COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION CONSIDERS REPORT OF FINLAND

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has considered the combined seventeenth to nineteenth periodic report of Finland on its implementation of the provisions of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination. Also this morning the Committee discussed replies received from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Korea in follow-up to the Committee’s concluding observations.

Presenting the report, Arto Kosonen, Director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, said that the non-discrimination legislation in Finland as a whole was being further developed so as to base it on the Finnish system of basic rights and on the principle of equal remedies and sanctions for all grounds of discrimination. To that end, a Committee set up by the Ministry of Justice in January 2007 was examining the need to revise the provisions on non-discrimination and equality laid down in that legislation. In connection with the reform, the position, tasks and powers of existing non-discrimination ombudsmen would be adjusted to the extent necessary. The Committee's final report was due at the end of the year. With regard to monitoring of racism and ethnic discrimination, the Ministry of the Interior had set up, in September 2008, a project to implement the plan for a national system for the monitoring of racism and ethnic discrimination. The project would commission studies, including victim surveys, into discrimination, and would improve the production of official statistics, including regarding the numbers of discrimination cases processed in the courts, as well as socio-economic statistics on the well-being of minorities and immigrants.

In preliminary concluding observations, Anwar Kemal, the Committee Expert who served as country Rapporteur for the report of Finland, said this had been one of the most satisfactory experiences the Committee had had because both in the report and in its oral presentation the delegation had been very forthcoming and self-critical. If the Government focused on the youth of Finland and encouraged them to be tolerant that could be an excellent basis for future tolerance. Finland had a good track record but would need of course to continue on the path it had made to tackle the problems that were facing all European countries.

Other Committee Experts raised questions and asked for further information on subjects pertaining to, among other things, details on the mandate and activities of the Ombudsman for the Åland Islands and results of the first study on discrimination on the Åland Islands; whether Roma in Finland were still nomadic or lived in settled communities; how the right of the Roma to education was assured; why Finland was not legally able to gather ethnic statistics; whether minority groups, such as the Roma and the Muslim community, were consulted when formulating plans to combat discrimination against them; and whether Finland coordinated with other countries regarding Sami affairs. Other issues of concern were the procedure for naturalization and statistics on grants of citizenship; a report that 50 per cent of Roma children had received special education and what the criteria for admission to such special education programmes were; a perception that the National Discrimination Tribunal was underutilized; a lack of progress in combating racist discourse in politics, which had not gone down, but had increased; and whether the Russians, Estonians and others were recognized as national minorities.

The delegation of Finland also included Ulla Karvo, a Member of Parliament, as well as representatives from the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Employment and the Economy, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, as well as from the Permanent Mission of Finland to the United Nations Office at Geneva.

The Committee will present its written observations and recommendations on the seventeenth to nineteenth periodic reports of Finland, which were presented in one document, at the end of its session, which concludes on 6 March.

When the Committee reconvenes at 3 p.m. this afternoon, it is scheduled to take up the combined sixth, seventh and eighth periodic reports of Croatia (CERD/C/HRV/8).

Report of Finland

The combined seventeenth to nineteenth periodic report of Finland (CERD/C/FIN/19) says that, of all permanent residents of Finland, 97.7 per cent (5,155,216) were Finnish nationals and 2.3 per cent (121,739) had some other nationality. Nationals of Russia (25,326), Estonia (17,599), Sweden (8,265) and Somalia (4,623) were the largest groups of aliens residing in Finland. Except regarding the Sámi and the different groups of immigrants, there are only estimates on the numbers of minorities in Finland, for the national data protection legislation prohibits the storage of sensitive personal data related to such issues as race and ethnic origin. At the end of 2006, 91.5 per cent of the population in Finland spoke Finnish and 5.5 per cent Swedish as their mother tongue. Further, 0.03 per cent (1,772 persons) of the population spoke Sámi and 3.0 per cent (156,827) other languages as their mother tongue. The largest groups of people speaking other languages were those speaking Russian (42,182), Estonian (17,489), English (9,659), Somali (8,990) and Arabic (7,564). The Sámi are an indigenous people, numbering approximately 8,000. Slightly fewer than half of them live in the Sámi Homeland in northern Lapland. There are about 10,000 Roma in Finland, approximately 1,500 Jews, some 800 Tatars and a historical Russian-speaking population (approximately 5,000) that has lived in Finland since the turn of the twentieth century.

