The Sámi Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in Finland handed over its final report on December 4, 2025, to the Government of Finland, the Sámi Parliament in Finland, and the Skolt Saami Siida Council (representing the Skolt Sámi population). The biggest news in the context of publishing the report was Finland's Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's announcement that he sees that Finland should offer a state apology, which should be "comprehensive and worthy".
In line with the TRC's mandate, the 700-page report includes 68 proposals and points of action. Acknowledging that the state of Finland was established on the territory of two peoples, the Sámi and the Finns, the TRC recommends that a unit coordinating Sámi affairs, headed by a State Secretary for the Sámi, should be established in the Prime Minister's Office. The role and responsibility of this unit would be to support the preparation and implementation of policies concerning the Sámi in Finland.
The report lays bare that Finland has two sets of policies regarding the Sámi. On the one hand, the state has recently established initiatives to strengthen Sámi rights, as exemplified by the establishment of the TRC. On the other hand, the economic, industrial, security, and political takeover of the Sámi area continues, and Finland has still not adopted the UN International Labour Organization's Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention (ILO 169) nor implemented the Nordic Sámi Convention, which seeks to assert the existing rights in the whole Sámi region. These double standards undermine the trust between the Sámi and the state, and the report recommends that Finland acts on both conventions.
The TRC recommendations thus draw attention to historical and ongoing juridical and structural injustices regarding the relations between the Sámi and the Finnish state. To support the process of implementing and living up to the recommendations, the government has appointed a parliamentary follow-up group, chaired by former Social Democratic prime minister Antti Rinne. Notably, this follow-up group does not currently include Sámi representation.
Internal and external turbulences
The report concludes a four-year process. The five-member commission, comprising both Sámi and non-Sámi members, has held hearings with almost 400 Sámi individuals and published 25 special reports on various facets of state-Sámi history and current relations. The Finnish commission is one of three commissions in the Nordic countries treating state-Sámi relations: the TRC in Norway reported in 2023, and the truth commission in Sweden is set to report by October 2026.
Finland’s TRC has seen some turbulence with the resignation of two of its members (one for personal reasons, the other due to disagreements about the scope, funding and tasks of the commission) as well as regarding a proposed legislation on who can vote in the Sámi Parliamentary elections, which risked overshadowing the process. The Finnish Parliament passed the new law on the voters' register in June 2025, after an earlier attempt turned into an intra-governmental conflict before it failed in 2022. The report acknowledges the value of the reformed law as a prerequisite for continued discussions toward reconciliation.
In the opening words for handing over the report, the chair of the commission Hannele Pokka underscored that the Arctic context is very different now from 2021, when the commission first began its work. International conflicts and Finland's NATO membership have led to an acceleration of military activity and rehearsals in the Sámi areas of northern Finland. One of the TRC 25 special reports pointed out that, in the process of Finland's NATO membership, the Sámi Parliament and the Sámi have not been consulted as the Finnish constitution would require.
The Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else on the planet, and climate change affects Sámi livelihoods from reindeer herding to fishing. Northern Finland is the site for several planned energy and mining projects. How projects of national security and green transition are balanced with Sámi rights will be key for the future development of the relationship between the Sámi and the government. These are just two of the many challenges that loom over the future of state-Sámi relations, henceforth negotiated in the post-TRC landscape.
Making sure the issue is not forgotten
The TRC notes a structural lack of knowledge among Finns about Sámi culture and livelihoods. The report recommends that Sámi content be increased in teachers’ education and in the curricula of basic and secondary education.
The report also proposes that the three Nordic states work transnationally to provide Sámi-language education and healthcare services. The report also suggests that the unit of psychosocial support established for the TRC hearings be made permanent so that mental health challenges can be addressed through support and services to the Sámi, including in the changing cultural and environmental landscape.
To strengthen traditional Sámi livelihoods, the proposal calls on the government to amend legislation on forestry, reindeer husbandry, and salmon fishing in the Deatnu River between Finland and Norway to better reflect Sámi traditions and livelihoods.
By the concrete, detailed way the recommendations are formulated, the TRC seeks to prevent them from disappearing from the political agenda. Binding the parliamentary groups to the implementation phase of the process through the parliamentary follow-up group is an attempt to ensure the issue does not fall outside political discussions.
A panel of Finnish MPs discussing the proposals after the formal handover of the report unanimously supported the idea that the proposals outlined in the report should be followed up on and not set aside or forgotten amid a hectic political landscape. But when claims to strengthen and extend Sámi rights collide with political, economic, and military considerations, it remains to be seen to what extent these promises translate into concrete action and legislation.
Otso Kortekangas is an Associate Professor at the University of Helsinki and a researcher at Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland. He is involved in the project TRiNC: Truth & Reconciliation in the Nordic Countries led by Astrid Nonbo Andersen at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS). His academic interests include educational history, environmental history, and Arctic and Sámi history.
