An independent commission set up by the Swedish state has called on the country’s government to apologise for the “harm and injustice inflicted upon the Sami people” and to start a national process for “redress and reconciliation”.
The Truth Commission for the Sami People also called for a special apology to be issued urgently to elderly Sami people who were forced as children to attend segregated so-called “nomad school” and other boarding schools where they were “subjected to violations or abuse”.
The commission’s report, published on Wednesday, is the outcome of a four-year investigation and hundreds of interviews with Sami people across Sweden. It was due to be presented to a government representative at a ceremony featuring readings from the text, but with no government yet in place after the election earlier this month, it went instead to Parisa Liljestrand, the last government’s culture minister.
The commission’s chair, Lena Nyberg, told her: “We hand over a big responsibility.” Liljestrand thanked the members of the commission and those who were interviewed for the report, saying it had been a “historic process”.
There have been similar truth commissions into the treatment of Sami people – Europe’s only recognised Indigenous people – in Norway and Finland. Norway has issued an official apology and discussions in Finland are ongoing.
The new report accuses Sweden of failing to meet its domestic and international human rights obligations and says that as a “direct consequence” of mistreatment, the Sami people today face “major challenges” in preserving and developing their culture.
It coincides with rising anti-Sami rhetoric in Sweden, including from political leaders, amid clashes over land used for grazing by Sami reindeer herders for hundreds of years, which the state wants to mine for rare-earth minerals.
The report says issues with the handling of Sami land rights in Sweden have been “reinforced and aggravated” by an ideology that Sami people are “an inferior people and therefore neither deserving of nor capable of exercising the same rights and responsibilities as other citizens”.
It adds that the Swedish state has failed to implement the United Nations declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples.
The commission’s 71-point call to action recommends an official apology for the harm and injustice inflicted upon the Sami people, as well as financial compensation and completing the process of ratifying the International Labour Organization’s convention on Indigenous and tribal peoples.
It calls for the establishment of a national centre for redress and reconciliation, and for authorities to recognise that the Swedish nation was founded on lands belonging to two peoples – the Sámi and the Swedes – and that parts of the land have Sami names and are part of Sami cultural heritage.
It also urges recognition that Sápmi, the region traditionally inhabited by the Sami people, extends across present national borders; an end to racial discrimination against Sami people; and better provision for children to learn Sami languages. It adds that the Swedish government must uphold the Sami people’s right to practise reindeer husbandry and other cultural practices on their traditional lands.
The report concludes that the state, including the Swedish parliament, government and public authorities, and in some cases the Church of Sweden, must “bear responsibility” for policies and decisions that led to the violation of Sami rights.
It says: “Accepting responsibility also requires the state to work towards providing redress for the harm inflicted on the Sami people and individual Sami, while pursuing policies that do not repeat these historical injustices.”
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