The Government’s Migration Policy Programme was adopted in October 2006. It focuses on promoting work-related immigration. One main objective of the Migration Policy Programme is to achieve zero tolerance in the prevention of racism and discrimination based on ethnic origin. It contains measures for the achievement of this objective, such as lowering the authorities’ threshold to intervene in cases of discrimination, developing support and advisory services for victims, putting in place good practices to prevent and intervene in cases of racism and discrimination, creating a system for monitoring these phenomena, promoting responsible reporting by authorities on migration, and encouraging the media to report responsibly.

In 2005, a total of 669 offences with racist features were recorded in the system, and in 2006 their number was 748. The most common racist offence was assault, which accounted for about 40 per cent of all alleged racist offences. In most cases (over 70 per cent) the victims of racist offences were foreigners or persons with a foreign background. Nearly half of all victims of racist offences were Finnish citizens. Every fifth offence was committed by a person unknown to the victim. Half of the racist offences were committed in the province of southern Finland, where a large percentage of the aliens in Finland reside. Out of the total of 669 racist offences reported to the police in 2005, courts processed 17 cases and sentenced 25 persons. Of these, 12 were sentenced for discrimination, and the punishment of 13 persons was increased on the basis of a racist motive.

Presentation of Report

ARTO KOSONEN, Director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, presenting the main issues in Finland's reports covering the period 2003 to 2007, said, with regard to non-discrimination legislation, that the non-discrimination legislation in Finland as a whole was being further developed so as to base it on the Finnish system of basic rights and on the principle of equal remedies and sanctions for all grounds of discrimination. To that end, a Committee set up by the Ministry of Justice in January 2007 was examining the need to revise the provisions on the non-discrimination and equality laid down in that legislation. In connection with the reform, the position, tasks and powers of existing non-discrimination ombudsmen would be adjusted to the extent necessary.

During the first phase of its work, the Committee had examined, in particular, the need and options for reform of the anti-discrimination legislation and the related monitoring mechanisms. The Committee had submitted its interim report in February 2008. The guidelines proposed in it had been in general received positively by the authorities, non-governmental organizations and stakeholders. However, the option of integrating existing anti-discrimination legislation had received criticism. The Committee's final report was due at the end of the year, Mr. Kosonen noted.

With reference to languages, Mr. Kosonen observed that the completely revised Language Act, applicable to the national languages of Finland – Finnish and Swedish – had entered into force at the beginning of 2004. By that Act, authorities were required, on their own initiative, to ensure that the linguistic rights of private individuals were secured in practice, without their needing specifically to refer to those rights. The new Sami Language Act also took effect in 2004. That Act similarly emphasized the obligation of the authorities to ensure ex officio that the linguistic rights it addressed were secured. The Act covered all three Sami languages – Inari Sami, Skolt Sami and Northern Sami. According to the report on its implementation, which had been submitted to the Sami Parliament in 2007, no real change seemed to have taken place regarding the number of personnel speaking Sami or services provided in the Sami municipalities in the Sami Homeland. In the Government's view, however, the authorities appeared to have gained a better knowledge of the Sami Language Act and it was noted that forms related to judicial matters had now been translated into all three Sami languages.

In addition, legislation on instruction of mother tongue for immigrants, Roma language pupils as well as Sami language pupils outside the Sami Homeland had been amended in 2007. Among other things, the State-funded weekly number of lessons had increased. The municipalities also received funding from the State for the provision of special instruction preparing for basic education of pupils whose knowledge of Finnish or Swedish still was not sufficient for instruction in the regular class. The State funding had also been doubled for this programme.

