Indigenous peoples rights under International Law: Comparative political analysis with the case of Sweden and Finland

Sammanfattning: Indigenous peoples have special relation to the land, and they might seek to gain landrights based on their historical acknowledgment within a nation state in the modern days. The acknowledgment for the rights of these lands is based on their ethnic identity, historical and colonial roots and by the concept of self-determination. The structures and power are held by the nation states and guided by the international frameworks, which determine who are the people who hold rights to these lands. The research uses comparative political analysis in the special case of indigenous peoples in Sweden and Finland to illustrate recent political debate concerning land rights and self-determination. This paper offers analysis about the recent political trajectories regarding the ratification of C169 in both countries by combining political analysis and approach from the social sciences. The findings suggest that the question of self-determination, land and domestic legislation play a role why these countries have not ratified the legally binding convention C169.