Martin Scheinin Profile picture
Jun 14, 2022 10 tweets 4 min read Read on X
For the first time Finland was found to violate the International Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), by the respective UN human rights treaty body (CERD). The case concerns the rights of the indigenous Sámi. 1/x tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/tr…
2/x. Disclosure: I had the pleasure to serve as counsel pro bono for the applicants. The first applicant was @ANuorgam , an elected member of the Sámi Parliament in Finland and Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues @UN4Indigenous
3/x. Issue: The case was about interference in the then ongoing Sámi Parliament elections in 2015 by the Supreme Administrative Court that ordered dozens of persons to be inserted in the electoral roll against the eligibility determination made by the Sámi themselves
4/x. Context: Similar findings of violations of the #ICCPR were made earlier by the Human Rights Committee in Tiina Sanila-Aikio v. Finland (2668/2015) and Klemetti Näkkäläjärvi et al. v. Finland (2950/2017), published in February 2019 but still awaiting implementation by Finland
5/x. Finding and Remedy: CERD established a violation of ICERD Article 5 (c) and "recommends" quick amendment of the law. (Note: the Human Rights Committee uses the wording "is under an obligation", derived from ICCPR Article 2(3).)
6/x. Rationale A: ICERD is not only about overt racism but also prohibits any conduct based on, inter alia, ethnic origin which has the "purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights", Art 1(1). Hence 9.5
7/x. Rationale B: Courts of a State may have a role in protecting individuals against discrimination or arbitrariness by an indigenous community but they must respect the right of self-determination and the customs and traditions of the group
8/x. Important A: The new CERD case brings an end to claims that the two UN human rights treaty bodies would represent differing positions concerning indigenous people membership. CERD clarifies the chronology of the misunderstanding by the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland
9/x. Important B: The case follows a line of recent CERD and Human Rights Committee cases where the respective treaties are being interpreted in the light of UNDRIP, the UN Declaration or the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. A soft source gives rise to hard law
10/10. Movie night: Here's a 3-hour video of an international expert workshop of last September where the issue of Sámi membership was addressed from the perspectives of ICCPR, ICERD, ILO 169, UNDRIP, the Finnish Constitution, Sámi in Norway & Sweden, etc.

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More from @MartinScheinin

Jan 28, 2021
A short thread on Finland and COVID-19. On Tuesday, Finland updated its strategy through a Cabinet's decision-in-principle. Many civil society commentators, including myself, believe that the modified strategy rests on a severe error and will soon need to be revisited. 1/x
2/x. Here's an English-language press release about the strategy update, from one day before its actual adoption. The strategic error is visible in the wording of how 'Tier 3' is presented, reflecting the Finnish-language annexes of the actual decision valtioneuvosto.fi/-/10616/hallit…
3/x. Weeks earlier, the high prevalence of the virus in Europe, together with the emergence of new, more contagious variants and the projected slow rollout of vaccines triggered proposals on stricter restrictions. Here’s one by the President of the country presidentti.fi/en/blog/from-t…
Read 9 tweets
Jun 25, 2020
This little thread aims at a human rights assessment of Sweden's tragic COVID-19 experience. I tweeted this earlier this morning in Finnish at @MartinScheininF but produced now also an English-language version. 0/7
1/7. These are official numbers by the Public Health Agency of Sweden: 14.666 persons over 70 confirmed with the Coronavirus (24% of all cases). 1/3 of them died, 4.629 i.e. 89% of all COVID-19 deaths. But only 4% were treated in intensive care, 566 persons or 11% of ICU patients
Read 11 tweets
Mar 30, 2020
Posting a little thread on the #COVID19 #coronavirus epidemic in Italy, presented as a comparison between Lombardy and Tuscany. This of course is of special interest to us living in Tuscany but there may be good news here for Europe. All data come from official sources. 1/7
First, total number of verified Coronavirus cases. All graphs are in logarithmic scale, reflecting the exponential spread of the epidemic. The good news here is that the curves have the same shape, i.e. Tuscany is not following the path of Lombardy with a delay of some weeks. 2/7
These two curves represent Coronavirus hospitalisations in Lombardy and Tuscany. Again, the shape is the same. We see a rapid escalation in Tuscany hospitalisations between 2 and 9 March which is just before the Lombardy lockdown. 3/7
Read 8 tweets

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