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Finland - Third periodic reports of States parties due in 2003: Addendum [2005] UNCRCSPR 1; CRC/C/129/Add.5 (5 January 2005)
UNITED NATIONS
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CRC
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Convention on the Rights of the Child
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Distr. GENERAL
CRC/C/129/Add.5 5 January 2005
Original: ENGLISH
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COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
CONSIDERATION OF
REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES
UNDER ARTICLE 44 OF THE
CONVENTION
Third periodic reports of States parties due in
2003
Addendum
FINLAND[*]
[26 November 2003]
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
Introduction 1 - 4 6
I. GENERAL MEASURES FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION
OF THE PROVISIONS OF THE
CONVENTION 5 - 80 7
A. Implementation of the rights of the child (art. 4) 5 - 64 7
1. The new Constitution of Finland 5 - 6 7
2. New legislation 7 - 23 7
3. New international contractual obligations 24 - 25 9
4. Provision of basic services 26 - 31 10
5. Ombudsman for children 32 - 37 11
6. Improved coordination of child issues 38 - 39 12
7. Amendment of the Child Welfare Act 40 - 44 13
8. Collecting information about children 45 - 64 14
B. Making the Convention widely known (art. 42) 65 - 75 17
C. Making the report available (art. 44, para. 6) 76 - 80 19
II. DEFINITION OF THE CHILD (art. 1) 81 20
III. GENERAL PRINCIPLES 82 - 153 20
A. Prohibition of discrimination (art. 2) 83 - 93 20
B. Principle of the best interests of the child (art. 3) 94 - 103 22
C. Right to life, survival and development (art. 6) 104 - 115 24
D. Views of the child (art. 12) 116 - 153 26
IV. CIVIL AND FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS 154 - 251 33
A. Name and nationality (art. 7) 154 - 174 33
B. Preservation of identity (art. 8) 175 - 182 36
CONTENTS (continued)
Paragraphs Page
C. Freedom of expression (art. 13) 183 - 191 37
D. Freedom of thought, conscience and religion
(art. 14) 192 -
211 38
E. Freedom of association and assembly (art. 15) 212 - 215 42
F. Protection of privacy (art. 16) 216 - 222 43
G. Access to information (art. 17) 223 - 246 44
H. The right not to be subjected to torture or other
form of cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment
or punishment (art. 37 (a)) 247 -
251 48
V. FAMILY ENVIRONMENT AND EXTRA-FAMILIAL
CARE 252 - 337 49
A. Parental guidance (art. 5) 252 - 253 49
B. Parental responsibilities (art. 18, paras. 1 and 2) 254 - 258 49
C. Separation of a child from the parents (art. 9) 259 - 276 50
D. Family reunification (art. 10) 277 - 284 54
E. Illicit transfer and non-return (art. 11) 285 - 291 55
F. Ensuring maintenance payments for the child
(art. 27, para. 4)
292 - 298 57
G. Children deprived of the safety of a family (art. 20) 299 - 304 57
H. Adoption (art. 21) 305 - 312 58
I. Periodic review of extra-familial care orders
(art. 25) 313 -
315 60
J. Violence and neglect (art. 19) and physical and
mental recovery
and social reintegration (art. 39) 316 - 337 60
CONTENTS (continued)
Paragraphs Page
VI. BASIC HEALTH CARE AND SOCIAL WELFARE 338 - 412 63
A. Children with disabilities (art. 23) 338 - 345 63
B. Health and health-care services (art. 24) 346 - 401 65
C. Social security and children’s day care
(art. 26 and art.
18, para. 3) 402 - 409 74
D. Standard of living (art. 27) 410 - 412 76
VII. EDUCATION, LEISURE AND CULTURAL
ACTIVITIES 413 - 464 77
A. Education, vocational education and career
guidance (art. 28)
413 - 428 77
B. Aims of education (art. 29) 429 - 436 81
C. Leisure, recreation and cultural life (art. 31) 437 - 464 82
VIII. SPECIAL PROTECTION MEASURES 465 - 610 87
A. Children in situations of emergency 465 - 520 87
1. Refugee children (art. 22) 465 - 516 87
2. Children in armed conflicts (art. 38) and
promotion of their
recovery and social
integration 517 - 520 96
B. Children and criminal law 521 - 539 97
1. Criminal liability (art. 40) 521 - 530 97
2. Deprivation of liberty, arrest, imprisonment
and involuntary
treatment (art. 37,
subparas. (b) to (d)) 531 -
535 99
3. Prohibition of capital punishment and life
imprisonment (art.
37, subpara. (a)) 536 - 538 100
4. Physical and psychological recovery and
social reintegration
(art. 39) 539 100
CONTENTS (continued)
Paragraphs Page
C. Children in situations of exploitation, and promotion
of their
physical and psychological recovery and
social reintegration 540 -
580 100
1. Economic exploitation, including child labour
(art. 32) 540 -
546 100
2. Drug abuse (art. 33) 547 - 554 102
3. Sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children
(art. 34) 555
- 572 103
4. Sale of and traffic in children and child
abduction (art. 35)
573 - 580 107
D. Children belonging to a minority or an indigenous
group (art. 30)
581 - 610 108
List of annexes available in the files of the secretariat 118
Introduction
- The
Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted in 1989. Finland has been a
State party to the Convention since 1991. The
Convention constitutes an
international standard applicable to the rights of the child, and its provisions
are legally binding on
the States parties. The national legislation of Finland
concerning the child is consistent with the principles set out in the
Convention.
At the moment, the Convention on the Rights of the Child is the
most widely ratified human rights convention in the world. The
Convention is
recorded in the Finnish Statute Book under Treaty Series No. 60/1991.
- The
implementation of the Convention is monitored by the Committee on the Rights of
the Child, established by the Convention. The
States parties are under the
obligation to submit periodic reports to the Committee concerning the
legislative, legal and administrative
measures that have been implemented to
give effect to the rights recognized in the Convention. The periodic reports,
submitted every
five years, constitute a response to the recommendations of the
Committee concerning the implementation of the Convention.
- The
Committee on the Rights of the Child deals with the information provided in the
periodic report within one to two years from the
date of submission of the
report. In connection with the treatment of the report, there is an oral
hearing where the Committee hears
representatives of the Government and,
according to established practice, also non-governmental organizations. After
the treatment
has been concluded, the Committee adopts its conclusions and
recommendations related to the implementation of the Convention with
regard to
the country concerned.
- This
is the third periodic report of the Government of Finland on the implementation
of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The report covers the period from
July 1998 to July 2003. A statistical overview of children in Finland,
compiled by Statistics
Finland, is appended to the report.
Further information. Inquiries concerning human rights
conventions and periodic reports related to the monitoring of their
implementation
can be addressed to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Legal
Department, Division for Human Rights Conventions and Consular Issues.
Please contact:
Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Legal
Department
Division for Human Rights Conventions
and Consular Issues
(OIK-30)
P.O. Box 176, FIN-00161 HELSINKI
Phone: +358 9 1605
5706
Telefax: +358 9 1605 5707
E-mail: OIK-30@formin.fi
I. GENERAL MEASURES FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION
OF THE
PROVISIONS OF THE CONVENTION
A. Implementation of the rights of the child (art. 4)
1.
The new Constitution of Finland
- After
the submission of Finland’s first periodic report, a new Constitution of
Finland was passed (731/1999) on 11 June 1999, effective as from 1 March 2000.
The Constitution repeals the former constitutional acts: the Constitution Act
of Finland of 1919, the Parliament Act of 1928, the Act on the High Court
of Impeachment (273/1922) of 1922, and the Act on the
Right of Parliament to
Inspect the Lawfulness of the Official Acts of the Members of the Council of
State, the Chancellor of Justice
and the Parliamentary Ombudsman (274/1922)
equally of 1922.
- The
entry into force of the new Constitution has required review of other
legislation. Projects that are specifically linked with fundamental rights
include, inter alia, the overall reform of the Aliens Act, reform of the
legislation concerning freedom of expression, amendment of the Language Act,
preparation
of a new Administration Act and review of the Nationality
Act.
2. New legislation
- Parliament
adopted a new Administrative Procedure Act (434/2003) and an Act on the
Amendment of the Administrative Judicial Procedure
Act (435/2003) in February
2003. The age limit concerning the right of minors to be heard in
administrative issues is 15 years.
In accordance with the new act, both a minor
who has reached 15 years of age and his or her parent or legal guardian or other
legal
representative have the right to be separately heard in an issue that
concerns the person of the minor or his or her personal interest
or right. The
Acts will take effect as from the beginning of 2004.
- In
accordance with the Act on the Status and Rights of Social Welfare
Clients (812/2000), the wishes and views of minor clients shall
be sought
and taken into account as befits their age and level of development. The
Act specifically seeks to improve the position
and legal protection of the
child as a social welfare client and also underline the participation and right
of self-determination
of the child in issues that concern him or her.
The Act is discussed in more detail in chapter III, section D.
- The
new Security of Child Maintenance Act (671/1998) took effect at the beginning
of 1999. The Act secures the maintenance of persons
who are under 18 years
of age and live in Finland. An account on maintenance payments is given in
chapter V, section F.
- The
Young Workers Act has been amended by law (754/1998). The amendments became
effective at the beginning of 1999. The main aspects
of the amendments are
discussed in chapter VIII, section C.
- A
reform related to pre-school education has been phased in beginning from
August 2000. In Finland, children are entitled to receive
pre-school
education in the year preceding the year when they reach the statutory school
age. This education aims at giving
- young
children a more equal start in their school career. By virtue of the Act on
Basic Education (1288/1999), local authorities
are under the obligation to
arrange for pre-school education free of charge. The pre-school education
reform are discussed in chapter
VII, section A.
