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Addressee: Member States
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The Forum recommends that Member States adopt legislation acknowledging that the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples is their inalienable cultural heritage and embodies their cultural identity and that they make available such legislation and information in local indigenous languages.
Responses
The Government of Finland reports the following:
The Ministry of Education promotes the preservation of cultural heritage at the national and international levels. The Ministry considers it vital to cherish both material and immaterial cultural heritage at both levels (e.g. the UNESCO Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage). In its objectives, the Ministry of Education takes the cultural needs of the indigenous people more into account within the general systems for supporting culture and the arts and in the operations of cultural institutions. Faced with growing immigration, the Ministry is also taking measures to cater for the cultural needs of immigrants. One of the objectives for the Ministry is to ensure access to varied library and information services, and to varied digital cultural contents also as regards the indigenous people.
The Government of Norway reports the following:
Article 100a of the Norwegian Constitution declares the right of the Sami people to preserve and develop their language, culture and way of life. Section 3-2 of the Sami Act (Act of 12 June 1987 No.56) provides that acts and regulations of particular intereste to all or parts of the Sami population shall be translated into Sami. The government has also decided that plans are to be drawn up for which acts and regulations are to be translated into Sami.
Final Report of UNPFII Session 3 (2004)
Area of Work
