The Sámi are Europe’s only Indigenous people, with ancestral ties to northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Russia’s Kola Peninsula. In Sweden, thousands of Sámi continue to preserve a living culture rooted in reindeer herding, language, traditional knowledge, and a deep spiritual connection to Sápmi, their ancestral homeland.

For many Sámi, the land is not only a place to live, but a sacred space connected to identity, spirituality, memory, and traditional practices passed through generations. Mountains, rivers, forests, and migration routes hold cultural and spiritual meaning. When these lands are damaged, access is lost, or sacred places are disturbed, it also harms religious and spiritual freedom.

Today, Sámi lands are under growing threat from mining, logging, roads, and other industrial developments. These projects damage nature, disrupt reindeer migration routes, and weaken Sámi cultural and spiritual traditions tied to the land.

This must stop.

International standards such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and International Labour Organization Convention No. 169 recognize Indigenous peoples’ rights to land, consultation, culture, and spiritual traditions. Yet Sweden has still not ratified ILO Convention 169.

We call on Sweden to:

1. Ratify ILO Convention 169 without delay.
2. Protect Sámi sacred and culturally important lands from harmful development. 
3. Require strict environmental and cultural impact reviews before any project is approved.
4. Guarantee Sámi participation and free, prior, and informed consent in decisions affecting their territories. 
5. Respect Sámi spiritual traditions and freedom of belief connected to the land.
6. Support Sámi languages, traditions, and cultural preservation.

By signing this petition, you support justice, human rights, religious freedom, and the protection of one of Europe’s oldest living cultures.

Stand with the Sámi people. Protect Sápmi now.