- A
new Freedom of Religion Act (453/2003) will take effect on 1 August 2003. The
Act will bring the legislation concerning teaching
of religion at the
comprehensive and upper secondary school levels up to date and make it more
consistent with the provisions on
the freedom of religion and conscience, which
are laid down in the new Constitution of Finland. These changes are discussed
in chapter IV, section D.
- The
provisions of the Penal Act (563/1998) that pertain to sexual offences became
effective in their amended form at the beginning
of 1999, including offences
concerning the sexual exploitation or aggravated sexual exploitation of a child.
Purchase of sexual services
from a young person was also enacted to be a
punishable act. Procuration involving a person who is under 18 years of age is
also
punishable. Furthermore, production, possession and dissemination of child
pornographic material have been punishable acts as of
the beginning
of 1999. More detailed information about the legislation concerning sexual
offences is given in chapter VIII, section
C.
- The
new Act on the Amendment of the Code of Judicial Procedure (360/2003) adds
a provision to the code of procedure, according to
which such testimony
given by a person under 15 years of age in a preliminary investigation as
is recorded on a video or on a comparable
film or audio record may be used as
evidence in court, if the accused has been reserved the opportunity to ask
questions from the
examinee. According to law, hearing a person
under 15 years of age is still subject to the discretion of the court.
Hearing a person
under 15 years of age is discussed in more detail in
chapter III, section D.
- The
Act on Checking the Criminal Background of Persons Working with
Children (504/2002) took effect at the beginning of 2003. The
purpose of
the Act is to protect the personal integrity of minors and to promote their
personal security. The Act provides for the
procedure to be used to find out
that persons appointed to work with minors, that is, with persons under 18 years
of age, have not
committed certain offences in the past. The content of the Act
is dealt with in chapter VIII, section C.
- A
new Act on the Protection of Privacy in Working Life (477/2001) strengthens the
protection of privacy required in article 16 of
the Convention on the Rights of
the Child. The Act also protects young workers under 18 years of age.
More detailed information
about the Act is given in chapter IV, section
F.
- A
new Employment Contracts Act (55/2001) took effect at the beginning of June
2001. The Act comprises the core provisions on working life and applies to all
working
relationships irrespective of the type of work.
- The
Act on the Integration of Immigrants and Reception of Asylum-Seekers (493/1999,
as amended 118/2002, 1292/2002) became effective
in May 1999. Children are
integrated as
- part
of the family-specific integration plan and, in practice, primarily through
their enrolment in day care and the comprehensive
school. The Act is
discussed in greater detail in chapter VIII, section A.
- The
position of the Ombudsman for Minorities was established in Finland at the
beginning of September 2001. The responsibilities
of the Ombudsman for
Minorities is enacted by law (660/2001). The tasks of the Ombudsman for
Minorities will be discussed in greater
detail in chapter VIII, section, D.
- The
new Language Act (423/2003) will protect the linguistic rights of the Finnish
and Swedish populations in the manner set out in
the Constitution of Finland.
According to the Bill, the Language Act is a general law related to the national
languages of Finland, Finnish and Swedish.
The Act obligates the authorities to
take independent initiative and ensure that the linguistic rights are secured.
The right of
an individual to receive service in Finnish and Swedish introduces
a new dimension to the body of fundamental rights. The new Language
Act
includes accurate provisions on the right of an individual to use Finnish and
Swedish in courts of law and other authorities
in various situations, provisions
on the language of proceedings and the working language in the authorities, and
the language of
official documents. The Act includes a specific provision on
measures designed to promote linguistic rights.
- A
new Act on the Treatment of Aliens and Detention Units (116/2002) took effect
on 1 March 2002. Based on the Aliens Act, this Act
provides for
arrangements related to the treatment of foreigners in detention especially in
the detention units that have been specifically
reserved for the purpose. The
content of the Act, insofar as it applies to children, will be discussed in
chapter VIII, section
A.
- The
new Land Use and Building Act (132/1999), in force since the beginning of 2000,
includes a significant legislative amendment: both land-use planning and the
guidelines
set for building aim at the creation of a safe, healthy, pleasant and
socially well-functioning living and working environment, which
meets the needs
and service requirements of different population groups, such as children.
Thanks to the amendment, it is possible
to assess town plan and building permit
programmes from the point of view of their impact on children’s living
environment.
A more detailed account of children and the environment is given
in chapter VI, section B.
- An
Act on the Classification of Audio-visual Programmes (775/2000) took effect at
the beginning of 2001. The Act provides for the
inspection and classification
of audio-visual programmes and, for example, for programmes that are harmful to
children’s development.
The issue is dealt with in greater detail in
chapter IV, section G.
3. New international contractual obligations
- ILO
Convention No. 182 concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the
Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour. Finland ratified the
International Labour Organization Convention concerning the Prohibition and
Immediate Action for the Elimination
of the Worst Forms of Child Labour on 17
January 2000. The Convention was enforced in Finland by decree (300/2000;
Treaty Series
16/2000) on 25 February 2000.
- Optional
Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of
children in armed conflict. Finland ratified the Optional Protocol to the
Convention on the involvement of children in armed conflict on 28 March 2002.
The
Optional Protocol took effect in Finland on 10 May 2002 (Treaty Series
31/2002). When the ratification instruments were deposited,
an explanation was
submitted based on article 3, paragraph 2, of the Protocol, stating that persons
recruited to the national armed
forces of Finland are required to have reached
at least 18 years of age and that the minimum age shall apply equally to
men’s
universal conscription and women’s voluntary armed service.
The first periodic report on the implementation of the provisions
will be
submitted in May 2004.
4. Provision of basic services
- Recommendations.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child has recommended that Finland undertake
an evaluation of the implementation of all aspects
of the Convention by the
municipal authorities and that every effort be made to ensure an effective
implementation of the Convention
by the local authorities. The Committee has
also reiterated its recommendation to establish an integrated monitoring system
or mechanism
to ensure that children in all municipalities benefit to the same
extent from basic social services (recommendation No. 14).
In addition, the Committee has urged Finland to consider ways through which
all children can be guaranteed equal access to the
same standard of services,
irrespective of where they live, for example, by establishing nationwide minimum
standards for and allocation
of resources to the implementation of the
Convention’s provisions, in particular in the areas of health, education
and other
social welfare services and in conformity with article 2
(recommendation No. 16).
- Finnish
municipalities have a high degree of autonomy, and they are free to decide about
the administration of their tasks and the
arrangement of their services,
including the ways in which the functions are organized. This also applies to
the provision of the
basic social services for children, referred to by the
Committee. Municipal self-government and statutory State grants (State grants
for the operation of schools are based on the number of students, hours used for
the provision of education or some other calculable
unit to be established on an
annual basis; the contribution of the municipality in which the school is
located to the financing of
its operation is determined on the basis of its
share of the total costs of education per capita in the entire country) allow
much
latitude in the targeting of services and funds at ends that are considered
to be of priority, with an equal emphasis on the different
parts of the country.
As representatives of the public authorities, municipalities, for their part,
carry out their duty to promote
the welfare of the inhabitants in the area.
Municipalities have occasionally been prevented from providing all the basic
services
on account of such factors as large-scale inflow of migrants. Local
authorities have therefore intensified their cooperation to
develop regional
service structures. Finland has not considered it necessary to establish a
specific integrated monitoring system
or mechanism to ensure that the
municipalities take care of their basic functions. At the moment, State
Provincial Offices, for
example, monitor the implementation and control of the
quality of certain special services.
- In
addition, the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities has adopted
a Child Policy Programme of its own, which recommends that each
municipality prepare a child policy programme to meet the local needs, carry out
regular reviews
of the programme and evaluate the implementation of the measures
taken.
- Municipalities
have been very active and, according to reports, as many as over 40 child policy
programmes had been prepared by the
beginning of 2003 and some 50 municipalities
were working on their programmes. In addition, six subregional units are
preparing
regional programmes in cooperation with municipalities. The
materialization of the objectives set out in the programmes is followed
as an
element of the municipal economic and operational planning.
- Related
to the financial resources of local authorities and their equal distribution,
the Department for Municipal Affairs of the
Ministry of the Interior prepares,
on an annual basis, a proposal on discretionary financial grants for
municipalities that are in
need of additional support. Aspects that have an
effect on the need of support have included also the local special conditions.
The total number of recipient municipalities and grants received in the past few
years has been as
follows:
|
1999
|
2000
|
2001
|
2002
|
Grant (EUR 1 000)
|
38 683
|
70 639
|
58 866
|
54 157
|
Number of recipient municipalities
|
93
|
148
|
132
|
109
|
In addition, central government transfers to local government in the
aforementioned years have been channelled to the organization
of social and
health services and educational and cultural services.
- The
Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has set up a Board for Basic Security to
assess the implementation of municipal basic social
services in the social
welfare and health sector. However, it is difficult to set criteria for the
quality and level of these services.
In the past years, one evaluation
instrument has been a set of quality recommendations, so far available in mental
health services,
and currently under preparation for school health-care
services, to be finalized by the end of 2003. A project is carried out by
the
Central Union for Child Welfare, spanning from 2001 to the end of 2004,
which aims to produce national criteria for the quality
of extrafamilial care
for children and young people.
5. Ombudsman for children
- Recommendation.
Finland has considered the establishment of the position of an ombudsman for
children since 1995. The Committee on the Rights of
the Child has also invited
Finland to seriously consider the establishment of an independent national
ombudsperson for children (recommendation No. 20).
