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Expert seminar on the right of persons with disabilities to participate in political and public life

Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Publication date 27.10.2016 11.15 | Published in English on 27.10.2016 at 16.21
Press release

Press release 203/2016
27 October 2016

What obstacles do persons with disabilities encounter when participating in public life? What good practices are there in promoting the rights of participation? What still needs to be done?

The Human Rights Centre, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs are organising a high-level expert seminar on the right of persons with disabilities to participate in political and public life. The seminar Our right to participate – Promoting the participation of Persons with Disabilities in political and public life will be held on Monday, 31 October from 9.30 to 15.30 at the Finnish Parliament Annex auditorium.

The event can be followed as a live webcast at the address https://www.eduskunta.fi/FI/Sivut/live.aspx and on Twitter at #OurRightToParticipate. The languages of the event are English and Russian, and there is International Sign Language interpreting.

The purpose of the seminar is to bring together a variety of experts from institutions and organisations and to go through the challenges and good practices associated with the political participation of persons with disabilities.

Finland considers promoting the rights of persons with disabilities to be an important human rights priority both nationally and internationally. Finland ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in May 2016.

Ambassador Katja Pehrman, Permanent Representative of Finland to the OSCE, currently chairs the Human Dimension Committee (HDC) of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).Within the framework of the OSCE, Finland has actively highlighted the importance of promoting the rights of persons with disabilities, especially the right to participate in political life and the right to access to information.

Inquiries: Ambassador Katja Pehrman, tel: +43 676 848 350 350, Desk Officer Merja Lahtinen, tel. +358 295 350 971 and Annika Hinkkanen, Human Rights Centre, tel. +358 9 432 7222.

The Foreign Ministry’s email addresses are of the format [email protected]

 
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