Linguistic Assimilation of All Citizens or Minority Protection: The Precedent Set by the Åland Islands

Abstract

The Åland Islands, which are situated in the Baltic Sea at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia, belong to Finland but are almost exclusively inhabited by ethnic Swedes, and enjoy an extensive autonomy that acts as a model example for minority protection, and which today is regarded as setting a standard for an alternative to national secession. The islands, which have an important geostrategic function in the Baltic Sea, were demilitarised and neutralised. During the Åland conflict after 1918, Sweden demanded the annexation of the islands to Sweden, citing as the reason the right to self-determination of the people of Åland, while Finland insisted on its territorial integrity. The League of Nations confirmed that Åland belonged to the territory of Finland, but pushed for its extensive autonomy. The autonomy already granted unilaterally by Finland in May 1920 was secured by a resolution of the League of Nations in June 1921, and was then also anchored in the Finnish constitution. The League of Nations was to monitor and guarantee the maintenance of the autonomy ruling, but had never had to deal with complaints from either one side or the other. With the dissolution of the League of Nations in 1946, this international guarantee also vanished. However, to date, neither Sweden nor Finland has questioned the autonomy ruling.

In many ethnonational and territorial conflicts, reference is made to the Åland autonomy model, for example until just a few years ago for East Timor, Southern Sudan and Kosovo, for the de-facto states in the southern Caucasus and Transnistria, for Northern Cyprus or even for the Kuril Islands. However, here, many of the factors that facilitate the Åland ruling are ignored, such as the important role played by the Swedish culture and language in Finland, which continued to have an effect when that country achieved independence over a hundred years after its separation from Sweden and its liberation from the rule of Russia, the fact that the islands are inhabited almost solely by ethnic Swedes, the military weakness of both neighbour states, their interest in membership of the League of Nations and a recognition of its security interests by the major western powers, the liberal democratic political order in both countries, and more besides.

Although there is almost no other conflict situation in which the Åland conflict regulation can be simply imitated, it does contain several fundamental principles that could also be taken into account when developing conflict regulations in other situations, such as the securing of the linguistic and cultural existence, the very extensive territorial autonomy even for an extremely small minority and free communication with the co-national neighbouring state while at the same time recognising the territorial integrity of the existing state.