CCPR/C/124/D/2668/2015 2.2 The State party indicates that, in 2009, in its concluding observations on the seventeenth to nineteenth periodic reports of the State party, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination reiterated that the State party’s approach to the definition of who may be considered a Sami under the Act on the Sami Parliament and the interpretation provided thereon by the Supreme Administrative Court was too restrictive. 2 In 2012, in its concluding observations regarding the twentieth to twenty-second periodic reports of Finland, the same Committee noted that although the Supreme Administrative Court had relied on that Committee’s prior concluding observations in its 2011 decision defining who was a Sami entitled to vote for Members of the Sami Parliament, that decision gave insufficient weight to the Sami people’s rights, recognized in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to self-determination (art. 3), in particular their right to determine their own identity or membership in accordance with their customs and traditions (art. 33), as well as their right not to be subjected to forced assimilation or destruction of their culture (art. 8). Accordingly, that Committee recommended that, in defining who was eligible to vote for Members of the Sami Parliament, the State party should accord due weight to the rights of the Sami people to self-determination concerning their status within Finland, to determine their own membership, and not to be subjected to forced assimilation.3 2.3 As regards the definition of the Sami, the Government respects self-identification as a key criterion for the determination of a group of persons or an individual as indigenous, as stipulated, inter alia, by article 1 (2) of the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169) of the International Labour Organization (ILO). The Government also respects the Sami Parliament’s right to determine its membership in accordance with Sami customs and traditions. Accordingly, measures have been taken to protect the identity of the Sami people and the rights of its members to enjoy and develop their culture and language in community with the other members of the indigenous community. These measures respect articles 2 (1) and 26 of the Covenant. 2.4 The State party recalls general comment No. 25 (1996) on participation in public affairs and the right to vote (para. 2), in which the Human Rights Committee states that the rights under article 25 of the Covenant are related to, but distinct from, the right of peoples to self-determination. By virtue of the rights covered by article 1 (1) of the Covenant, peoples have the right to freely determine their political status and to enjoy the right to choose the form of their constitution or government. Article 25 deals with the right of individuals to participate in those processes that constitute the conduct of public affairs. Those rights, as individual rights, can give rise to claims under the Optional Protocol. 2.5 As article 25 deals with the right of individuals to participate in those processes which constitute the conduct of public affairs, the State party emphasizes that the right to vote at the elections of the Sami Parliament is established by law. In this regard, the Government has taken measures to ensure that all persons entitled to vote are able to exercise that right. 2.6 In principle, voting in the elections is based on a certified electoral roll. However, the Act on the Sami Parliament provides for a procedure by which a person may, through a demand for rectification, request to be entered on the electoral roll if he or she considers that he or she has been unlawfully omitted from it. Ultimately the matter may be referred to the Supreme Administrative Court on appeal. Therefore, section 26d of the Act stipulates that a person can vote if before the counting of the ballots they produce to the Election Committee, or on election day to the polling committee, an order of the Court confirming their right to vote. The person is also obliged to hand over the court order or a certified copy of it to the Election Committee or the polling committee for an entry to this effect to be made in the electoral roll. 2.7 The State party reiterates its arguments regarding admissibility. It concludes that no violations of the Covenant have taken place in the present case. 2 3 GE.19-04714 CERD/C/FIN/CO/19, para. 13. CERD/C/FIN/CO/20-22, para. 12. 3