Procedures for consultations with indigenous peoples - Experiences from Norway
2.2. Key actors and scope of application
2.2.1. Responsibility for undertaking consultations
Ensuring adequate consultations with indigenous peoples, in the context of Convention No.
169, is the express responsibility of the State.
In its 2005 report, the working group explains that ILO Convention No. 169, including its
Article 6, basically concerns the duties of the Government. This should be understood to
mean that the duty to consult applies not only to the Government and the ministries but
also to directorates and other organs of State administration with delegated responsibilities.
Within their respective areas of responsibility, municipalities and counties, also have the duty
to contribute to meeting the obligations that Norway has assumed under international law,
including the duty to consult the Sami. Although it has no obligation to do so, it might be
appropriate in certain situations for the Storting – the Norwegian Parliament – also to conduct such consultations (KRD/Sámediggi, 2005: 9).
Accordingly, the consultation procedures stipulate that the procedures apply to the Government
and its ministries, directorates and other subordinate State agencies or activities (Norway,
2005: 2).
In its Article 2, paragraph 1, Convention No. 169 emphasizes the need for governments to
act in a coordinated and systematic manner. In the Norwegian context, this requirement is
reflected and operationalized in the 2005 consultation procedures and the 2006 guidelines,
which stipulate that it is the Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion that bears overall responsibility for elaborating and coordinating the State’s Sami policy5 (Norway, 2006).
Where specific consultations are concerned, the guidelines specify that the individual line
ministries or enterprises concerned have the responsibility for consultations within their
areas. These individual bodies are the best informed about their own areas, and this also tallies with the Government’s principle of sector responsibility, which means that the individual
sector authority has responsibility within its area for all groups of the population. The Ministry
of Labour and Social Inclusion can assist the line ministries with advice on how the consultations should be undertaken and it has the right to participate in the consultation meetings
upon request.
The guidelines further indicate that, given the need for the State to act in a coherent manner,
it must be possible for ministries to engage in a preliminary discussion of issues before the
Sámediggi is involved. They also point out that it will often be desirable for representatives
of other relevant State authorities to participate in the consultation meetings (Norway, 2006:
11).
5
Since 2014 the Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation (Department of Sami and Minority Affairs) has been
responsible for the consultation procedures and the coordination of the Government’s policy towards the Sami. Previously
these responsibilities lied with the following ministries:
•
The Ministry of Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs (2010 – 2013)
•
The Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion (2006-2009)
•
The Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development (1998-2005)
16