Saami Parliament established in Murmansk Oblast
The Kola Saami Assembly consists of nine representatives elected by the 73 delegates representing Saami communities in Murmansk Oblast.
Valentine Sovkina was elected Chair of the Assembly at its first meeting on December 12th, reports the web-portal of the Indigenous Peoples in the Barents Region.
The establishment of the Saami Assembly happened at the 2nd Saami Congress in Murmansk this weekend.
Since the 1st Saami Congress of the Saami people of Murmansk Oblast was held in 2008, the work has been going on with the establishment of a democratically elected Saami Assembly on the Kola Peninsula.
Read also: Complex co-existence for indigenous peoples
Today, there are some 2,000 Saami people on the Kola Peninsula. The three other member states in the Barents Region, Norway, Sweden and Finland all have their elected Saami Parliaments.
The Saami Parliament in Norway was opened in 1989. The act establishing the Finnish Sami Parliament was passed in 1973, while the Swedish Sami Parliament was established in 1993.
For the first time in Russia, the rights of indigenous minorities were established in the 1993 Constitution.
