A Critical Discourse Analysis on Finland's Rejection of The Reform of Sámi Parliament Act : A Critical Postcolonial Perspective

Abstract: Finland is recognized as a country with high human rights standards including the rights of the indigenous people that are protected by various declarations, conventions, and international human rights laws. Finland first enacted a Sámi Parliament Act in 1995 and has most recently in 2019 received criticism from the UN Human Rights Committee for not guaranteeing the rights for the legally recognized indigenous Sámi people living within Finland’s borders. Government proposal to reform the Act sparked the discussion of Sámi rights in Finland in the fall of 2022. Through a critical postcolonial perspective together with examining purposeful sampling material and the reform opposing discourse in the Finnish parliament, this thesis aims to get a view for the reason of the dismissal of the reform. It suggests that Finland’s position as a human rights model country in indigenous people’s rights is questionable in the matter of the Sámi rights.