UN Committee on the Rights of the Child submitted its concluding observations
On 20 June, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child published its concluding observations concerning Finland’s fourth periodic report on implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Committee reviewed the report in its 57th session and the oral hearing of Finland, held in the same context, in Geneva on 9 June 2011.
The committee welcomes a number of measures implemented during the reporting period, including various legislative measures taken with a view to implementing the Convention, adoption of various operation policies and action plans, and ratification of international treaties.
As positive developments, the Committee considers adoption of, for instance, the Development Programme for Child and Youth Policy; the Policy Programme for the Well-being of Children, Youth and Families; and the National Action Plan to reduce corporal punishment of children (2010–15); and the reform of the Non-Discrimination Act, and plans to establish the Office of Ombudsman on equal treatment.
As areas of concern the committee mentions lack of a comprehensive coordination mechanism that would be responsible for overall implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child between all the relevant bodies and institutions at national, regional, and municipal levels.
In addition, the Committee also expresses its concern for, for example, long duration of custodial disputes concerning children; increase in the number of children placed in institutions and insufficient number of foster family care placements for children; high rate of depression and the number of suicides; and inadequate access to mental health services for children. Further areas of concern include access to health care services for Roma and Sami children on their own languages; widespread sexual and gender-based harassment and bullying against girls; as well as sexual abuse and harassment of children in the digital media, especially the Internet.
The committee is also concerned at the insufficient data available concerning the living conditions of especially children in vulnerable situations, including children affected by poverty, children with disabilities, minority or immigrant children, and children in alternative care. The Committee recommends enhancing teachers’ knowledge of different cultures, and employing more Roma professionals in schools.
The Committee takes also notice of the fact that Finland does not impose a prohibition of direct or indirect use of child labour by companies domiciled in Finland, or restrictions for businesses to import or sell goods produced using child labour.
The committee also urges Finland to raise awareness among the general public, especially children, about the different complaint procedures within national mechanisms, and to enhance the cooperation between the Parliamentary Ombudsman and the Ombudsman for Children. Furthermore, the Committee recommends providing sufficient resources for municipalities to ensure the implementation of the rights of the children, raising awareness and training about the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and integration of the best interests of the child in all legislative proceedings.
The Committee also recommends raising the development cooperation appropriations to 0.7 percent of the gross national income, measures for reducing alcohol, tobacco and substance abuse among youth, and reinforced measures for provision of support to improve the status of economically disadvantaged families.
Other recommendations made by the committee concern, for instance, discrimination against children with disabilities, immigrant and refugee children and children from ethnic minorities such as Roma children; social exclusion and structural discrimination of the Roma population; respect for the views of the child; rights of asylum-seeking children; ensuring permanent and sufficient funding for telephone and Internet help lines for children; and creation of a comprehensive legislative and political framework to guarantee equal right of children with disabilities to access, for example, quality health care services, public buildings and transportation, and to obtain education in mainstream schools.
The translations of the concluding observations into Finnish and Swedish will be published as soon as possible on the Ministry for Foreign Affairs website at http://formin.finland.fi.
Finland’s next combined fifth and sixth periodic report on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child will be issued by July 2017.
Additional information: Tarja Kahiluoto, Ministerial Adviser, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, tel. +358 9 1607 3227, Marjaana Pelkonen, Senior Officer, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, tel. +358 9 1607 4036, Georg Henrik Wrede, Director, youth policy, tel. +358 9 1607 7900, Marja Biskop, Senior Adviser, educational affairs, Ministry of Education and Culture, tel. +358 9 1607 7216, Sonja Hämäläinen, Senior Adviser, Ministry of Interior, puh. +358 71 878 8636, Johanna Suurpää, Director of Unit, Ministry of Justice, tel. +358 9 1606 7800, and Päivi Rotola-Pukkila, Legal Officer, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 9 1605 5725