Regarding Finland's Internal Security Programme, Mr. Kosonen noted that the Government had adopted that programme in May 2008. Internal security was defined as a state of society where everyone could enjoy the rights and freedoms guaranteed to him or her by rule of law and a safe society without fear or insecurity caused by crime, disruptions, accidents or any other phenomena in Finnish society or the increasingly globalized world at large. One of the key areas specified in the Programme was improving the security of immigrants and ethnic minorities, as well as reducing violence, combating organized crime and preventing cybercrime and Internet-related risks.

The declared objective of the Programme was for Finland to be the safest country in Europe by 2015, Mr. Kosonen explained. The Programme's 74 measures to maintain and improve security included measures that aimed to offer immigrants more comprehensive information on Finnish legislation and the service system, to ensure the efficient and fair processing of residence permits, to promote the recruitment of ethnic minorities for public sector posts and to ensure that legislation and the judicial system efficiently addressed racist crimes and racist messages on the Internet by means of criminal law.

On the Ombudsman for Minorities, Mr. Kosonen thanked the Committee for their contribution to the development of that institution and drew attention to the extension of the Ombudsman's mandate last year. It now included the making and conducting of independent surveys into ethnic discrimination, and acting as the national monitoring body on human trafficking.

With regard to monitoring of racism and ethnic discrimination, the Ministry of the Interior had set up, in September 2008, a project to implement the plan for a national system for the monitoring of racism and ethnic discrimination. The project would commission studies, including victim surveys, into discrimination, and would improve the production of official statistics, including regarding the numbers of discrimination cases processed in the courts, as well as socio-economic statistics on the well-being of minorities and immigrants. The project was steered by a broad-based working group consisting of 30 different stakeholders, including key government departments, research organizations and representatives of civil society.

As part of the implementation of the above project, a separate project had been established to further develop the national system for monitoring hate crimes. That work was under way at the Police College of Finland, Mr. Kosonen added.

Turning to work with non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Mr. Kosonen highlighted that, in 2007 and 2008, the different key ministries ran an Empowering Programme for NGOs, as part of the National Awareness-Raising Campaign on Anti-Discrimination. The aim was to provide NGOs established by different groups exposed to discrimination, both contextual and practical information and skills, so that they were able to fully utilize the existing and forthcoming funding instruments for their anti-discrimination work. Altogether 13 NGOs, among them several organizations representing the Roma, Sami and immigrant groups, had received training.

With regard to the labour sphere, the Government had, together with the labour market parties and organizations representing minorities, launched several programmes with the objective of improving the attitudes of employers and working communities towards minorities. For example, the Diversity in Employment Programme had been carried out under the framework 2007 European Year of Equal Opportunities for All.

As for social services for and integration of immigrants, Mr. Kosonen drew attention to the survey on services provided for immigrants in the social services sector carried out by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in 2007. The report had found that skills of the staff working with immigrants should be reinforced. It also noted that recruitment from among immigrants to the social services sector was of primary importance for securing access to high-quality social services for immigrants. The special needs of immigrants regarding health promotion had been highlighted also in the Government Policy Programme for Health Promotion and in the recently published National Action Plan to Reduce Health Inequalities.

Concerning housing, Mr. Kosonen said ethnic residential segregation in Finland resulted from different dynamic intra-urban migration processes. Institutionally generated migration, i.e. migration patterns generated by housing and immigrant policies and procedures, was one of the central factors in the development of ethnic segregation. Other factors were acknowledged, including housing choices and preferences, and the importance of ethnic communities and networks, as well as the fact that some of the groups valued close social contacts with their own community. New immigrant groups were housed in the neighbourhoods where public housing was available.