- The
Government Bill for the establishment of the position of another deputy
ombudsman stated that when the ombudsman institution is
developed, special
attention should be paid to the monitoring of the rights of the child
(Government Bill 129/1997). In the report
of the Constitutional Committee of
Parliament (5/1997), the following is stated: “The idea is that,
in the rules of procedure
of the Office of the Ombudsman, issues that
concern the rights of the child form a new set of duties assigned to one of the
Deputy
Parliamentary Ombudsmen. The Committee supports this, but notes that the
transfer of such duties related to the child as fall under
the administration of
an Ombudsman to one of the Ombudsmen cannot be an expression of opinion
about whether a special ombudsman for
children is needed or not”
(unofficial translation).
- Neither
the Parliamentary Ombudsman nor the Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsmen therefore
compensates the missing ombudsman for children,
as referred to by the Committee
on the Rights of the Child. However, when the position of another deputy
parliamentary ombudsman
was established in autumn 1998, the status of the child
in legality control was strengthened because after that, all issues relating
to
children have been the responsibility of one ombudsman. The Deputy
Parliamentary Ombudsman, Riitta-Leena Paunio, who has taken
care of
children’s issues, was chosen to become the Parliamentary Ombudsman as of
1 January 2002 by decision of Parliament,
and she has continued doing so based
on a mutual division of labour between the Parliamentary Ombudsman and the
Deputy Parliamentary
Ombudsmen.
- As
long as there have been two Deputy Ombudsmen, children’s issues have been
the responsibility of the Parliamentary Ombudsman
or one Deputy Parliamentary
Ombudsman, and it has been possible to lay greater emphasis on the monitoring of
the rights of the child.
The Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman has also
employed a full-time reporting official for issues relating to children.
Beginning
in 1998, appeals related to the rights of the child have been recorded
under one title in the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s report.
- In
the third biggest city in Finland, Tampere, there is a municipal ombudsman for
children since the beginning of 2003. The experience
is positive and the idea
is that the knowledge gained will be put to use at the national level.
- The
discussion about the position of an ombudsman for children, which has continued
for nearly eight years, arrived at a significant
milestone in spring 2003.
Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen’s Government programme of 24 June 2003
states as one of its objectives
the establishment of the position of an
ombudsman for children.
6. Improved coordination of child issues
- Recommendation.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child has been concerned about the lack of
such a focal point for children within the Government
and of a coordination
mechanism in the central administration and local level to be responsible for
large-scale programmes. The
Committee has encouraged Finland to take further
steps to establish a focal point for children within the Government and
coordination
mechanisms between the various ministries, as well as between
central and local authorities, in order to establish a better coordinated
policy
and action for the realization of children’s rights (recommendation
No. 12).
- The
Ministry of Social Affairs and Health set up a committee for child issues in
spring 2003. The Committee was assigned, inter alia, to make a
proposal concerning a permanent national mechanism for child and family issues.
The Committee functions as the national
body required by the special session of
the General Assembly on Children and takes responsibility for information
about the rights
of the child. A working party, which operates under the
administration of the Committee, prepares the National Action Plan of Finland,
as provided for in the final documents of the special
session.
7. Amendment of the Child Welfare Act
- The
Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is preparing a Government Bill for the
amendment of the Child Welfare Act and certain related
legislation. The Bill
suggests that the present provisions of the Child Welfare Act be specified and
complemented in respect of
the preconditions of the various restrictions
applying to children who have been taken into custody in a child welfare
institution,
control of the use of these measures, and the legal protection of
children who have become objects of such measures. According to
the
Constitution of Finland, “those who cannot obtain the means necessary for
a life of dignity have the right to receive indispensable subsistence
and
care” (sect. 19). To secure the implementation of this major fundamental
right, it may be necessary to limit some other fundamental rights of the
child
protected by the Constitution. However, this kind of interference shall be
provided for in exact detail by law. The legal protection of the child and
family
is not guaranteed if decisions concerning an individual, such as
decisions on the custody of a child, are taken by politically elected
municipal
bodies. A committee set to find out about decision-making concerning children
has submitted a memorandum in which it proposes
a revision of the
decision-making system.[1]
- Furthermore,
suggestions have also been made concerning the elaboration of the provisions
related to contacts between a child who
has been placed in extra-familial care
and his or her parents or other close persons, and specification of the legal
protection of
the child in the issue. The obligation to take a decision should
be emphasized and the right of appeal clarified.
- In
addition, it is proposed that the Child Welfare Act be amended so that placement
of a child who has reached 12 years of age outside
his or her own home as a
non-institutional support service could take place based on his or her consent,
also against the consent
of the parents or legal guardians, in an acute
crisis situation between the two parties. At present, a noninstitutional
placement,
like other non-institutional support services, always calls for
the consent of the parents or legal guardians.
- Decisions
by the Parliamentary Ombudsman. The Parliamentary Ombudsman, RiittaLeena
Paunio, has identified flaws in the materialization of the fundamental rights of
children
placed in community homes. The Parliamentary Ombudsman has informed
the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health of them, with the
idea in mind that
the Ministry would accelerate the ongoing reform of the Child Welfare
Act.[2]
- The
Parliamentary Ombudsman has also drawn attention to such non-institutional
support measures as are taken to place a child outside
the home based on the
consent of the parents or legal guardians. When a child is aged 12 years or
older and placed without the consent
of the parents or guardians or the person
who has taken responsibility for his or her care and upbringing, the placement
is conditional
upon the child’s consent. The Parliamentary Ombudsman has
made a proposal concerning the amendment of section 14 of the
Child
Welfare Act.
8. Collecting information about children
- Recommendation.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child has recommended that Finland continue
developing a comprehensive system of data collection
consistent with the
Convention. This system should cover all children up to the age of 18 years,
with a specific emphasis on those
who are particularly vulnerable. The
Committee has further encouraged Finland to use indicators and data in the
formulation of policies
and programmes for the effective implementation and
monitoring of the Convention (recommendation No. 18).
- Indicators
illustrating the welfare of children and young people have been developed as a
joint project of the National Research and
Development Centre for Welfare and
Health (Stakes), Statistics Finland and municipalities, and in connection with
contacts to parties
engaged in similar work in the rest of Europe. The
indicators are tested and examined by applying them to municipal welfare
strategies
concerning children and young people. An extensive report on the
collection of information related to children and young people
is being made as
part of the Tieto 2005 Project, which evaluates the production of
information in the field of social welfare and
health as a whole. As concerns
children of statutory school age, several data collection projects are under
way, focusing on such
issues as their health and health habits, and Finnish
schoolchildren are also involved in the European School Survey Project on
Alcohol
and Drugs (ESPAD). The most comprehensive of these projects is the
one focusing on schoolchildren’s health. The inquiry,
in which pupils
answer to questions relating to their health and health habits, is made in
alternate years in the eastern and western
parts of Finland, and nearly all
municipalities are involved.
- Statistical
data on children is compiled by different parties in Finland. Based on the
present division of labour, Statistics Finland
takes responsibility for the
accumulation of general statistical data focusing on the population and
people’s living conditions,
while Stakes collects statistical data on such
performances and inputs of the social welfare and health administration as are
significant
from the point of view of the conduct of child policy. Accounts
related to the quality of services for children and whether these
services are
targeted in an appropriate manner, for example, remain in the intermediate
region where development of systematic coordination
is only starting.
- Review
of the child population and children’s living conditions. In 2000,
Statistics Finland prepared a special report on the living conditions of
children.[3] This report
was completed after the submission of Finland’s previous periodic
report. The Committee on the Rights of the
Child was informed of the
report at a hearing on the report in October 2000. A summary of the report
has also been published in
English[4] and is contained in
the annex to the present report.
- The
information that is supplied in the report is related to many articles of the
Convention. Statistical data is given on the demographic,
social and
socio-economic structures of the child population of the country and on any
changes in them. In addition, children’s
health, school attendance,
working and judicial conditions are covered. Data on the demographic and
socioeconomic characteristics
of the parents and grandparents are also
presented. The idea is to produce similar reports at regular intervals. When
plans are
made for the following year by Statistics Finland in autumn 2003, a
decision will be taken on how often the report is to be issued
in the
future.
- The
content of the report is compiled from research results related to income
distribution, living conditions, consumption and wealth;
statistics related to
education, law and accidents; censuses; and population, family, population
change, housing and work statistics
based on administrative documents collected
by Statistics Finland on an annual or regular basis. When the report is
prepared, the
original materials are reviewed and the data is processed to make
it better describe the conditions of the child. The regular statistical
unit is
the child.
- New
data in and collections of Statistics Finland after 1998. Pooling
statistical data, about education in particular, significantly enhances the
possibilities of finding out about events that
characterize the educational
career of the child. Statistics Finland has developed a personal database that
helps follow a child’s
educational career over a long period of time.
Data on the post-comprehensive educational career and placement in working life
and
further education after that were published in 1995 in respect of persons
who had completed the comprehensive level by
then.[5] Statistical data on
pre-school education and special education have also been improved.
- New
information about children’s use of time and leisure will be obtained from
the results of a survey which was conducted in
2001 and 2002 and which is being
processed.[6]
- Statistical
data about the most vulnerable children. The basic material in the body of
general statistical data often lacks such information as would be the most
useful from the point
of view of effectively identifying social problems
affecting the most disadvantaged children in society, such as child victims of
assault or abuse, children with disabilities, children of families with limited
means, children who are involved with the law, and
immigrant and minority
children.
- In
Finland, the most vulnerable groups of children (children of refugees,
immigrants, persons with disabilities, or persons with a
prolonged illness) are
very small. Investigation of delicate information or the socio-economic
and cultural conditions of small
minorities is not without problems in
terms of data security and from the point of view of statistical generalization.
