Human rights in Finland

Human rights in Finland are protected by extensive domestic safeguards, in addition to the country's active membership in most international human rights treaties.

Areas of continuing interest to international agencies that monitor human rights include:

# Conscientious objectors to both military and civilian service are jailed for six months. There are about 10-20Fact|date=February 2008 conscientious objectors every year. Most are in minimum security, open facilities, and objecting is not entered on criminal records.
# Charges of racist/xenophobic treatment of ethnic minorities by officials, and that refugees are hand-picked by the Ministry of the Interior on basis of country of origin citing "security reasons".Fact|date=September 2008
# A case in which agitated asylum seekers were drugged, for deportation.Fact|date=September 2008
# Unfair court action in the light of the verdicts of the European Court of Human Rights.Fact|date=September 2008

Mandatory options of civilian or military service were of unequal duration: civilian service 13 months, or one month longer than the longest conscript service (conscript officers and underofficers and certain specialists such as certain vehicle operators), 12 months, and 5 months longer than the average service in army, 8 months. An act enacted in 2008 changed civilian service to 12 months. Some 25% of conscripts serve 12 months with the large majority serving 6 months. [http://mil.fi]

Rebuttal of criticism of the length of civilian service often point out that whereas conscripts are often on duty around the clock (especially in the field), civilian servicemen often only work during office hours.

ee also

*Gay rights in Finland
*Lapsiporno.info

References

External links

* [http://www.oikeusasiamies.fi/Resource.phx/eoa/english/ombudsman/tasks/more-humanrights.htx Homepage] of the Parliamentary Ombudsman for Human Rights.
* [http://formin.finland.fi/doc/eng/policies/humrights.html Human Rights and Finnish Foreign Policy] .
* [http://web.amnesty.org/library/eng-fin/index Archive of Finland reports] at Amnesty International.
* [http://hrw.org/doc?t=europe&c=finlan Archive of Finland reports] at Human Rights Watch.
* [http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=22&year=2005&country=6737 2005 Finland report] of Freedom House.
* [http://www.freemedia.at/wpfr/Europe/finland.htm 2004 World Press Freedom Review] , published by the International Press Institute
* [http://www.freewebs.com/kielipoliittinen_sensuuri/ About political censorship in Finland] , in Finnish.
* [http://www.abo.fi/instut/imr/ Homepage] of the Institute for Human Rights at Åbo Akademi University.
* [http://www.ihmisoikeusliitto.fi/tausta/introduction The Finnish League for Human Rights]
* [http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/196/ Censorship cases in Finland] - IFEX

U.S. State Department Annual Reports
* [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2005/51551.htm Religious Freedom Report 2005]
* [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2004/35453.htm Religious Freedom Report 2004]
* [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2003/24356.htm Religious Freedom Report 2003]
* [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2002/13939.htm Religious Freedom Report 2002]
* [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2001/5645.htm Religious Freedom Report 2001]
* [http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/irf/irf_rpt/irf_finland.html Religious Freedom Report 2000]
* [http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/irf/irf_rpt/1999/irf_finland99.html Religious Freedom Report 1999]
* [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41680.htm Human Rights Report 2004]
* [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2003/27836.htm Human Rights Report 2003]
* [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2002/18364.htm Human Rights Report 2002]
* [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/eur/8250.htm Human Rights Report 2001]
* [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2000/eur/749.htm Human Rights Report 2000]
* [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/1999/328.htm Human Rights Report 1999]