Saami Council

The Samenrat ( Northern Sami: Sámiráđđi, English: Saami Council) is an independent non-governmental organization that works in cultural policy and political issues that affect the seeds in Finland, Norway, Sweden and Russia. The Council shall have its seat in the municipality Utsjoki in Finnish Lapland.

The overall objective of seeds Council is to represent the interests of the seed as a people, to strengthen the unity of the seeds across the state borders, the recognition and treatment of the seeds as to preserve a people and to safeguard its cultural, political, economic and social rights - partly by legislation in each country, in part, by agreement between the States concerned and the representative bodies of the seeds. Since the late 1990s, the Council is increasingly taking part in international projects concerning cooperation within the Arctic region, the EU and the UN and which refer to the indigenous peoples in the Third World.

The first international conference of the seeds was held in 1953 in Sweden Jokkmokk. At this conference, a commission was set up with the task of establishing a common Sami Council, which should represent the economic and cultural interests of the seeds. Then three years later was manifested on August 18, 1956 during the second conference in the Norwegian Karasjok the foundation of the " Nordic Sami Council ," which finally held its first meeting in 1957 at the Finnish Inari. One result of the work of this Council was, for example, the establishment of a single North Amish spelling on the initiative of the Council in 1979. At the 13th Conference in August 1986 in Åre, Sweden, the introduction of the flag of the seeds has been decided. On the 15th Conference of the seeds in Helsinki in 1992 for the first time participated seeds from Russia. Hence the name of the Council was shortened to " Samenrat ".

Member organizations

The Council is composed of 15 representatives from nine member organizations, five of which come from Norway, four each from Sweden and Finland and two from Russia. The Sami conference selects additional members when they are proposed by the delegations of organizations. Each member of a representative is elected. For the period from 2009 to 2012, the Samenrat is composed as follows:

Conferences of seeds

The highest organ of the seed is the Council Meeting of the seeds, which takes place every four years since 1992. At this conference, each with 18 delegates per country are selected by the nine member organizations. The Conference appoints the Samenrat representing the executive and deciding body between conferences.