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Addressee: Member States
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The Permanent Forum recommends that all States apply the principles of general comment No. 11 (2009) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, entitled “Indigenous children and their rights under the Convention”.
Responses
Finland reports (2010): The Governments' Policy Programme for the Well-Being of Children, Youth and Families includes aims through the realisation of which the Government attempts to answer to the challenges faced in the improving of the living conditions of the Sámi. Also the Government’s Programme for the Accessibility of Arts and Culture for the years from 2006 to 2010 defines measures that aim to strengthen the accessibility of culture by, inter alia, the Sámi people.
The Development Plan of Education and Research of the Ministry of Education for the years from 2007 to 2012 addresses the possibilities of Sámi-speaking pupils to participate in preschool and basic education, as well as to upper secondary education in their own mother tongue.
The Ombudsman for Children, established under the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, commissioned in 2008 a study on the wellbeing of Sámi children. Replies were received from 87 Sámi adolescents aged 13 to 18 and attending school in the Sámi Homeland. The study showed that Sámi adolescents currently have a strong Sámi identity. The situation of the children's parents was considered to be good, and the majority of the Sámi youth were happy with their school and teaching. The majority of those who replied considered that bilingualism and multiculturalism were well taken into account in schools. Some young Sámi people were concerned about the lack of facilities for young people, the small number of Sámi language radio- and TV-programmes and the small number or the total lack of Internet sites in Sámi, as well as the persisting stereotypical portrayal of the Sámi in media a way. The study also included proposals for further measures.
Spain reports (2010) that together with, inter alia, the ILO International Programme on the Elimination of Child
Labour (IPEC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Regional Programme on the Rights of Indigenous Children and Youth in Latin America — a Latin American meeting of indigenous peoples and governments to discuss an approach to effective protection of the rights of indigenous boys, girls and adolescents involved in child labour, with a view to its abolishment, which was held
at the AECID Training Centre in Cartagena, Colombia, from 8 to 10 March 2010.
Final Report of UNPFII Session 8 (2009)
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