Methods that
are based on samples, common in general population surveys,
are out of the question in this case. The best source of relevant
information
are administrative documents prepared in conjunction with contacts
with the authorities or the provision of services for children.
It is possible
to also ask if more irregular research would produce information more
effectively than regular monitoring.
- As
concerns child victims of assault or mistreatment, cases have been reported to
the authorities. Statistics Finland collects statistical
data of this kind on
an annual basis only, insofar as the cases meet the criterion of a crime or if
police action or legal proceedings
are involved.
- Statistics
Finland has collected data for a general population survey on victims of
accidents and violence (Uhritutkimus). The survey is based on interviews
and it focuses on the rate of frequency and circumstances of cases - also
in respect of cases
of violence that have not been reported to the police.
However, the survey covers only persons who are older than 15 years of age.
Information about cases involving younger children has been collected from their
parents. Similar data were compiled in
1997,[7] and new material is
being collected in the present year. Cases of violence against persons aged
under 15 years are very rare, and
this survey therefore combines cases of
violence with accidents, which very well illustrates the problems involved in
sample surveys
when the idea is to describe rare cases.
- Children
with disabilities constitute an entity that Finland recognizes to be
statistically very scattered and defective. The Ministry of Social Affairs and
Health is involved in a reform concerning the compilation of statistical data to
be carried out in 2005. A proposal concerning the
way in which the reform will
be conducted will be made in autumn 2003.
- In
order to find out about the education of children with disabilities and children
who are in need of special support, Statistics
Finland has been assigned the
collection of data on such aspects relating to recipients of special education
in the comprehensive
school as grade, sex, reason for special education and the
method of education. Statistical data are compiled on an annual basis
and data
are available for the year 1998, and from 2001 onwards. In addition, data are
produced on special education given in vocational
schools and special
educational arrangements available in Finnish upper secondary schools. The data
have been published in collections
of educational
statistics.[8]
- Children
of families with limited means. Statistics Finland has produced data on the
number, family conditions, and living conditions of children of families with
limited
means, such as income distribution statistics, household budget surveys,
employment statistics and censuses, and has published reviews
related to the
issue both in its own publications and in cooperation with others with a
research interest in the
matter.[9] New documentary
material will be obtained in the future; for example, data on income
distribution illustrating the reasons for prolonged
poverty among children is
being collected (European Community Household Panel (ECHP), Income Distribution
Measurements).
- Children
who have become involved with the law. As concerns young persons with
criminal liability (over 15 years of age), detailed data are available of such
crimes as have been
reported to the police, including suspected offences and the
operation of the prosecuting authority and sanctions. As concerns young
offenders, the use of the juvenile punishment and community service, for
example, are monitored
statistically.[10]
- Children
of immigrant and minority families are monitored by Statistics Finland on a
regular basis insofar as they are recorded in the population register as
citizens of a foreign
country with a residence in Finland. A foreigner or
citizen of a foreign country has a residence in Finland if his or her stay has
been meant to last or has lasted for more than one year. Asylumseekers are
granted residence only after the application for residence
has been accepted,
which means that asylumseekers are not included in statistics that are based on
the Finnish population register
system. Equally, when a citizen of a foreign
country acquires Finnish nationality, he or she ceases to be a foreigner in
statistics.
Statistics Finland publishes very comprehensive surveys of
foreigners and migrants every
year.[11] Data on population
structure are also published on persons born abroad and based on language and
the country of birth.[12]
- During
2002, Statistics Finland interviewed immigrants with a view to obtaining data
illustrating immigrants’ living conditions
in the country. In this
survey, an immigrant status does not depend on whether the respondent has
acquired Finnish nationality or
not but refers to his or her background as a
foreigner who has moved to Finland. The material comprises data on the four
major immigrant
communities in Finland - Russians, Estonians, Vietnamese and
Somalis and their families; this means that also families with children
are
involved. The first reports will be published in the course of 2003.
- Monitoring
access to services of an equal standard. The Committee on the Rights of the
Child has urged Finland to create coordination mechanisms between the State
administration and
local authorities in order to establish a better coordinated
policy and action for the realization of children’s rights
(recommendation No. 12). The Committee has further reiterated its
recommendation to establish an integrated monitoring system or mechanism to
ensure that
children in all municipalities benefit to the same extent from basic
social services (recommendation No. 14) and to establish
nationwide minimum standards for and allocation of resources to the
implementation of the Convention’s provisions,
in particular in the areas
of health, education and other social welfare services (recommendation No.
16).
- Information
about the resources used for the provision of services is amply available, but
due to the deluge of information it is
difficult to form a picture of the
availability, quality and effectiveness of the basic services. There has only
recently been discussion
about the need of assessment for municipal basic
services and about a systematic and reliable collection of data to facilitate
the
assessment. To date, only preliminary studies have been started, pending an
official initiative concerning a regular provision of
statistical data.
B. Making the Convention widely known (art. 42)
- During
the special session of the General Assembly on Children in May 2002, a
number of Finnish children and young people convened
to a Finnish
children’s special session to discuss the rights of the child. In this
session, they voted to decide which was
the most important article of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child. Article 42 won the most votes.
According to it, States
parties undertake to make the principles and provisions
of the Convention widely known by appropriate and active means, to adults
and
children alike. The children explicitly expressed their view that all the 54
articles of the Convention are important but they
are not widely known. Getting
familiar with the Convention would require introduction of new measures to make
the articles more
concrete.
- They
developed ideas of how to step up dissemination of knowledge on the rights of
the child. They suggested, for example, that schools
organize events for
schoolchildren on the anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child,
the content of TV programmes
targeted at young audiences take the rights of the
child into account, and a cool soft drink sticker campaign be introduced:
“collect the 54 articles and win a trip to the United Nations
Headquarters!!”.
- Recommendation.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child has recommended that Finland develop
more creative methods to promote the Convention and
incorporate the Convention
in the school curriculum. It has further encouraged Finland to consider
translating the Convention into
the Roma language and into other minority
languages and making the Convention available in the main immigrant languages.
The Committee
has also recommended further systematic training and/or
sensitization of professional groups working with and for children
(recommendation No. 22).
- Promotion
of the Convention. The Finnish children’s special session led to one
concrete response to the lack of knowledge of the Convention. The Mannerheim
League for Child Welfare, Plan International Finland and the Finnish Children
and Youth Foundation have jointly produced a new card
game Ota oikeus
(“take the right”), which helps make the Convention known among both
children and adults. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs
and the leading national
newspaper Helsingin Sanomat have sponsored the production of the cards.
A pack of Ota oikeus cards is contained in the annex to this
report.
- In
connection with the special session of the General Assembly on Children,
the Convention and the rights of the child in general
were advocated in the form
of various national events. Local decision makers and office-holders have
obtained information about
the Convention through the Child Political Programme
of the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities. Articles of the
Convention have been incorporated into the Programme to support the
municipalities’ own objectives and measures.
- The
rights of the child in development cooperation. The Department for
Development Policy of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs published a booklet in
2002 entitled Lapsissa on tulevaisuus - Lapsen oikeudet
kehitysyhteistyössä.[13]
(“Children: our future - The Rights of the Child in Development
Cooperation”). It describes the main principles of
the Convention and
gives a more detailed account of the materialization of the rights from the
point of view of development cooperation.
The booklet emphasizes
children’s participation and right to be heard in development
cooperation.
- Criticism.
NGOs involved in work related to the rights of the child have criticized the
fact that public information about the Convention has
been defective.
Dissemination of information and production of educational material has, in the
past few years, remained largely
the responsibility of NGOs. The Department for
Development Policy of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs grants appropriations to
NGOs
to spread information about the Convention, but the NGOs reach only the
educational institutions that happen to ask for material.
- The
National Committee on the Rights of the Child, operating under the
administration of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health
since spring 2003,
will for its part respond to this challenge and disseminate information.
- Curricular
principles. The objectives of the basic education given in Finnish
comprehensive schools emphasize equality in society (Act on Basic Education
628/1998; sect. 2, subsect. 3). The content of the Convention on the
Rights of the Child has been integrated to correspond to the
grounds of the
national curricula of basic education, which are to be introduced gradually
so that all schools that provide basic
education will observe the new curriculum
by 1 August 2006.
- Roma
translation of the Convention. The Advisory Board for Roma Affairs has
supported the Committee’s proposal concerning inclusion of the Convention
in the
curricula and development of visual material to illustrate the
Convention. However, the Advisory Board is of the opinion that there
is no
reason at this phase to direct resources to the translation of the Convention
into the Romani language of Finland because of
the poor command of the language
in Finland at present.
- Training
of judges. The Ministry of Justice has organized annual continuing training
courses on family law for judges. In the past years, the training
has focused
on issues related to the custody and visiting rights of a child. The
significance of the Convention on the Rights of
the Child from the point of view
of this theme has been discussed in these two-day training sessions.
C. Making the report available (art. 44, para. 6)
- The
third periodic report of the Government of Finland on the implementation of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child has been
prepared by the Legal Department
of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in cooperation with the ministries and
authorities that take
responsibility for the various themes involved. The civil
society has played a key role in the various phases of the process. Preparation
of the report started by a request of statements in writing from all competent
authorities and NGOs that have an interest in the
matter. A total
of 23 written statements from various NGOs and government authorities
were received.
- The
Ministry for Foreign Affairs organized a public hearing on 2 July 2003, and
invited 34 different local and government authorities
and public
associations to attend the event. As many as 9 different authorities or NGOs
were represented, and 9 other parties sent
their comments in writing.
