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President Egil OlliSami Parliament, NorwayPresentation: Safety in Indigenous AreasICPC 8th Annual Colloquium on Crime Prevention

On behalf of the Sami Parliament, I would first of all like to thank you for inviting me to

this conference. The Sami Parliament is a representative assembly elected by thepeople. We are there to strengthen the Sami peoples political position and to assist inmaking sure the Sami people in Norway are treated fairly. I am pleased to see that weshall have a follow-up of last years topic, which was indigenous peoples and crimeprevention, in that this year will focus o n safety in indigenous areas. It cannot be takenfor granted that everyone who is present here today knows a lot about the Sami people,so I would like to tell you a little more about who we are. The Sami are a true indigenouspeople. The Sami are one people, but they live in four states: Norway, Sweden, Finlandand Russia. The traditional Sami settlement area stretches from the Kola peninsula inthe northeast to Engerdal in Southern Norway, and to Idre in Southern Sweden. In ourown language we call this area Spmi. There are three official Sami languages inNorway: Southern Sami, Lule Sami and Northern Sami. There are also big differences

among the Sami, in that some have Sami as their first language, some have Norwegianas their first language and some are bilingual.

What language a Sami person chooses to speak will often depend on who he is talkingto. What language a person feels most comfortable with, will often depend on thesituation. Because the Sami were exposed to a massive norwegianisation until not thatmany years ago, it cannot be taken for granted that todays Sami all have a goodcommand of their own Sami language or are fully acquainted with their own Samiculture. The Sami population, and particularly those who have Sami as their mothertongue, that is their first language, have a great need for police services in their ownlanguage in order to have proper legal protection.

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A police service which is well acquainted with Sami culture, Sami customs and the Samisense of justice will therefore be of crucial importance for a good police service for the

Sami population. For this reason the authorities have a particular responsibility tofacilitate a police education that can give future police officers a thorough functionalcompetence in Sami language, culture and social understanding. More should also bedone to make Sami young people train as police officers.

Having said that, let me underline that the ability of the police to create secure conditionsin the Sami areas of Norway is extremely important for the Sami peoples legalprotection. In many ways the Sami will have exactly the same needs for security as therest of the Norwegian population.

In addition, though, issues may arise that are related to the Sami language, culture andhistory which police officers serving in a Sami area must know about. If they are

interviewed by the police in Norwegian, Sami people whose mother tongue/firstlanguage is Sami will encounter major problems in understanding and in makingthemselves understood. This is directly connected to issues of legal protection. There isboth a language barrier and a cultural barrier, and people in this situation depend on agood interpreter, or on the interviewer speaking Sami.The Sami Parliament emphasises that Sami speakers in the Sami administration areanow have a statutory right both to speak Sami during a police interview and when filing averbal complaint. This has not always been the case, but it is a pleasing development.Then one might ask whether these rights are properly safeguarded at the various policestations. Sami people who speak some Norwegian are likely not to want to be a bother,and so they try to speak Norwegian as best they can. In such situations the policeofficers also have a personal responsibility to assess when communication becomes so

unclear that an interpreter should be present. Since the police have limited resourcesand there are only a few good interpreters, an interpreter is in practice only called if aperson is to be interrogated and a wish for an interpreter has been expressed inadvance. On the basis of the rights of the Sami people, the Sami Parliament wants tounderline that it is often the police who need an interpreter from Sami to Norwegian, andnot the Sami speaker who needs the interpreter.

Prison services in our northern counties Troms and Finnmark face some of the samechallenges. The law states clearly that prisoners are entitled to speak Sami to each otherand to their relatives. Since there are few prison guards who speak Sami, however,Sami prisoners are nevertheless often not allowed to speak their native Sami with familyand friends.

This is unacceptable in todays society, particularly since Sami and Norwegian arelanguages on an equal footing in Norway. The Sami Parliament believes it is importantto develop the Sami language, so that it has a future in a modern society. It is alsoimportant to us that those Sami language rights which have already become statutory,will be upheld and safeguarded at all times.

Traditional Sami is without many of the concepts that are used in Norwegian legalterminology. This creates a problem when the police for instance have to read peopletheir rights. A project is being carried out today with the support of The Sami Parliament,where the purpose is to develop Sami legal terminology. This is important work becauseit will allow Sami to be used in more police contexts.

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Written Sami is a relatively new phenomenon, and not all Sami speakers are able toread the language. The young generation growing up now has a much better opportunity

to learn this skill than their parents and grandparents had. But even within the Samiadministrative area, most of the forms and application forms you get from the police arein Norwegian only. If you are applying for a passport, a firearm licence or you arereporting a lost drivers licence, the forms you fill in will be in Norwegian. Since the goalis that Sami and Norwegian shall be on an equal footing, that principle should applyhere, too.

