5 The legal status of the South Saami language

Three Saami languages are recognized and given an official status in Norway: North Saami, Lule Saami and South Saami. This legal status is intended to protect the languages, and to secure conditions for them to thrive and to be used.  §108 of the Norwegian Constitution establishes the duty of the state to protect the language rights of the Saami citizens, and this responsibility is taken up in several other laws, notably the Saami Act of 1987 that establishes principles of governance and administration. Other laws such as the Education Act and the Place Names Act secure specific rights and declares how the rights are to be implemented.

These national laws are supplemented by international laws and conventions to which Norway has ratified, notably the ILO-convention 169 on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the 2006 Nordic Declaration of Languages, which counts Saami as one of the languages “essential to society”, and the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages 1992.

This has not always been the case, however. Today’s status is a result of bitter historical experiences, where national state policies have by various means tried to suppress and at times abolish the use of Saami language within the state borders.