- The
Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocol to the
Convention on the involvement of children in armed conflict
have been published
in the Treaty Series of the Statute Book in both Finnish and Swedish (Treaty
Series 60/1991 and 31/2002, respectively).
The Convention has been also
translated into North Sami. The Statute Book is available for consultation at
the biggest public city
libraries of Finland. Visitors to the Internet can
access the Convention and the Optional Protocol also at
http://www.finlex.fi (FINLEX is a database of
laws, decrees and international treaties, maintained by the Ministry of
Justice), and on the home page of
the Ministry for Foreign Affairs at
http://formin.finland.fi. In Finland, citizens can use the Internet in
the public libraries free of charge.
- The
second periodic report of Finland on the implementation of the Convention on the
Rights of the Child was published in the publication
series of the Ministry for
Foreign Affairs (10/1998) and on the Ministry’s web site at
http://virtual.finland.fi. The Ministry’s home page has been since
amended, and periodic reports concerning human rights conventions can now be
accessed
at http://formin.finland.fi. The third periodic report will be
published on these web sites as soon as possible. In addition, the third
periodic report will
be published in a softcover paper edition, which is easy to
distribute and which allows a big number of editions. The report will
be sent
for information to a large number of government authorities and NGOs.
- Material
related to the text of the Convention, statutes concerning its implementation
and documents concerning monitoring of the
implementation of the Convention can
be obtained by request from the Division for Human Rights, Conventions and
Consular Issues of
the Legal Department of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs
(OIK-30), which also answers to enquiries concerning the rights and obligations
set in the Convention. Contact information are at the end of the introduction
above.
II. DEFINITION OF THE CHILD (art. 1)
- In
the Finnish legislation, a person who has not reached 18 years of age is a
minor. In accordance with the Child Welfare Act (683/1983),
a child is a person
under 18 years and a young person is a person aged under 21 years. There are,
however, several provisions that
depart from the main provision and afford a
minor a right to self- and co-determination.
III. GENERAL PRINCIPLES
- Recommendation.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child has invited Finland to continue to take
all necessary measures to better reflect in its
legislation and its policies the
general principles of the Convention, especially non-discrimination, the best
interests of the child,
right to development and respect for the views of the
child (recommendation No. 24).
A. Prohibition of discrimination (art. 2)
- According
to the Constitution of Finland, “Everyone is equal before the law. No one
shall, without an acceptable reason, be treated differently from other
persons
on the ground of sex, age, origin, language, religion, conviction, opinion,
health, disability or other reason that concerns
his or her person.” A
separate subsection provides that “children shall be treated equally and
as individuals and they
shall be allowed to influence matters pertaining to them
to a degree corresponding to their level of development” (chap. 2,
sect.
6).
- The
provision has been included to emphasize the fact that children must be treated
both as equals in relation to adults and, in principle,
as individuals having
equal rights and as persons who are on an equal footing with their peers. In
addition, the provision shows
that every child is to be treated as an
individual, not only as a passive object of measures. On the other hand, as a
group that
is legally incompetent and weaker than adults, children are in need
of special protection and care. The provision therefore offers
a basis for a
positive discrimination of children, required to secure that children are
treated equally in relation to
adults.[14]
- In
March 2001, the Government adopted an Action Plan entitled Towards ethnic
equality and diversity[15] to
combat ethnic discrimination and racism. The Action Plan focuses on the years
from 2001 to 2003. The purpose is to support and
develop measures that promote
good ethnic relations and combat ethnic discrimination and racism in Finnish
society.
- The
measures apply to both immigrants who have arrived recently and immigrants who
have resided in Finland for many years, second
generation immigrants and ethnic
minorities, including the Sami, who are the indigenous people of Finland, the
so-called historical
ethnic minorities, which comprise the Roma, the Jews, the
Tatars and the long-established Russian population in Finland. The measures
also apply to expatriate Finns and their families who have returned to
Finland.
- The
purpose of the Action Plan is, above all, to heighten awareness of
discrimination issues and to encourage the introduction of
best practices. The
focus is at the local level but measures to be carried out at the national and
regional levels are also included.
The roles of the social partners, NGOs,
religious communities and the media are also important.
- The
local level plays a central role in the development of good ethnic relations and
combat against ethnic discrimination and racism,
because cities, towns and
villages is where people meet one another and encounter various daily events.
Municipalities are of very
many different kinds depending on their cultural
background, business and trade structure, area and number of inhabitants, and
population
structure. Therefore, the measures required are also very different
in the municipalities.
- The
Government Action Plan to combat ethnic discrimination and racism has been
prepared to respond to the needs of today, but it also
forecasts the onset of a
new developmental phase, where the present small ethnic minorities will
expand and where the care relationship
between the different age groups will be
strongly biased because of the ageing of the population.
- According
to the Action Plan, special attention should be directed to the school
attendance of young people belonging to immigrant
and ethnic minorities, and
arrangements should be made to ensure that they continue their studies to
prevent social exclusion. In
addition, it is important to take care that
ethnic, multicultural, and religious and ideological issues are covered in
teaching,
education and studying materials at all stages of education beginning
from pre-school. In accordance with the Action Plan, the Ministry
of Education
will, in cooperation with the Ministry of Labour, launch a project to
encourage young immigrants to prepare and apply
for training in lines of work
with a growing demand for labour force.
- In
his doctoral dissertation, Osmo Virrankoski charted Finnish
schoolchildren’s attitudes to patriotism, prejudices and racism
in the
years 1990-1998. Virrankoski’s research published in April 2001, shows
that young people who have completed comprehensive
school are increasingly
uncompromising. According to the research, the number of pupils who have racist
prejudices grew from 15
per cent to 24 per cent in the period from 1990 to 1998,
while the number of tolerant pupils dropped from 28 per cent to 24 per cent.
Boys proved to be less tolerant than girls. Hidden racism also appears to be
common, because 66 per cent of upper secondary school
students held attitudes
falling in that category.
- The
Ministry of Education grants assistance mainly to projects combating racism and
xenophobia, carried out by associations. Grants
are awarded on an experimental
basis also to municipal projects against racism. The projects are mainly of
developmental and piloting
character, meant to increase tolerance through such
measures as cooperation between ethnic minorities and the main population and
by
means of dissemination of information about other cultures, religions and
traditions to the main population. When decisions on
assistance are made,
emphasis is laid on projects that help direct young people away from groups that
stir up racism.
- Roma
children and discrimination. The Advisory Board for Roma Affairs has drawn
attention to the right of Roma children to childhood without discrimination. An
important goal is provision of comparable equality of opportunities for Roma
children to that accorded to other children in Finland.
The socio-economic
disparity between the Roma and the main population is
- still
considerable. Problems related to housing, unemployment, poor education, social
problems and consequent general social exclusion
are common among the Roma. The
wellbeing of the population naturally reflects in children. Racism and ethnic
discrimination against
them lead to a greater risk of their becoming socially
excluded.
B. Principle of the best interests of the child (art.
3)
- The
relevance of the principle of the best interests of the child has been
recognized in Finnish legislation since the early 1980s.
The principal
provisions concerning the best interests of the child are included in the Child
Custody and Right of Access Act (361/1983)
and the Child Welfare Act (683/1983).
A more detailed account of these provisions was given in the first periodic
report of Finland.
The best interests of the child are also paid attention to
in other legislation concerning the child.
- Recommendation.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child has recommended that the Government of
Finland consider the full implications of the principle
of best interests of the
child especially in the context of the work of municipal authorities and
in situations concerning child asylumseekers and child refugees, and that the
Government make efforts to ensure that
this principle is a primary consideration
in all decisions affecting children (recommendation No. 26).
- The
best interests of the child in legal practice. In a
decision[16] concerning
refusal of entry into Finland of a foreigner, the Supreme Administrative Court
emphasized that when the options were considered
and a decision was taken,
priority was given to aspects related to the best interests of the child and the
child’s health and
stage of development.
- In
accordance with the Aliens Act (537/1999), the best interests of the child shall
be accorded special attention when decisions are
made affecting a person who has
not reached 18 years of age. However, as concerns the administrative
and legal practice, hardly
any detailed grounds are given on the issue of the
best interests of the child. For example, the child has often remained marginal
in questions concerning family reunification. In its own legal practice, the
Administrative Court of Helsinki has applied the general
clause on the best
interests of the child by making reference to the clause but disregarding the
obligation of guaranteed means of
support, provided for in the Aliens Act, when
a child with a residence in Finland has acquired a residence permit based on
grounds
other than refugee status and need of international
protection.[17]
- The
Government Bill on a new Aliens Act, submitted to Parliament on
13 June 2003, proposes that if a child is not in need of international
protection, a residence permit may be issued in individual cases on humanitarian
grounds. In respect of a family member, the precondition
of guaranteed means of
support still has to be met, but derogation is possible. The Bill opens up
the opportunity of easier entry
into Finland for parents with minor children.
The Government Bill seeks to harmonize the relevant legislative provisions and,
as
far as possible, to protect the position of an individual child, without
forgetting the pull that an automatic reunification of families
in Finland, for
example, could have.
- Decisions
by the Parliamentary Ombudsman. The Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman,
Riitta-Leena Paunio, Parliamentary Ombudsman as from 1 January 2002, took an
independent initiative
in 2000 and started investigating the supervision of a
private children’s home, the family community Kuttula. The Deputy
Parliamentary Ombudsman identified a number of defects in the conduct of the
supervision. In her decision, she brought
several issues to the attention of
the Ministry of Social Affairs and
Health.[18] Attention was
drawn, for example, to the need of specification of the inaccurate and scattered
legislation related to private child
welfare institutions and the need for
special efforts to upgrade legislative provisions related to the supervision.
