Suchergebnisse

On 23 January 2020, the Supreme Court of Sweden delivered an historic verdict in favour of the Girjas sameby in a lawsuit against the Swedish State over a long-standing dispute over the right to administer hunting and fishing rights in the Girjas land management area. Rooted in Sámi customary law, ILO Convention 169 and the UN Declaration of Indigenous Peoples, the verdict is a milestone in the development of Sámi law in Sweden. It may also have an impact on the other Nordic countries, in particular Norway.

For the first time in the Swedish Supreme Court, a small Sami reindeer herding community has won an important victory affirming the community's small game hunting and fishing rights. Because of protracted use and the concept of immemorial prescription, the Court recognised the community's exclusive hunting and fishing rights, including the right to lease these rights to others. Such leases have long been prohibited by legislation and the State has retained its powers to administer such leases. This case signifies a considerable development in the area of Sami law. In its decision, the Supreme Court made some adjustments to the age-old doctrine of immemorial prescription, and provided insights into how historic evidence should be evaluated when the claimant is an Indigenous people. A common motivator for these adjustments is an enhanced awareness of international standards protecting Indigenous peoples and minorities. Even ILO Convention No. 169 – the only legally binding convention concerning Indigenous rights, but which Sweden has not yet ratified – is relevant when it comes to evaluating Sami customary uses. The Court addressed the problem of gaps in the historical material and used evidence from other parts of Swedish Lapland and adjacent time-periods, making reasonable assumptions to fill in these gaps. The Court imposes on the State the burden of proof regarding the extinguishment of already established Sami rights, as well as proof that extinguishment by legislation or expropriation, is "clear and definitive". These conditions were not met in this case.

This paper examines how a transnational corporation (TNC) translates global standards and corporate policies into programs at sites of extraction. We explore this question through a comparative analysis of ExxonMobil's operations in two different politico-economic contexts: the Sakhalin-1 project in Russia and the Point Thomson project on the North Slope of Alaska, with field work on Sakhalin Island in 2013–2015 and in Alaska in 2015–2018. Theoretically, we use the Deleuzian concept of "diagram" as a lens through which to examine corporate policies, and a governance generating network (GGN) approach to analyze similarities and differences in benefit-sharing programs in both localities. We show that while global commitments and corporate principles contribute to a standardized approach to community engagement, Indigenous movements and associations, the government, and other corporate actors may play important roles in influencing how corporate policies and global standards are implemented at sites of extraction. Moreover, adaptation of community engagement, benefit-sharing, and environmental monitoring in one location may shape how the company's strategies are implemented in other sites of extraction.

This article examines current Russian expert and official narratives on the Arctic, situating them in the broader context of the debate on Russia's role in the international system. Combining a critical geopolitics approach to the study of international relations with content analysis tools, we map how structural geopolitical changes in the wider region have shaped narratives on the Arctic in Russia today. Two types of Russian narratives on the Arctic are explored—the one put forward by members of the Russian expert community, and the one that emerges from official documents and statements by members of the Russian policymaking community. With the expert narratives, we pay particular attention to the Arctic topics featured and how they are informed by various mainstream approaches to the study of international relations (IR). In examining policy practitioners' narrative approaches, we trace the overlaps and differences between these and the expert narratives. Current expert and official Russian narratives on the Arctic appear to be influenced mostly by neorealist and neoliberal ideas in IR, without substantial modifications after the 2014 conflict, thus showing relatively high ideational continuity.

"We live in a diverse society characterized by different and to some extent contradictory values. Sometimes they create community. Other times they generate value conflicts. In this book, twelve Norwegian researchers write about such value conflicts and the way they occur in working life and the public sphere.

Common to many of the contributions of this book is the attempt to highlight so-called value-based community of disagreement. This means that we agree to disagree. As a society, citizens can try to gather around some shared, fundamental values, but we cannot demand that all the members of the society agree on personal values.
" - "Vi lever i et mangfoldig samfunn preget av forskjellige og til dels motstridende verdier. Noen ganger skaper de fellesskap. Andre ganger fører de til verdikonflikter. I denne boken skriver tolv norske forskere om slike verdikonflikter og måten de utspiller seg på i arbeidsliv og i det offentlige rom.

Felles for mange av bidragene i boken er forsøket på å kaste lys over et såkalt verdimessig uenighetsfellesskap. Dette innebærer at vi er enige om å være uenige. Som samfunn kan innbyggerne forsøke å samles om noen felles, grunnleggende verdier. Fellesskapstanken kan likevel ikke forutsette at alle samfunnsmedlemmer blir enige om sine personlige verdisyn."

The paper examines the conflict between indigenous people living in Numto Nature Park in the Khanty-Mansy region of Russia and the oil company Surgutneftegaz, which is trying to expand to new areas of the Park for industrial development. We analyse this conflict by looking at different perceptions concerning the threats and benefits underpinning the conflicting parties' arguments. We show that the oil company, whose approach is based on the principles of benefit sharing, seeks to provide economic benefits as well as infrastructure to ensure development in the indigenous community. In contrast, the indigenous people in Numto prioritise environmental safety and the possibility of maintaining their traditional ways of life, which means eliminating the negative impacts of oil development on fisheries, reindeer herding and the general state of the environment. The study indicates that focusing on indigenous peoples' and oil companies' differences concerning perceptions of threats and benefits provides a better understanding of desirable benefit-sharing arrangements between oil companies and indigenous peoples in areas that have so far only been marginally affected by industrialisation and modernisation. This insight suggests that the introduction of community-centred perspectives emphasising cultural and environmental security in benefit-sharing policies in oil companies could improve practices. The analysis draws on interviews with members of the indigenous Nenets and Khanty peoples of Numto Park as well as representatives of Surgutneftegaz, NGOs, the regional administration and the Numto Park administration

Discusses the history and development of democracy and freedom in China from Mao Zedong to Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics. During Mao's regime the Chinese people lacked every freedom from travel to the freedom of speech in their own homes, and as late as 1989 the Tiananmen Square protests were brutally ended by the regime. Since then China has freed its economy and by the early 21st century Chinese people enjoy the right to select their local leaders, to live in any community they like, and to communicate freely with each other. However the highest party officials are still above criticism and the media is censored. L. Pitkaniemi

1970s military dictatorship in Latin America was followed by a democratization process in the 1980s, at a point when military powers had devastated the economy & more than doubled foreign debt. Now, in the beginning of the twenty-first century, the region finds itself in a period marked by governments that, perhaps more than ever before, are characterized by their reaction to the neo-liberal policies of the 1990s. Of particular concern in this respect is the changing relationship between the region & the United States, which in turn opens opportunity for the involvement of other international actors in the sphere. This brings about a high degree of uncertainty both for Latin America itself as well as for the international community. Some of the many cases of Latin American economies & politics in crisis are described here in detail. C Brunski