Human Rights Centre Annual Report for 2021 has been published

In 2021, the fundamental and human rights effects of the corona pandemic began to intensify. The Human Rights Centre closely followed these developments in its work and made recommendations to the authorities. In addition, last year the Centre's work emphasized supporting the right to self-determination.

Because of the continuing corona pandemic, many restrictions of fundamental rights continued in 2021. The Human Rights Delegation, which is the Human Rights Centre’s pluralistic cooperation body, made recommendations to the government at the beginning of the year on how to combat the negative human rights effects of these restrictions. During the year, the Delegation also made a statement in support of human rights education for teachers, as well as the right of students with disabilities to inclusive education.

The Human Rights Centre's work on the rights of the disabled and the elderly emphasized support for the right to self-determination. To support residents’ self-determination in housing services for the mentally disabled, the Center developed a self-determination tool to review how well restrictive measures comply with the law. In the work on the rights of the elderly, the perceptions of the staff of the housing services for the elderly concerning the right of the residents to self-determination were investigated in a report. It turned out that the staff has many misconceptions. Based on the report, a training package was developed and implemented for municipalities and other stakeholders.

During the year, an important step was also taken to increase systematic monitoring of the human rights situation in Finland, when the Human Rights Centre's monitoring system Lempi saw the light of day. The aim is for the Center to have a comprehensive report describing the situation of fundamental and human rights in Finland, which could be submitted to Parliament in the future, like the parliamentary reports of the ombudsmen.

Read more about the activities of the Human Rights Centre in the 2021 Annual Report.

Additional information:

Sirpa Rautio, Director, Center for Human Rights

sirpa.rautio@ihmisoikeuskeskus.fi, +358 (0) 9 4321