Mr. Kosonen noted that the Committee had on several occasions expressed its concern over Finland's non-ratification of International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 169 concerning indigenous and tribal peoples, and in particular had recommended that Finland solve the question of land use by Sami and ratify the ILO Convention expeditiously. In that regard, Finland had made efforts for a long time to solve the question of the Sami land rights by way of legislation. The objective had been to reach a balanced solution that would comply with Finland's international obligations and ensure that not only the Sami but also the other inhabitants of the Sami Homeland could influence the way of arranging the use of their living areas. However, the question had proved to be complex and difficult. Therefore a thorough legal-historical study had been conducted from 2003 to 2006 on the settlement and population, the development of trades and land use rights in the region, and the connection of that development to the settlement. The Government's intention was to draft a bill on the issue based on a common view of a model acceptable to all relevant stakeholders.

Finally, turning to the situation of the Roma in Finland, Mr. Kosonen noted that the housing conditions of the Roma were still challenging; 93 cases concerning Roma were handled by the Ombudsman for Minorities in 2007. As in previous years, more than half of the cases concerned problems with housing. Some municipalities, for example the City of Oulu, had intensified their cross-sectoral cooperation and work on the housing issues for Roma. In 2007, the National Discrimination Tribunal issued four decisions on cases relating to the Roma, which had been presented to the Ombudsman for Minorities.

Mr. Kosonen noted that the preparation of the first Roma Policy Programme of the Government had started in a broad-sectoral working group, half of the members representing the Roma population. The first stage of the programme was due to be completed in June 2009. The key objectives of the programme were related to increasing equality for the Roma and their participation. The working group would draft recommendations for measures to be included in the programme for each relevant administrative sector. The group would also make proposals for possible research needed and provide information regularly to the Advisory Board and key Roma organizations on the status of the preparation of the programmes.

Oral Questions Raised by the Rapporteur and Experts

ANWAR KEMAL, the Committee Expert serving as country Rapporteur for the report of Finland, observed, with regard to the Ombudsman for Minorities, that the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance had expressed concern that the close ties between that body and the Ministry of Labour with regard to both resources and operating conditions might limit the effectiveness of that institution.

Turning to the Committee's specific concerns, in the past, the Committee had been concerned that Finland's definition of Sami, on which the application of the Sami legislation was based on language and taxes paid by one's ancestors, was too restrictive and that Finland should give more weight to self-identification. The Committee noted that the Sami Parliament were planning to discuss this issue at the Nordic level to find a common definition. Had any progress been made in that regard?

Other issues of concern touched on by the Committee in the past, and addressed by Finland included Sami land rights; the existence of racist and xenophobic attitudes, notably among the young; teacher training to raise awareness on minorities; the phenomenon of bullying of immigrant children; housing segregation, in particular with regard to the Roma; racist, discriminatory and xenophobic material on the Internet; and discrimination against Roma, in particular in employment.

Mr. Kemal identified as a concern issuance of temporary residence permits or "B" permits, especially to asylum seekers coming from Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. Such persons were not entitled to family reunion, municipal health care and were not allowed to work.

With regard to concerns expressed on guarantees of legal protection in the accelerated procedure for processing asylum applications in the new Aliens Act, Mr. Kemal observed that apparently that new procedure had a 100 per cent rejection rate for applications. He would appreciate some clarification.

With regard to Roma, Mr. Kemal asked for an update on measures taken to improve the situation of Roma vis-à-vis the labour market and the high level of unemployment for Roma. Similarly, he requested information on employment of immigrants and programmes or plans to foster the situation of that group in the labour sphere.

In conclusion, Mr. Kemal said that on the whole it appeared that Finland was making a determined effort to combat racial discrimination within its borders. It deserved full credit for its efforts. But that might not be enough to ensure success. The road to zero intolerance was an extremely difficult one. The continent of Europe was going through a phase of rising discrimination against people of different ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds and societies hitherto immune to the scourge of racism and racial discrimination had now become vulnerable as a growing number of immigrants sought refuge in Europe. Finland had an excellent track record, but could not afford to rest on its laurels.