The Deputy Parliamentary
Ombudsman was of the opinion that a reform of the
legislation would best secure the materialization of the rights of children
placed
in private child welfare institutions. In 2001, a working group set up
by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health submitted a
memorandum concerning
the reform of the supervision of private child welfare
services[19] that suggested,
inter alia, legislative amendments.
- With
reference to article 3, paragraph 3, of the Convention, the Deputy Parliamentary
Ombudsman in her decision concerning the rights
of children placed in community
homes maintained by the
Government,[20] called
attention to the supervision of child welfare institutions. According to the
Community Homes Decree, the National Research
and Development Centre for Welfare
and Health (Stakes) shall take responsibility for the general leadership and
supervision of community
homes. In the opinion of the Parliamentary Ombudsman,
there have been defects in the direction and control of the community homes,
especially as concerns legal direction. The Parliamentary Ombudsman has
informed Stakes and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health
of her views to
help the parties assess the need for adjustments and/or a reorganization.
- Early
intervention and the best interests of the child. The Central Union for
Child Welfare has emphasized the importance of early intervention. The earlier
children and young people
with problems are approached, the more fruitful is the
assistance, and expensive and hard measures need not be resorted to. The
problems related to early intervention concern the methods used, on the one
hand, but also the required knowledge and skills. The
so-called services for
adults do not at present take the needs and special situation of the child
adequately into account in such
cases as concern families with intoxicant and
mental health problems or in situations involving domestic violence. The issue
is
of significance now that we know that the main reason for taking a child into
custody and extra-familial care continues to be the
parents’ intoxicant
and mental health problems.
- The
Early Intervention (Varpu) project, coordinated by the Ministry of Social
Affairs and Health and carried out in cooperation between Stakes and the Central
Union
for Child Welfare, aims at the development of cross-sectoral and
multiprofessional early intervention models and methods in collaboration
with
the public and third sectors for such uses as pupil and student welfare, and
support of families with intoxicant and mental
health problems. The objective
is to arrive at a more comprehensive cultural and attitudinal change to avoid
barriers to early intervention.
Changes are required both in the service
structure, operational systems and policies that set the guidelines for action.
One of
the principal objectives of the project is to support parents and
children face problematic situations and to arrive at a situation
where remedial
measures are not necessary.
- The
best interests of the child and cultural special characteristics. The
concept of the best interests of the child is evidently difficult to define.
The best interests of the child shall be kept
in mind also in relation to
cultural special features in such situations as divorce, disputes over
guardianship or when a child is
taken into custody. The best interests of the
child take priority over cultural special features. The Advisory Board for Roma
Affairs
has reminded that the authorities should be aware of the view prevailing
among the Roma concerning the family. The Roma concept
of family involves that
other relatives take responsibility for the upbringing and development of the
child, if the parents of the
child, for some reason, cannot assume that
responsibility.
C. Right to life, survival and development (art. 6)
- Right
to life. The Constitution of Finland provides that everyone has the right
to life. Based on the travaux préparatoires of the fundamental
rights reform,[21] everyone
is entitled to enjoyment of the fundamental rights during his or her lifetime.
Furthermore, the legal order provides different
types of protection also before
birth. This takes place partly through the fundamental legal safeguards of the
mother. In accordance
with the Constitution, the constitutional fundamental
values include also protection of the human dignity. Therefore, such medical
and scientific experiments
as affect the foetus or embryo and violate the human
dignity are against the Constitution.
- Artificial
insemination. Finland’s second periodic report mentions the proposal
for an act on the use of germ cells and embryos in medical fertility
treatment and for an act amending the paternity act, prepared by the
Ministry of Justice. The idea is to legislate about the use
of germ cells
and embryos in fertility treatments, the preconditions of fertility treatment,
donation of germ cells and embryos for
medical fertility treatment, surrogate
motherhood and the right of access to information by a child born as a
result of fertility
treatment. The Paternity Act (700/1975) would be
amended by adding to it provisions about the paternity of a child born as a
result
of medical fertility treatment.
- A
Government Bill (76/2002) for new fertility treatment legislation was submitted
to Parliament in summer 2002. However, it was withdrawn
in February 2003 after
an eventful period of discussion in Parliament. The Government considered it
necessary to continue the preparation
of the law. The objective is to reach a
solution that would take into account the position of the woman, whether she is
married,
cohabiting, living in a registered same-sex relationship or single, and
the best interests of children born as a result of a medical
fertility
treatment.
- Finland
does not have specific legislation concerning medical fertility treatments. The
goal is to provide for medical fertility
treatments in a manner that would set
an acceptable ethical, legal and medical framework for the activity.
- Right
to development. In respect of article 6 of the Convention, the Committee on
the Rights of the Child has noted that the second periodic report does
not
clearly describe the way in which Finland carries out the right to development.
The Committee has encouraged Finland in its
plans of action, strategies,
policies and programmes to review the perspective according to which each child
has the right to physical,
mental, spiritual, moral, psychological and social
development (recommendation No. 28).
- A
Decision-in-Principle of the Council of State Concerning the National Policy
Definition on Early Childhood Education and
Care[22] was published in
February 2002 by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. Preparation of the
Decision-in-Principle is part of
the National Target and Action Plan for Social
Welfare and Health Care for the years 20002003 adopted by the Government.
- The
national guidelines for early childhood education comprise the main principles
and developmental priorities of Finnish early childhood
education. The document
seeks to upgrade the quality and content of early childhood education in the
entire service and support
system that has been created to support children and
families before the child reaches the statutory school age.
- The
most common form of public early childhood education, which reaches
about 200,000 children under the statutory school age, is
day care. The
principles of early childhood education are based on the needs of children and
families. Early childhood education
should promote the healthy growth,
development and learning of the child. It must offer all children equal
opportunities for development
in accordance with each child’s individual
capacity. Children learn by playing and taking part in various activities and
develop
and grow in social interaction. It is important to support not only
children’s individual development but also educate them
to build social
relationships.
- The
principles that govern early childhood education pivot around children, parents
and the educational staff. Early childhood education
is emphasized to be a
process that promotes the growth, development and learning of the child with the
child itself an active participant.
Children learn in a growth and learning
environment that has been specifically and intentionally designed for the
purpose and in
interaction between adults and other children. A high standard
early childhood education levels off the differences arising from
children’s various backgrounds and thus offers all children equal
opportunities of development based on their individual capacity.
- The
early childhood education policy supports the Committee’s recommendation
concerning the right of each child to physical,
mental, spiritual, moral,
psychological and social development. As a continuation of the early childhood
education policy, Stakes
is preparing a national early childhood education plan.
The national documents will serve as a foundation for municipal policies
and
plans related to early childhood education.
- Social
and psychological development. The preconditions of a child’s
physical and cognitive development are well secured in Finland. In the social
and psychological
development, however, there are problems that Finland has not
managed to address with satisfactory effectiveness. Problems occur
in such
areas as reconciliation of work and family life. Parents do not have enough
time to spend with their children, which is
why children do not receive enough
parental support and guidance for their development.
- Roma
children and the right to development. The Advisory Board for Roma Affairs
is concerned about the fact that Roma children are not adequately addressed
concerning the
materialization of the principles of non-discrimination and the
right to development. All branches of administration must pay special
attention
to the developmental opportunities of minority children in their respective
areas of operation.
D. Views of the child (art. 12)
- Recommendations.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child has recommended that Finland make sure
that the views of children under 12 years of age
who are affected by a judicial
proceeding, if considered mature enough, be always heard in a child-friendly
environment. It also
recommends that Finland undertake a regular review of the
extent to which children’s views are taken into consideration and
of their
impact on policy-making and court decisions, programme implementation and on
children themselves (recommendation No. 30).
- In
accordance with the Constitution of Finland, children shall be allowed to
influence matters pertaining to them to a degree corresponding to the level of
their development.
The provision corresponds to section 5, subsection 3, of the
former Constitution as it has been since the constitutional reform of 1995
(969/1995).
- Consideration
of the best interests of the child requires that children be heard and that they
be allowed to express their views,
wishes and hopes in matters that concern
them. In accordance with Finnish legislation, a child who has reached 12 years
of age shall
always be reserved an opportunity to be heard and his or her views
shall be taken into account when decisions are made concerning
guardianship and
visiting rights of the child or taking into custody or placement outside the
home. The views of children who are
younger than that must also be considered,
insofar as it is possible considering the child’s age and the level of his
or her
development.
- The
following can be stated about other more recent provisions concerning the person
of the child. In accordance with section 1 (c)
of the Aliens Act (537/1999),
which was added to the Act in 1999, prior to making a decision concerning a
child who has reached 12
years of age, the child shall be heard as provided in
section 15 of the Administrative Procedure Act, unless it is regarded to be
evidently unnecessary. Also younger children can be heard if the child is so
developed that his or her views can be paid attention
to. Since the
parent’s or legal guardian’s interest may differ from that of the
child, it is important that the law
expressly provides for the obligation to
hear the child.
- The
above-mentioned provisions reflect the developmental trend that becomes clearly
evident in the valid law, emphasizing the right
of the child to be treated
equally in relation to the adult population. When decisions are taken
concerning the person of the child,
it is important to highlight the
significance of the best interests of the child and see if they differ from the
interests of the
parent or legal guardian.
- The
child’s right of participation in matters that involve him or her are
developed in many ways in the administration of education.
The fundamental
principles governing the curricula of basic education are currently under
reform.