Nevertheless, one can spot encouraging trends. I would particularly like to mention thatthe police are now cooperating with The Norwegian National Collection Agency indeveloping several hundred standardised letter templates in Sami for use in the policesadministrative work. This is work which the Sami Parliament strongly approves of, as itallows for bilingual case processing.

At present it is possible to issue fines and salmon rights in Sami. A few informationbrochures have been translated into Sami. Certain laws that particularly affect the Samipopulation have also been translated, but they need quality assurance as it turns outthey are not always accurate. The Sami Parliament believes it would also be useful tohave the rest of the legislation translated into Sami.

The Sami Parliament realises that conflicts might arise between Norwegian legislationand Sami customs and sense of justice. Sami customs have developed outside of theNorwegian legal system. The legislation and administration that have been set up forNorway and which also apply in the Sami areas, have not paid much attention to Samicustoms. In those cases where a Sami sense of justice is different from the Norwegian, it

is time to look at new solutions.

That way we can avoid situations where the Norwegian legislation says something whichthe Sami in practice find difficult to understand. In this connection it is important toassess what are genuine customs and what are fictitious ones, in order to give real Samicustoms the necessary credibility.

This work has been started, particularly through the Sami rights committees. Theestablishment of the Inner Finnmark District Court, which is to pay particular attention toand emphasise Sami customs, is another step in the right direction. In connection withthe Finnmark Act, a commission will clarify what rights are already in existence.

The Sami Parliament wants to express its expectations with regard to the furtherdevelopments, hoping for legislation and administration that are more in line with theactual, acknowledged sense of justice in the Sami population.

In their daily work, the police make decisions on the basis of discretionary assessments.Then it is of great importance that the police officers understand the people they aredealing with. In most Sami areas, local communities are small and tight-knit, and thelocal population will also be close to police officers serving in the area. Whether the localpopulation trusts the police will thus depend on what approach the police adopts whendealing with local people.

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There are some differences between Sami and Norwegian manners and mores that mayaffect the interaction between the police and the Sami population. If you for instance, likethe Norwegians have been raised to think that punctuality is important, it might be rather

frustrating to deal with people who have a rather relaxed attitude to time. Norwegianstend to think that silence expresses consent, while the opposite is true with many Samipeople.

It is possible to learn to understand a culture. It is important for police officers to realisethat some of the problems and disputes they encounter may be the result of culturaldifferences. If you want the Sami to express trust in the police, it is important that thepolice are conscious of their own attitudes and behaviour. This will not only create asense of confidence, it will also make the work of the police easier and give them accessto more information.

We know there are problems recruiting police to some locations, particularly to smaller

local communities. This means that it can take quite a lot before the police can attend insome locations. Many Sami people feel that their problems are not taken seriouslyenough, and that they dont receive help when they ask for it. This makes people feelinsecure, and it is an issue that needs to be addressed by people higher up in thesystem.

People will often understand that it can take the police some time to arrive if they have tocover a large geographical area. People are used to that. But given the recruitingproblems, increased centralisation and districts being merged, the Sami Parliament isconcerned that the police services and their availability in the Sami areas will deteriorate.Outside some brief office hours, everyone trying to reach their local police office will beredirected to a centralised operations centre. The police officers taking the call may not

be all that familiar with the areas they receive reports from, and they do not speak Sami.It can lead to misunderstandings when Sami people call in a stressful situation and thenhave to explain the problem in Norwegian. Those who speak Sami as their mothertongue feel safer and more confident when they can explain things in their ownlanguage.

Then they feel much better understood. Many places have both a Sami and a Norwegianname, but the Sami will often use just the Sami place names. Then it is important for thepolice to know these Sami place names, and that is a big challenge for the police.

With that in mind, it must be a top priority to recruit Sami-speaking students into thepolice training. Today we have very few police officers with a Sami background, which

means that many of the police officers working in a Sami area come from a differentlinguistic and cultural background. If we look back on Sami history we realise howimportant it is that the Sami of today dont feel run over, but meet police officers whoconduct themselves in the right way and show a good understanding of the communitywhere they are working.

The Sami Parliament has for some time been asking for the introduction of measures toenable those police officers who have expertise on the Sami sense of justice, theircustoms and language, are given the opportunity to serve in a district where thisexpertise is needed. The Sami Parliament wants the police to be given frameworkconditions that will allow such people to be recruited to the Sami areas. More shouldalso be done to enable officers already working in these areas, to take further education.

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It is important to us in the Sami Parliament that the Sami rights that already exist arebeing followed up in the right way, while one also has to work for a further strengtheningof the Sami perspective in our future work.