Other Committee Experts raised questions and asked for further information on subjects pertaining to, among other things, further details on the mandate and activities of the Ombudsman for the Åland Islands; results of the first study on discrimination on the Åland Islands, which was to have been completed in 2007; whether Roma in Finland were still nomadic or lived in settled communities; how the right of the Roma to education was assured; an explanation as to why Finland was not legally able to gather ethnic statistics; whether minority groups, such as the Roma and the Muslim community, were consulted when formulating plans to combat discrimination against them; and whether Finland coordinated with other countries regarding Sami affairs.

An Expert said racism was perceptible at all levels of life in Finland and discriminatory acts were on the rise, particularly with regard to the Roma, who were victims of discrimination in employment, housing, education and access to social service. Furthermore, Muslim and Somali communities were victims of racism. Often, cases that were sent to the courts did not result in sanctions. What measures could be taken to reverse that situation, he asked? Other Experts were of a different opinion, saying racism was not a serious problem in Finland, and praising the country's excellent human rights record.

An Expert was concerned that the measures to combat discrimination in Finland all appeared to target the victim groups, such as the Roma or immigrants. In that context, what measures were being done, other than in the schools, as noted, to raise public awareness about discrimination?

Other issues of concern were the procedure for naturalization and statistics on grants of citizenship; and a report from the European Commission of Human Rights that 50 per cent of Roma children had received special education and what the criteria for admission to such special education programmes were.

Noting the very small number of Sami speakers, an Expert wondered if Finland had concerns about a tipping point being reached after which Sami would disappear altogether and wondered what its thinking was with regard to preserving the language.

Response by Delegation to Oral Questions

Addressing concerns expressed by Experts, the delegation said, with regard to the Ombudsman for Minorities, that the Ombudsman was affiliated with the Ministry for the Interior but was in no way subordinated to it. The two were housed in separate buildings. Care had been taken to ensure complete independence. Importantly, in the first article of both the Act on the Ombudsman for Minorities and the Discrimination Tribunal, the full independence of those institutions was set out.

On attitudes of the majority population in Finland towards ethnic groups, the delegation recalled that, since 1987, Finland had been measuring attitudes towards immigrants. At that time, there were only about 20,000 immigrants and the majority of Finns had little contact with them. Attitudes at that time were very positive and the majority believed that Finland could receive more refugees and immigrants. The situation changed radically in the 1990s when Finland had faced a serious economic crisis. A 1993 survey showed negative attitudes towards immigrants among all population groups, although women and the well educated appeared to be more positive to immigration, with the unemployed among the more negative groups. The trend now was towards a more positive view, but there were still population groups that were more negative than others, including boys between 13 to 17. That group also tended to think that women and men were not equal.

Concerning prevention of bullying in the schools, this was an issue that had only been properly addressed by Finland over the past five years. As a part of the framework anti-discrimination campaign the Ministry of Education had published a practical guide for teachers and educational personnel on how to prevent and combat bullying in the schools. The Board of Education had run an anti-bullying programme, which ran from 2006 to 2009, and there were already plans to extend it.

As to overrepresentation of Roma in special needs education, the delegation said that the criteria for special needs education were made on an objective basis, i.e. the educational needs of the child, and not at all on ethnic background of the child. Nevertheless the trend had been observed that Roma children and children of immigrants were more likely to be found in these programmes. For that reason, this year, they had decided to undertake a study on that issue to shed light on the situation.

Regarding ethnic statistics, Finland was a country that did not use a census. It had a national population register, the delegation explained. Immigrant information was easy to track, even though the term "immigrants" was not used in gathering statistics, by looking at language or country of origin in their database. The situation was more difficult with traditional ethnic minorities. For the Sami people, the Sami election register was used. The most complicated situation was with the Roma, who were Finnish citizens and 99 per cent of them had Finnish as their mother tongue. Most of the information about them came from studies carried out in the past, and they were still using that data. The delegation agreed that that made it difficult to design targeted measures to improve the situation of the Roma.

