group that prepared a draft of a Nordic Sámi Convention, a treaty that still is subject to negotiations. Over three decades, he has been advising the Sámi in issues of international and human rights law.