Hämeenlinna National Selection Conference is over. I was a delegate in LIBE, the committee on civil liberties, justice and home affairs. Our topic was the rights of the Sámi people in the north.
A topic close to me
This topic meant a lot to me. I'm learning the Sámi language myself, and I have many Sámi friends. So I didn't come to this topic as a stranger.
Honestly, it felt a bit strange to "defend" their rights. For me they are just normal people, my friends. But during the research and the committee work we learned that for some people and some organisations, unfortunately that is not the case. That was not easy to read about.
The resolution
We worked really hard and wrote a good resolution. But one sentence in it got badly misunderstood, and because of that our resolution did not pass at General Assembly.
That hurt. I was really sad, because we had put so much work into it. When something you care about fails because of one sentence, it stays with you. I learned how much every single word matters when you write something other people will vote on.
I also didn't get selected to go further from this session. That was disappointing too.
The people
But even with all that, Hämeenlinna is the place where I made my best friendships in EYP. I still meet the friends from here very often. Compared to Kokkola, this session was a lot bigger, and the atmosphere between people was incredibly good. Many people I knew from Kokkola were there too, so I got to see them again and meet a lot of new people at the same time.
I don't have one specific moment to tell about. Honestly every moment of this session was great. A resolution can fail, but the people you meet stay.