UN periodic review of human rights in Finland

Press release 77/2017
28 April 2017

Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Social Affairs and Health

Finland’s human rights record will be under a periodic review at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 3 May 2017. Minister of Social Affairs and Health Pirkko Mattila will head Finland’s delegation to the meeting. The delegation consists of representatives from different ministries and civil society organisations’ representatives who have an independent observer status.

The Government has sent Finland’s national human rights report (Universal Periodic Review, UPR) to the UN together with an account of the implementation of the recommendations received earlier. The review can be expected to cover on the Government’s actions to promote the adoption of international human rights agreements, to enhance human rights training and education, to fight violence against women, and to protect the rights of minorities. On February 2017, the Government adopted Finland’s second national programme on fundamental and human rights for the period 2017–2019.

Each UN Member State’s human rights record is discussed in a cooperative peer review dialogue, where Member States present questions to the state under review and make recommendations on its national human rights record. This review mechanism plays a significant role in the international human rights dialogue and complements other human rights mechanisms of the UN. The previous review of Finland’s human rights record was conducted in 2012.

The interactive dialogue on human rights in Finland can be followed live via a video link on the UN Web TV page on 3 May between 15.30 and 19.00 at http://webtv.un.org/

More information about the UPR and associated documents describing the situation in Finland are available on the Foreign Ministry’s webpage.

Inquiries: Rauno Merisaari, Ambassador for Human Rights and Democracy, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. + 358 295 350 974 and Viveca Arrhenius, Ministerial Counsellor for Social Affairs, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, tel. +358 295 163 286

The Foreign Ministry’s email addresses are in the format [email protected] and the email addresses of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health are in the format [email protected]