Tanja Joona (Dr.Soc.Sci.) Title of Docent in International law, is working as a Senior researcher at the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland (2000 - ) At the moment she is the Finnish Institutional leader of the H2020 project JustNorth (2020-2023): Toward Just, Ethical and Sustainable Arctic Economies, Environments and Societies. The Consortium consists of 15 partners all over the world and has a budget of 6 million euros.
Joona’s main research interests focus on mainly to the Arctic region, with comparative legal and political aspects of indigenous Sámi society and especially issues dealing with traditional livelihoods, international human rights law and identity questions in the context of justice and equality. Her PhD (2012) dealt with the implementation of ILO Convention No. 169 concerning the rights of indigenous peoples and land use questions in the Nordic countries. She has been working with several national and international projects eg. on Sámi children and youth in urban cities funded by the Norwegian Research Council (NUORGÁV). At the moment, besides the H2020 she is working as a researcher in a project dealing with Arctic industrial cities and youth wellbeing (WOLLIE) funded by the Finnish Academy. Tanja Joona has published numerous scientific peer reviewed articles and has participated international conferences around the world. She has also several positions of trust at the University of Lapland as well as in the society.