This paper presents how Saami youths protested the Norwegian government, in a conflict between reindeer herders and windmill constructions. Saami is an indigenous population in Norway.
In 2010 The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate gave permission to construct 151 windmills in two reindeer grazing areas, officially because green energy was needed in mid-Norway. The Saami claimed that the windmill constructions were a violation of the rights of reindeer herding Saami to exercise their culture and that construction works started without permissions. They took the case to court.
The case ended in High Court in 2021. High Court decided that the permission given was not valid because it broke UNs convention on civil and political rights, article 27, which says that people who belong to ethnic, religious or language minorities shall not be refused the right to exercise their own culture, practice their own religion or use their own language. However, High Court did not say anything about what should happen with the windmills. Today they continue to work despite protests by grassroot groups, clergy, and politicians.
In February 2023, 500 days had passed after the High Court sentence demonstrations started in Oslo. Young Saami from all over the country demonstrated outside the Parliament and the King’s castle. For a week they sat in silence except singing the traditional joik, playing music and giving occasional messages. Everybody wore traditional dresses that they had turned inside out (traditional way of protest). No violence took place. The Prime Minister finally admitted that human rights were violated, and an official pardon was given to the affected Saami.
This case problematizes dilemmas of
- Rights of minorities versus majority, commercial interests versus nature-conservation and climate-friendly policies and practices (green colonialism).
- International conventions versus national and local policies (sustainable development).
