Sápmi, Sweden's Smörgåsbord? On Human Rights, Rights of Nature and Extractivism

Sammanfattning: In North Sweden, Sámi activists are resisting the proposed Gállok mine, disapproving of their land being treated as a 'smörgåsbord' and countering the assumption of modernity that dichotomises the human and the nonhuman. Against this backdrop, this thesis looks at some of the unprecedented challenges the rapid extension of globalisation poses to the human and nonhuman world. In response to these challenges, the Swedish Sámi Parliament endorsed the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth (UDRME) in 2018. This study asks; what are the implications of the Sá mi Parliament adopting a Rights of Nature (RoN) declaration politically and ontologically? Is there a Sá mi-specific ontology underlying the adoption of the UDRME? To what extent can RoN and human rights mitigate the effects of extractivism in Sápmi? In order to find answers to these questions, the first part of this study consults a political ontology frame of reference and decolonial theory. In the second part, these contemplations are complemented with the content analysis of social media interactions from local activists, interviews and ethnographic observations from a field trip to Jokkmokk. With this approach, this thesis seeks to methodologise human rights by examining their role in the conflict of the Gállok mine together with Rights of Nature. This thesis contends that both human rights and RoN have a limited capacity to cure the ills of extractivist practices as long as they remain complicit with colonialism. However, it also suggests constructive measures of reflexive criticism and the importance of dialogue between Western-trained and indigenous scholars.