1 This is not the final version of the article and will deviate from the published article. Please consult the published version which is available as: Vik, Hanne Hagtvedt & Semb, Anne Julie (2013). Who Owns the Land? Norway, the Sami and the ILO Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention. International Journal on Minority and Group Rights. ISSN 1385-4879. (4), s 517- 550. doi: 10.1163/15718115-02004002. *** Who Owns the Land? Norway, the Sami and the ILO Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention 1 Hanne Hagtvedt Vik, Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo Anne Julie Semb, Department of Political Science, University of Oslo Abstract In 1986, the International Labour Organization (ILO) started a process aimed at revising its 1957 Indigenous and Tribal Populations Convention (C107). This process was completed in 1989 with the adoption of the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention (C169). Simultaneously, national legal and political processes in many Western states addressed the rights of their own indigenous populations. These states voted in favour of C169, but only Norway chose to ratify it – indeed, as the first country in the world, in June 1990. This article details the internal political processes within the Norwegian government, to shed light on the significance of the domestic situation in Norway for its support for C169. We find that a low degree of perceived need for domestic changes may enable states to take a leading role in creating new human rights conventions. Furthermore, the participation of government officials in international horizontal and vertical policy networks may shape the policies of their ministries and thereby those of the state. Keywords: please provide three to five keywords 1. Introduction 1 We are grateful to the Norwegian Research Council and the University of Oslo for funding. Earlier versions of the article have been presented to workshops and conferences at Yale University, the University of Oslo, the University of Bergen and the Norwegian Center for Consitutional History, Eidsvoll. It has also been presented at the Joint CISS/Keynote Conference in Prague, 2012, the 2013 Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, San Fransisco, and to St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University. We would like to thank those who have offered comments on these occasions and in particular Geir Almlid, Patricia Clavin, Liesbeth van de Grift, Kryštof Kozák, Paul Gordon Lauren, Ingrid Lundestad, Susan Pedersen, Helge Pharo, Anne-Isabelle Richard, Geir Ulfstein, Jay Winter and Henriette Sinding Aasen. We have benefitted from the recollections of many who were involved in creating ILO C169 and in the Norwegian ratification process and are grateful for their generosity. Many of their names appear in the notes below. Ane Djupedal, Ada Elisabeth Nissen and Tiago Manuel Mattos have provided valuable research assistance.