- Promotion
of the participation of young people. The Ministry of Education
participates in the carrying out of an Action Plan to promote the participation
of young people in its
own branch of administration. The Action Plan comprises
15 different projects. The idea is, among
- other
things, to increase collaboration to prevent social exclusion in the transition
phase from comprehensive school to secondary
education, to help teachers more
easily detect symptoms of potential social exclusion, to support immigrant youth
to adjust by inviting
them to take part in courses of Finnish and integration
programmes, and to make workshops for young people an established form of
activity.
- The
project to promote the participation of young people will be carried out as a
broadbased joint pilot programme by several municipalities.
Models will be
worked out to prevent social exclusion and to enhance participation. The
expenses arising from the fiveyear pilot
programme will amount to about 2
million euros annually. Municipalities will hire coordinators to steer the
implementation of the
Action Plan at the local level. The project is composed
of slightly less than 100 local projects, which will be carried out by
individual
municipalities or as joint regional projects by several
municipalities.
- A
coordination group has prepared the decisions concerning central government
transfers to local government. The group regarded it
important that the
objectives of the Action Plan be carried out on several fronts in the
municipalities that were chosen to participate
in the pilot project. Special
attention was paid to the municipalities’ capacity to develop their basic
functions so as to
encourage young people to get involved. One of the criteria
set for a grant was that the project takes into account also regional
aspects so
that different municipalities and subregions of different sizes from different
parts of the country would be included.
The number of participating
municipalities by province is as follows: 12 from the province of
Southern Finland, 6 from the province
of Eastern Finland, 14 from the
province of Western Finland, 5 from the province of Oulu, and 3 from the
province of Lapland.
- The
joint piloting Action Plan is led by a national steering group and coordinated
by a national coordinator under the steering group’s
administration. The
coordinator cooperates with its local counterparts. Municipalities that have
not obtained funds for projects
can cooperate by participating in the
networking.
- To
step up the participation and exercise of social influence by children and young
people, the Ministry of Education in cooperation
with the Finnish Youth
Cooperation Allianssi runs an umbrella and service organization for young
people, and developed an online
instrument of network
democracy[23] used for
example in the education to democracy in Finnish schools. In addition, support
has been directed to children’s parliament,
an activity in schools, which
seeks to offer schoolchildren an opportunity to exercise influence in order to
improve their own school
community and immediate neighbourhood. Some
municipalities maintain a Youth Affairs Board, which is an integral part of the
municipal
administration and which deals with issues concerning youth work and
youth-related activities. Some municipalities have also set
up youth councils
to discuss local youth issues. As a rule, young people age 13 to 18 years in
schools and other educational institutions
take responsibility for the election
of members for these councils.
- Practical
problems arise from the fact that all the persons that listen to children are
not sufficiently informed, and do not have
the required skills and time to hear
and interpret correctly the child’s feelings. Social welfare workers play
a key role
when the views and best interests of the child are clarified in
connection with official decision-making. Their capacity to hear
the
- child
and interpret the best interests of the child can be enhanced through training.
Municipalities should take care that the employees
responsible for social
welfare services affecting children have an appropriate vocational training.
The units in charge of training
courses related to social welfare should also
take care that the training sessions provide an adequate account of and help
assess
the best interests of the child.
- In
2001, Stakes published a set of instructions entitled Lapsen etu
erotilanteissa.
Opas sosiaalitoimelle[24]
(the best interests of the child in divorce, instructions for the social welfare
service). The topics discussed include such issues
as how the child should be
heard and how to make the conditions as friendly to the child as possible.
- In
connection with disputes over maintenance and visits, the child is usually heard
when the Social Welfare Board prepares a statement
for a court of law about the
maintenance and visits. Social welfare workers also hear the child when custody
is prepared or when
other measures related to child welfare are involved. This
ensures rather well that the child is heard in as friendly environment
as
possible. The hearing can take place, for example, in the office of the social
welfare worker, in the premises of the child’s
day-care centre or, at
best, in his or her home. If required, the skills and expertise of child and
family guidance clinics can
be used in the hearing.
- Hearing
the child in a court of law. Court proceedings dealing with offences
against the child, such as assault or sexual abuse, are especially difficult
from the child’s
point of view. In court the child would have to meet the
suspect who is often a close person to him or her, which can make the situation
unbearable to him or her. It is therefore rather common in connection with
offences against children that the child’s statement
is taped on video
during the pretrial phase and a separate hearing is reserved for the suspect.
In accordance with the Finnish law
of procedure, a complainant’s statement
given during the pre-trial phase of a criminal case cannot be adopted as a trial
document.
However, as concerns offences against children, pre-trial statements
have been accepted. In addition, courts have sometimes heard
a child in
connection with such trials as involve maintenance and right of access outside
the courtroom, for example in the judge’s
room, which has provided a
friendlier environment for the child.
- The
new Act on the Amendment of the Code of Procedure (360/2003) introduced a
new provision to the procedure, according to which a
pre-trail statement by
a person who is under 15 years of age or mentally disturbed, which has
been taped on video or recorded on
a cassette can be used in court as evidence,
if the accused is reserved the opportunity of asking questions from the
examinee.
- According
to law, hearing a person who is under 15 years of age is still subject to the
consideration of the court of law. The closer
to 15 years of age the child is
the easier it is to decide to hear him or her in court. Younger children are
very seldom heard in
court, and the younger the child the less common it is.
Children aged under 10 years should not, as a rule, be heard in court.
Younger
children are predisposed to being easily influenced and the border between
imagination and reality is not always clear to
them, which does not necessarily
become evident during court proceedings. The child also easily adjusts his or
her statement to
- correspond
to what he or she thinks the adults want to hear. The court has to take these
aspects into account when it decides whether
to hear a child under 15 years of
age. It is possible to also consider if the child’s pre-trial statement,
provided that is
has been taped in an appropriate manner, gives adequate
evidence.
- Hearing
a child under 15 years of age shall be based on the assumption that it is of
major significance from the point of view of
the investigation, and the hearing
may not cause such pain or other disadvantage for the child as can be
detrimental to his or her
development. The court must, as required, order a
support person for the examinee. A child is heard by a court of law unless it
considers that there is a special reason to trust the task to the parties
involved. They must be reserved an opportunity of presenting
questions to the
examinee via the court or, if the court considers it appropriate, directly to
the examinee. If necessary, the hearing
can take place in some other place than
the courtroom.
- Act
on the Status and Rights of Social Welfare Clients. The Committee on the
Rights of the Child referred to the fact that efforts have been made in Finland
to include the best interests
and right to be heard of the child in the recent
legislative reforms (recommendation No. 23). In this connection, the
Committee identified the Act on the Status and Rights of Social Welfare Clients
(812/2000) (subsequently
referred to as the Social Welfare Clients Act). This
Act was under preparation at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health at the
time when Finland submitted its second periodic report. The Act became
effective at the beginning of 2001. Several other social
welfare acts that are
closely related to the Social Welfare Clients Act were also amended at the same
time (812-819/2000).
- In
accordance with the Act, the wishes and views of a minor client shall be found
out and taken into account, taking note of his or
her age and level of
development. All measures in the sphere of public or private social welfare
that affect a minor child have
to place the highest priority on the best
interests of the minor. A Government Bill concerning the Act (37/1999) states
that it
has been noted that a minor does not often have an actual opportunity of
taking part in the treatment of matters affecting him or
her. When disputes
over maintenance or visits or the best interests of the child in child welfare
are discussed, small children
are very easily left to play only a minor
role.
- The
Social Welfare Services Act includes the central legal principles concerning
participation, treatment and legal protection of
social welfare clients. The
Act also contains provisions on confidentiality, submission of confidential
information, and the authorities’
right of access to information and right
to obtain executive assistance. According to the Act, every municipality shall
appoint
a social welfare ombudsman, responsible for counselling and information.
In addition, the amended Act provides that every municipality
shall have access
to the services of a qualified social welfare officer who participates in work
with clients.
- The
Act also seeks to specifically improve the status and legal protection of
children as clients of social welfare services, and
emphasizes the participation
and self-determination of the child in matters that affect him or her.
- The
Social Welfare Clients Act is applied to both official and private social
welfare services. In the Act, a client refers to a
person, including a child,
who turns to social welfare services for help or who uses them.
- In
accordance with the Act, a client shall be entitled to receive good social
welfare services and good treatment without discrimination.
The client shall be
treated without offending his or her human dignity and with respect for his or
her conviction and privacy.
The Act specifically provides that when social
welfare services are given, the client’s wishes, views, interests and
individual
needs and his or her mother tongue and cultural background shall be
paid attention to.
- The
Act also grants the client the right to obtain an account of the different
alternative measures that may be called for in his
or her case. The social
welfare officer shall inform the client of his or her rights and obligations and
of the different alternatives
that are available and of their impact as well as
of any other aspects that are of significance in the case. The social welfare
officer shall make sure that the client understands the content and significance
of the information and, if need be, take care of
interpretation or look for an
interpreter.
- The
client’s opportunities of participation are further improved by a
provision, which obligates the social welfare service
to work out a service,
care, rehabilitation or other plan for the client unless the plan is considered,
in all probability, unnecessary.
A plan must be worked out unless there is an
evident obstacle to it, in cooperation with the client. The Child Welfare Act
and
the complementary Child Welfare Decree have, as long as they have been
valid, included a provision complementing this general provision.
According to
it, a plan concerning the maintenance of a child shall be made in cooperation
with the child and the parties that participate
in his or her care. Such plans
contribute to more effective and organized cooperation with the client and help
to make more long-term
decisions concerning the services and care. The plan is
subject to review, periodically or as required. The objective is to have
such a
foundation for social welfare measures as is always based on the most recent
knowledge of the client’s situation.
