Human Rights in Finland

Human rights in Finland are protected by the constitution and 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:

  1. Conscientious objectors to both military and civilian service are jailed for six months. There are about 10–20 conscientious objectors every year. Most are in minimum security, open facilities, and objecting is not entered on criminal records.
  2. 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".
  3. A case in which agitated asylum seekers were drugged for deportation.
  4. Unfair court action in the light of unacceptably delayed verdicts, in breach with the European Convention on Human Rights article 6§1. Handling time have been unacceptably long particularly in civil cases or criminal court cases relating to bankruptcy, e.g. eight years in the district court and 12 years in total.

Read more about Human Rights In Finland:  Independence, Military Service and Civilian Service, Migrant Workers in Finland

Famous quotes containing the words human rights, human and/or rights:

    “Most people, no doubt, when they espouse human rights, make their own mental reservations about the proper application of the word “human.””
    —Suzanne Lafollette (1893–1983)

    “God knows that any man who would seek the presidency of the United States is a fool for his pains. The burden is all but intolerable, and the things that I have to do are just as much as the human spirit can carry.”
    —Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)

    “... in 1950 a very large slice of the white South stood at the crossroads in its attitude toward its colored citizens and [was] psychologically capable of turning either way.”
    —Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 1, ch. 8 (1962)