A working group had been established at the Ministry of the Interior to discover other means and ways of establishing statistical data on ethnic minorities, the delegation added.

It was estimated that there were 130,000 immigrants in Finland today, with 105,000 in the work force and some 11,000 unemployed. The unemployment rate for immigrants had been 10 per cent last year and was reaching 20 per cent today, following the effects of the global crises. That was of course higher than the rate for the rest of the population, which was about 6 per cent. One thing Finland was doing to address that situation was arranging for training sessions abroad for those hoping to immigrate in order to facilitate integration into the work force, such as for nurses in the Philippines.

On housing issues, the delegation said that there was a public housing plan in place which ensured a diversified settlement of immigrants. Due to that, segregation was fairly small scale on the whole in Finnish cities. There had, however, been an increase in immigration, as well as an internal migration to the cities. It should be stressed that the greatest concentration of immigrants in a housing complex was 20 per cent, which was not really a problem. A number of programmes had also been put in place to assist immigrants in the housing sector.

Concerning the nature of the Roma population in Finland, the delegation said that the Roma population in Finland were not travellers. The Roma population in Finland did not move any more from place to place than the majority population and they were in other respects very well integrated into society.

Specifically with regard to education, the Ministry of Education had established a special State subsidy for 2009-2010 to municipalities by application to support the basic education for Roma children. This was intended for new municipalities that had not yet taken advantage of the programme launched in 2008.

With regards to the low numbers of cases brought on complaints of racial discrimination, the delegation said that statistics showed that there had been a 40 per cent increase in reports of racist crimes during the period from 2003 to 2007. It was hoped that that was owing to greater willingness to come forward. More than 100 cases had been submitted to the Discrimination Tribunal since it had been established.

In 74 per cent of cases reported to the police, the preliminary investigations were successfully concluded. In those in which it was not, most were owing to the inability to identify the perpetrator. Of those cases, two thirds were sent on to the Public Prosecutor. In two out of three of those cases, charges were pressed. However, of the cases that actually made it to court, there was an 80 per cent conviction rate.

Turning to Sami issues, on the definition of Samis, the subject and scope was nowadays based on the interpretation practice of the Supreme Administrative Court of the Sami Homeland – on the basis of self-identification plus objective criteria – and Finland's position was that that position did not warrant change at present. The issue of Sami identification was also planned to be discussed within the Nordic context, and in the draft Nordic Sami Convention there was an article on the Nordic definition of the Sami. However, the scope of that Convention was wide and not completely on target for Finland. Finland, Norway and Sweden Sami Presidents were all involved in working on that draft. Suggestions for the provisions had been extremely contradictory, particularly with regard to issues of self-identification and land rights. However, the Ministers and the Sami Presidents decided unanimously in their meeting in November 2008 to continue to work towards a Nordic Sami Convention and hoped to find solutions by the end of this year.

The question of Sami land rights had proved complex and difficult and it was proving hard to find a consensus. At the moment, the issue was being discussed at the Ministerial level, the delegation said.

As for Nordic cooperation in Sami issues, there was a joint Nordic Sami Advisory Board established in 1963, comprising delegations from Finland, Norway and Sweden, which met twice a year to discuss Sami issues. Most of the issues discussed fell under the Ministry of Agriculture, Justice and Education, and representatives of those ministries were present. The Sami Parliament also had Nordic cooperation in the form of a joint organ – the Sami Parliamentary Council, which had regular meetings every year.

