Árja ("Commitment" in

northern Sami Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ...

) is a Norwegian

Sami Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...

political party. The party was founded on 24 May 2008 in Jergul, and its leader is

Láilá Susanne Vars Laila Susanne Vars is a Norwegian-Sami human rights lawyer and former politician. Elected rector of Sámi University of Applied Sciences 2019-2023. First Sámi woman to achieve a PhD in Law. She is former research director at the Norwegian Nati ...

. The ideology of the party is claimed to be based on respect for the elderly in society and traditionally based education. Otherwise, the party wants a more open and available Sami Parliament, criticises the Sami Parliament for neglecting traditionally Sami values and society, and thus wants to strengthen the rights for the rural and coastal population. The party put up lists in five out of seven constituencies, and ran for its first Sami parliamentary election in 2009 where it immediately broke through as the third largest party, with 10% of the votes and three parliamentary representatives. Singer Fred Buljo is associated with Árja and represented the party between 2013 and 2017.

Electoral history

References

Indigenous organisations in Norway Political parties established in 2008 Sámi associations Sámi politics {{Norway-party-stub