Láilá 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 Governmemnt 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.

She led the Sami Árja party from 2008 to 2010, and was vice president of the Sami Parliament of Norway from 2009 to 2013. In 2013, she became the director of the Gáldu Resource Centre for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was based in Kautokeino Municipality, Norway. When Gáldu was integrated into the NHRI in 2017, Vars worked AS research director at the NHRI.