With regard to immigration, there were two new initiatives to obtain information about the efficiency of integration of immigrants into Finnish society. The first, launched this year, was the Immigrant Barometer Survey. The objective was to ask immigrants themselves about obstacles to their integration into Finnish society and to get them to make recommendations on how to improve the situation. The second initiative was a project to perfect statistical tools for analysing the economic well-being of the immigrant population. Through those two methods it was hoped that Finland would gain a good overall picture of the effectiveness of integration policies and programmes.

As for the temporary residence or "B" permits, those were usually granted for those who had applied for international protection in Finland but who had not been granted those permits but for technical reasons could not be returned to their countries of origin. The complaint had been that the B permits did not entitle the permit holders persons to work. However, the delegation was pleased to announce that, yesterday, the Parliament had passed an amendment to the Aliens Act which would allow B permit holders to work.

Regarding concerns that 100 per cent of the applications made by foreigners under the accelerated application procedure had been turned down, the delegation noted that there were three criteria for fast tracking applications: when the applicant came from a "safe" country; when the application appeared, at face value, to have no merit; and where the European Union had the primary responsibility for handling the situation. A review of the reasons for turning down the applications led to the conclusion that the high rejection rate for these applications was owing to the selection process for the fast track applications.

As for questions on the Åland Islands, the Åland Islands was an autonomous province of Finland, which had Swedish as its official language. The Åland Islands had their own internal laws, including employment laws, which differed from the Finnish laws. For that reason, they had a separate ombudsmen. As for the survey of discrimination of the Åland Islanders, the results showed that 30 per cent of those living in the Åland Islands had experienced discrimination and most of them had experienced it in their work life. Gender was the ground on which people were most often discriminated against, then age, then political beliefs. Only 10 per cent of the discrimination cases related to ethnic origin.

Finland has also carried out over the past few years two studies on access to public places, such as restaurants. The delegation said the results had been "depressing" with participants of Roma appearance routinely denied entry into such establishments. Those cases had been turned over to the police for further action.

As to how Finland sensitized persons to questions of discrimination, the Finnish Ministries ran an annual anti-discrimination programme, "Yes, Equality is a Priority", which was one of the major awareness-raising programmes to sensitize people to discrimination issues. Also, since 1995, the Government had been providing subsidies to grassroots non-governmental organizations which worked on issues of discrimination. Programmes those NGOs had carried out included school seminars. The Ministry of Education was currently running a three-year programme in the field of sports, for example, in football, to kick racism out of the sport and its fan clubs.

Further Oral Questions Posed by Experts

In a second round of questions, Experts asked, among other things, about further methods or new technologies to block racist content on the Internet, even if it was originating in another country, such as the United States; the fact that the National Discrimination Tribunal was underutilized, and what could be done to facilitate access to it; whether the Government could get around the issue of its inability to gather ethnic data by encouraging NGOs to do so; concern that the Aliens Act had not achieved its stated purpose of speeding up processing and that long delays were again being experienced by immigrants; a lack of progress in combating racist discourse in politics, which had not gone down, but had increased; whether the Russians, Estonians and others were recognized as national minorities and if that entitled them to any special consideration, such as places in parliament; whether Finland belonged the European Council Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities; and a request for more information on the two programmes to better assess whether minorities were effectively integrated into Finnish society.

An Expert said that one indicator of the depth of racism in Finland was demonstrated by its prison population, which was distributed in terms of skin colour, as well as information in the report about difficulties faced by the Roma in prisons. He asked for more information on those topics.



Replies by the Delegation

Responding to those questions and others, the delegation said, on the prohibition of ethnic data collection, that Finland was very alive to the difficulty presented by a lack of ethnic data when it came to crafting programmes to better the situation of minorities. It was also very open to alternative approaches. One of the major difficulties was that, when questioned, minority groups such as the Roma had been strongly opposed to the idea of data collection by ethnicity.

Regarding racist cybercrime, the two main challenges were the international aspect – how to prevent racist content coming from international sites; and how to balance freedom of speech with the need to combat hate speech. It was definitely something they were working on.

