A/HRC/33/42/Add.3 CERD/C/FIN/CO/20-22, para. 14). A shortage of Sami teachers and education material, especially in the numerically smaller Skolt and Ánar Sami languages, presents a further problem for education in the Sami languages and culture. Some measures have been taken to facilitate distance learning, but problems have arisen, primarily due to a lack of funding. Importantly, government funds to the Sami Parliament for preparing learning materials in the Sami languages have increased since the visit of the previous Special Rapporteur. In addition, in March 2012, a Government-appointed working group submitted its proposal for a programme to revitalize the three Sami languages spoken in Finland. A decision-inprinciple on the revival programme for the Sami languages that was approved by the Government in July 2014 set the aim of working towards clear changes in the well-being of the Sami languages by 2025, and increasing the number of Sami speakers throughout the country. 72. While the Sami Parliament is consulted with regard to the national core curriculum, there is currently no specific Sami teaching curriculum for education in the Sami homeland. That has prompted an untenable situation where municipally approved Sami curricula are merely translated versions of the Finnish school curriculum, in which Sami culture and history is given only minimal and general coverage. VI. Conclusions and recommendations 73. For the Sami people, rights over their lands and resources are the sine qua non conditions for their long-term well-being and a prerequisite for them to be able to continue to exist as a distinct people. Those rights do not appear to be sufficiently established, implemented or judicially protected in Norway, Sweden or Finland, resulting in their perpetual insecurity and instability. While the Special Rapporteur appreciates that natural resource investments are of key importance for the domestic economies of the three countries, it is her view that their ambition to promote mining in a socially and ecologically sustainable manner cannot be achieved as long as Sami rights are not adequately reflected and safeguarded in the legislation that regulates natural resource extraction. 74. In the light of the countries’ international human rights obligations and the commitments they have assumed with respect to the Sami people, the Mining Act in Norway and the Minerals Act in Sweden raise serious doubts about the States’ ability to respect, protect and fulfil human rights in the context of extractive activities. They also raise doubts as to whether the States are clearly setting out the expectation that all business enterprises respect human rights throughout their operations. From a business perspective, the deficient regulatory frameworks have also created barriers for companies to carry out their operations in a manner consistent with international expectations regarding the rights of indigenous peoples. 75. In Finland, the Mining Act shows that the Government is responding to concerns raised by the Sami people. However, in practice the Act appears to have fallen short of its stated objective to ensure that mining activities and gold panning are adapted “so as to secure the rights of the Sami as an indigenous people”. The Special Rapporteur also notes that the 2016 Finnish Forest and Park Enterprise Act will have a significant impact on the Sami people, and that removing safeguards for the Sami people is not in line with international human rights obligations with respect to the Sami people. 19