Laila 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. Vars is appointed by the Government of Sweden, Ministry of Culture as Commissioner of the Truth Commission for the Sámi People in Sweden. She is former research director at the Norwegian National Human Rights Institution (NHRI) and former Expert member of the United Nations' Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) 2017-2023.