An elected Indigenous parliament for the Sámi in Norway, opened in 1989 after the Alta dam conflict. It is non-territorial: Sámi across the country enrol on a separate electoral roll. It allocates state funds for Sámi language and culture and must be consulted, but holds little legislative power.
The Sámi are the Indigenous people of northern Fennoscandia and the Kola peninsula. In Norway, a long policy of Norwegianisation suppressed Sámi language and culture in schools, land policy and public life well into the twentieth century. The turning point was the conflict over a hydroelectric dam on the Alta-Kautokeino river, planned in the late 1970s. Sámi activists and environmentalists staged sit-ins and hunger strikes, including outside the Storting in Oslo, in 1979 and 1981. The dam was built, but the government appointed a Sámi Rights Committee whose work led to the Sámi Act of 12 June 1987 and, in 1988, a constitutional provision (now Article 108) obliging the State to create conditions for the Sámi people to safeguard and develop their language, culture and way of life.
The Sámi Parliament (Sámediggi in North Sámi, Sametinget in Norwegian) was opened in Karasjok on 9 October 1989. Norway ratified ILO Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in 1990, the first state to do so.
Anyone who declares that they consider themselves Sámi and who has Sámi as a home language, or has a parent, grandparent or great-grandparent who did, or is the child of someone on the roll, may enrol. Over 25,000 people were registered for the 2025 election.
constituencies covering the whole country, at the same time as Storting elections. National lists compete, including the Norwegian Sámi Association and Norwegian national parties.
Council that functions as a government responsible to the plenary.
culture, education materials and business development, manages cultural heritage, and advises on matters affecting the Sámi. It appoints half the board of the Finnmark Estate, the body that since 2006 has owned most land in Finnmark county under the Finnmark Act of 2005.
consult the Sámi Parliament on measures that may affect Sámi interests; since 2021 the duty to consult has been set out in the Sámi Act itself. It is a duty to consult in good faith with the aim of agreement, not a veto.
The Sámi Parliament does not tax; its budget comes from the state. Its main public goods are cultural and linguistic: grants for Sámi language use, media, culture and schools, support for traditional industries such as reindeer herding and fisheries, and protection of Sámi heritage sites. Material questions such as land, water and natural resources are decided mostly by the Storting, ministries and municipalities, which is why the consultation duty and the Finnmark Act matter so much.
The sharpest recent dispute concerns wind power. On 11 October 2021 the Supreme Court's Grand Chamber unanimously held that the licence and expropriation decisions for the Storheia and Roan wind farms on the Fosen peninsula violated reindeer herders' right to enjoy their culture under Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The turbines kept operating, and in early 2023 young Sámi activists occupied government buildings in Oslo to demand implementation; the government apologised and later negotiated agreements with the herding groups. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission reported in 2023 on Norwegianisation and its after-effects.
Other disputes include mining and power projects on grazing land, whether consultation without consent gives meaningful influence, tensions between reindeer-herding Sámi and other Sámi interests, and the non-territorial design itself, which gives a voice to Sámi wherever they live but no territorial jurisdiction.
The Sámediggi has become the main political voice of Sámi in Norway and a model for the Sámi parliaments of Sweden and Finland, though Josefsen, Mörkenstam and Saglie show that Norway and Sweden, usually seen as similar political systems, built Sámi parliaments that differ considerably in institutional design. Semb argues that the arrangements advanced Sámi self-determination in culture while leaving control of land and resources largely with the state.
without redrawing borders, but it has little purchase on land disputes.
avoids state classification while limiting manipulation.
outcomes to majority institutions.
political will.
Since 1989 an elected 39-member Sámi Parliament has allocated state funds for Sámi language and culture, appointed half the Finnmark Estate board and been consulted on measures affecting Sámi; consultation became statutory in 2021. Control of land and resources stays largely with the state, as the Fosen case showed.
Under the Sámi Act, anyone who declares that they consider themselves Sámi and who has Sámi as a home language, has or had a parent, grandparent or great-grandparent with Sámi as a home language, or is the child of someone on the roll, may enrol on the Sámi Parliament's electoral roll.[1]
On 11 October 2021 the Supreme Court of Norway unanimously held that the licence and expropriation decisions for the Storheia and Roan wind farms on Fosen were invalid because they violated reindeer herders' rights under Article 27 of the ICCPR.[1]
Comparative research finds that Norway and Sweden, although usually seen as similar political systems, created Sámi parliaments that differ considerably in institutional design.[1][2]