London, 24 June 2025 – Global law firm Hogan Lovells is advising thirty-three members of the Muddusjärvi Reindeer Herders’ Cooperative (MPLK), an indigenous Sámi community in northern Finland, in a landmark complaint to the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC). This important case seeks to enforce the State’s obligations to the MPLK community under international human rights law, at the intersection of climate change and indigenous rights.
The complaint, registered with the UN in Geneva, alleges multiple breaches by the Finnish Government of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The UNHRC has requested a formal response from the Finnish Government by 15 October 2025, after which the complainants will receive that response for their comments.
The MPLK – one of three remaining reindeer herding communities that uses the endangered Inari Sámi language – has for centuries practiced nature-based Sámi reindeer herding, a core part of Sámi culture, which is uniquely dependent on seasonal forest pastures and indigenous ecological knowledge. The complaint sets out how dispossession of the traditional land of indigenous Sámi, climate change and decades of intensive logging by the Finnish State’s forestry agency have severely damaged the environment on which MPLK nature-based reindeer herding depends. In harsh winters, the loss of lichen-rich old-growth forests and changes to snow conditions have made it increasingly difficult for reindeer to access natural food sources, leading to the loss of many reindeer, a reduction in the calving rate and a steep increase in the costs associated with herding. This existential threat places in jeopardy the viability of the MPLK community’s way of life.
The complaint alleges violations of ICCPR Articles 27 (right to enjoy one’s culture), 17 (privacy and family life), 26 (non-discrimination), and 1 (self-determination), arising from the State’s failure to support Sámi herding communities during recent exceptional winters. The complaint challenges the Finnish Government’s decision not to release appropriate compensation to the MPLK community in 2019–2020 and 2021–2022, despite laws providing for economic support in the event of reindeer losses. Had adequate financial support been provided to the MPLK members, they would have been able to mitigate some of the negative impacts of climate change and forestry on their reindeer herds. The lack of such support leaves nature-based reindeer herding in a particularly precarious position, as compared with mainstream Finnish reindeer farmers, whose reindeer herding is based on feeding instead of natural pastures. Unlike in Norway and Sweden, in Finland, reindeer herding is not reserved to the indigenous Sámi.
The case draws on the UN Committee’s groundbreaking 2022 decision in Billy et al. v. Australia, which affirmed that States have a duty to adopt positive measures, in that case including the construction of sea-walls, to protect indigenous cultures from the impacts of climate change.
Hogan Lovells is working alongside lead counsel Toby Fisher (Matrix Chambers) and co-counsel professor Martin Scheinin, expert on the ICCPR.
William Robinson, counsel in the firm’s London Litigation group, commented:
“This case places vital emphasis on the extent of governments’ obligations to support and protect indigenous communities facing the twin threats of widescale environmental destruction and climate change. Our clients are asserting their right not just to survive, but to sustain and pass on a unique way of life rooted in indigenous knowledge, language, and culture. We are proud to work with the MPLK community as they seek justice through international human rights law.”
The MPLK hope to receive a prompt response from the Finnish Government, due by 15 October 2025.