As to the Discrimination Tribunal, it had processed approximately 100 applications since it was established in 2004, in approximately 10 cases it found a case of discrimination and issued sanctions and in 6 of those it also imposed a conditional fine. The Tribunal had also been responsible for some landmark decisions, in particular with regard to de facto segregation in the schools. There were a number of ways in which the Tribunal was structured to make it more accessible: there were no court fees for those cases and the procedures were more relaxed than in ordinary courts. The Tribunal had recently taken measures to publicize its decisions, and had improved its website, all with a view to encouraging victims to approach the Tribunal.

On prisoners, the delegation reported that there were about 300 foreign prisoners in Finnish prisons and an estimated 170 to 180 Roma prisoners.

Preliminary Concluding Observations

In preliminary concluding observations, ANWAR KEMAL, the Committee Expert who served as country Rapporteur for the report of Finland, expressed appreciation for the wholehearted cooperation of the Finnish delegation. It had been one of the most satisfactory experiences the Committee had had because both in the report and in its oral presentation the delegation had been very forthcoming and self-critical.

Mr. Kemal had little to add to his conclusions yesterday. One point that had emerged that was very interesting was that the youth, the coming generation of Finns – and the Government itself had recognized those between 14 to 17, were very crucial – if the Government focused on the youth of Finland and encouraged them to be tolerant that could be an excellent basis for future tolerance. Finland had a good track record but would need of course to continue on the path it had made to tackle the problems that were facing all European countries.

Finally, Mr. Kemal wished to make a plea to the Finnish Government. There was a small humanitarian crisis that perhaps they had heard of – the plight of the Rohinga. The Rohinga were in the news these days. They were the new boat people. Their country of origin was Myanmar. Even if Finland could help a small number of them it would be consistent with Finland's tradition and it would make a difference.

Follow-up to Concluding Observations

The Committee then discussed reports presented by Committee Members on follow-up to the Committee’s concluding observations concerning two of the three countries for which replies had been received: Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Korea. (Replies had also been received from New Zealand, but were not presented today.)


NOURREDINE AMIR, Committee Expert and Rapporteur on follow-up to concluding observations, said that before members was information provided by Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Korea on the implementation of the Committee's concluding observations.

Regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina, issues under consideration were a request for the State to amend the relevant provisions of its Constitution and its election law, which provided that only persons belonging by law to one of the constituent peoples of the country (i.e. Croat, Bosniak or Serb) had the right to vote and to stand for election to the House of Peoples; the situation of returnees; and discrimination against Roma, in particular in the fields of social welfare, education and housing. It was noted that, while Bosnia and Herzegovina had made efforts to address the election issues, they had not been successful. Also, the State's position was that the problems suffered by the Roma were owing to poverty and not discrimination.

With regard to the Republic of Korea, the Government had responded on a number of issues including on the Act of Treatment of Foreigners in Korea; information on further measures to prohibit and eliminate all forms of discrimination against foreigners, including migrant workers; a lack of legislation on specific legislative measures to prohibit and punish racially motivated criminal offences; and measures to strengthen the protection of the rights of foreign female spouses. While the Committee respected the State Plan for Foreigners and the Act on the Treatment of Foreigners, the Committee should stress that all persons had to benefit from the rights under the Convention. It should also make it clear that it was not sufficient that crimes were punished regardless of the race of the victims, and that a specific measure was needed to punish racist crimes.

PIERRE-RICHARD PROSPER, Committee Expert and co-Rapporteur on follow-up to concluding observations, observed that the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina was actually becoming more delicate over the past couple of years since the Committee had reviewed the situation there, in 2006. He wondered whether they should not study the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina more closely, perhaps even under the Committee's urgent action procedure, as ethnic tensions were mounting in that area, against the Roma and others, and not to wait for violence to erupt and a more egregious situation to present itself.


For use of the information media; not an official record

CRD09010E