- The
Act also includes some provisions that focus specifically on the child. There
is a specific provision stating that when social
welfare services are given, the
wishes and views of a minor child shall be investigated and taken into account,
based on his or her
age and level of development. The provision does not mean
that the child would be the decision maker in a matter that concerns him
or her.
The objective is to find out the child’s own views. The authorities
always take the ultimate responsibility for a
decision that concerns a child;
however, all public or private social welfare measures concerning minors must
always give priority
to the best interests of the child. It has been considered
appropriate that this key principle in the Finnish legislation related
to the
child be included in the Social Welfare Clients Act.
- The
Guardianship Services Act (442/1999) provides for the appointment of a guardian
(a person representing another person who is without
full legal capacity,
and managing his or her affairs) for cases of a conflict of interest between a
child and his or her parent or
legal guardian. The Act provides that if there
are grounds to suppose that the parent or legal guardian cannot objectively look
after the best interests of the child in a single social welfare case that
concerns the person of a minor, a social welfare officer
shall take measures and
appoint a guardian to the minor child, if it is considered important from the
point of view of safeguarding
the best interests of the minor. The guardian is
appointed by application by a court of law. The guardian then uses the power of
decision and the right to express his or her views instead of the parent or
legal guardian in issues that he or she has been appointed
to look after.
- According
to the Act, a minor child can also, taking into account his or her age and level
of development and the quality of the matter,
for weighty reasons, forbid
submission of information concerning him/ or herself to the parent or legal
guardian or to another legal
representative. However, this is conditional upon
ensuring that the denial is not clearly contrary to the best interests of the
minor. According to the preamble to the Bill (137/1999), the purpose of the
provision is to underline the materialization of the
right of self-determination
of minor social welfare clients also in practice. The provision does not give
any maximum age, but it
is clear that the child must be adequately developed and
mature to give reasons for the necessity of the denial and understand its
significance. Clearly contrary to the best interests of a minor would be
situations where the parents or legal guardians who are
in charge of
arrangements related to the care and maintenance of the minor, would not be able
to take appropriate measures to ensure
the minor’s security due to lack of
information because the minor has denied access to information concerning him/
or herself.
- The
Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has published a set of instructions on the
Social Welfare Clients
Act.[25] The purpose of the
instructions is to support public and private social welfare service providers
and social welfare clients.
- When
the Act was adopted, Parliament required that the Government review the impacts
of the legislation on the status and rights of
social welfare clients and, after
two years from the entry into force of the Act, and based on the review, submit
an account of the
assessed impacts and materialization of the objectives of the
reform to the Social Welfare and Health Committee. The Ministry of
Social
Affairs and Health submitted an account to the Social Welfare and Health
Committee on 6 February 2003, as required by Parliament,
concerning the impact
of the legislation on the status and rights of social welfare clients and an
evaluation of the impact of the
reform and the materialization of its
objectives. A report has been published covering the initial phase of the
evaluation.[26]
- Social
Welfare Ombudsman. In accordance with section 24 of the Social Welfare
Clients Act, municipalities shall appoint a social welfare ombudsman. The
ombudsman
is assigned to: advise clients in issues related to the application
of the Act; assist clients; provide information about the rights
of the client;
also otherwise act to the benefit of the promotion and implementation of the
rights of the client; and monitor the
development of the rights and position of
clients in the municipality; and provide an annual account of the situation to
the Municipal
Executive Board.
- From
the point of view of the materialization of the Social Welfare Clients Act, the
social welfare ombudsman plays a central role.
The system of ombudsmen creates
preconditions for the provision of counselling and guidance to clients and also
for the supervision
of services and their implementation so that the position of
the client in the municipality improves. The social welfare ombudsman
is in
charge of the promotion of the legal protection of the client. One of the
ombudsman’s duties is to assist clients make
complaints. Complaints are
primarily directed to the actual functions of the social welfare service -
treatment of the client.
- In
his or her annual account to the Municipal Executive Board, the social welfare
ombudsman can, at a general level, refer to the
problems and defects that he or
she has noticed at work. The ombudsman can draw attention to the appropriations
and how they have
been reserved and directed to the different social welfare
functions in the municipality, to the organization of social welfare services
in
the municipality and to how the service and its quality could be improved.
- The
Act on the Status and Rights of Social Welfare Clients has been in force for
only a short time, which is why it is hard to make
an assessment of the
materialization of its objectives and the actual impacts of the Act from the
point of view of the status and
rights of social welfare clients. However,
based on the opinions of social welfare ombudsmen, the Act can be seen to have
improved
the status of social welfare clients at least to some degree. The new
forms of activity provided for in the Act, and the complaint
and social welfare
ombudsman systems in particular, seem to be developing into significant tools to
the benefit of the status of
social welfare clients.
- Preliminary
Ruling by the Supreme Court. In a preliminary ruling concerning a child
custody case (2001:110), the Supreme Court has expressly referred to the wishes
and
views of the child. In the particular case, the children had remained
without a legal guardian following the death of their mother.
Both the father
and the person who had lived with the mother and the children had sought custody
of the children. Both children
had expressed their wish to stay with the person
who had lived with them and their mother. The custody order according to which
the children should have moved to live with their father would not have been
enforceable considering the age and wishes of the children.
The Supreme Court
came to the conclusion that it was in the best interests of the children that
custody be awarded to the person
with whom they were living.
- Decisions
of the Parliamentary Ombudsman. In 2001, one of the main topics
characterizing the work of the Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman of Finland was the
child’s
right to be heard. The Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman,
Riitta-Leena Paunio, drew attention to the child’s right to be heard
in
some of her decisions based on complaints. The Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman
emphasized the importance of discretion when the
views of a child are clarified
and he or she is heard. A discreet procedure means, for example, that an oral
hearing of a child
is conducted, as far as possible, by a person with an
appropriate professional qualification. The person could be the social welfare
worker who takes responsibility for the child’s
issues.[27] In another case,
she found that the procedure observed in the hearing of a child is of major
significance to how well and reliably
the authorities manage to find out about
the child’s views. The decision laid an emphasis on the social welfare
officers’
responsibility for how successfully a child’s views are
found out. The matter concerned the use of the right of institution
of
proceedings by a social welfare authority in a case involving the custody of a
child.[28]
- European
Convention on the Exercise of Children’s Rights. In January 1996, the
Council of Europe adopted the European Convention on the Exercise of
Children’s Rights. The Convention
is related to procedural measures to
promote the exercise of the rights of the child,
- that
is, to such issues as the right of the child to express his or her views and his
or her right to have a special representative
in court. The Convention has been
in force since July 2000. Finland signed the Convention in January 1996.
Finland has not ratified
the Convention to date but Finnish legislation is in
conformity with its main requirements.
IV. CIVIL AND FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS
A. Name and nationality (art. 7)
- Registration
of the birth of a child. In Finland, the health-care professionals
(doctors, midwives, public health nurses or nurses) are under the obligation to
register
all births with the population register. The name and mother tongue of
the child must be notified to the population register within
two months of the
birth of the child.
- First
name. Provisions related to the name of a child are enacted by the
Names Act (694/1985). Every Finn shall have a family name and a first
name. A person may have no more than three first names. The first name must
not be inappropriate or a name that is harmful for
the child, such as a
woman’s name for a boy or a man’s name for a girl, a family name
must not be used as the first name,
and the child must not be given a name that
is in conflict with the customary way or form of writing names in Finnish.
Siblings
and step-siblings must not have the same first name. Exceptions to the
above may be accepted, however, based on a religious habit
or such criteria as
nationality. The names of a child shall be registered with the population
register (the Registry Office or the
Evangelical-Lutheran/Orthodox Church)
within two months of the date of birth of the child.
- Family
name. Provisions related to the family name are also recorded in the Names
Act. When a child is born, he or she receives the family
name of the parents if
they have a common family name. If the parents do not have a common family
name, the child receives the family
name of either of the parents, based on an
agreement between them. Minor children who are in the joint care of their
biological
parents always receive the same family name.
- The
family name of a child shall be registered with the population register (the
Registry Office or the Evangelical-Lutheran/Orthodox
Church) within two months
of the date of birth of the child. If both parents of the child are not his or
her legal guardians, they
are or one of them is entitled to decide which
parent’s family name the child receives.
- If
the child’s family name has not been registered with the population
register as enacted, the child receives the family name
that the mother had at
the time when the details of the child are notified to the population
register.
- When
adoption of a minor is confirmed in a court of law, the child receives the
family name of the adoptive parent or the adoptive
parents’ common family
name. An adopted child must have the same family name as the other minor
children in the joint care
of the adoptive parents have. An adoptive child may,
however, maintain his or her former family name by a court decision if it is
considered to be in the best interests of the child.
- Whenever
a child is adopted from abroad, he or she can receive the adoptive
parents’ common family name or either adoptive parent’s
family name.
All the minor children that are in the joint care of the adoptive parents shall
have the same family name.
- If
the paternity of the child had not been established at the time when the child
was given a family name, the child cannot have received
the
father’s family name. After the paternity is established, a
minor’s family name can be changed to the father’s
family name.
- If
a minor’s parents marry and adopt a common family name, the parents can
agree between themselves that the child’s family
name is changed and he or
she takes the common family name of the parents. A child can also receive the
family name of his or her
new parent’s new spouse. The change requires
both parents’ consent. If a man’s paternity is disestablished, he
can request a court of law rule that the child take the family name that the
mother had when the child was born. The change of the
name of a minor calls for
the child’s consent if he or she is 12 years old or older. However, the
child’s consent is
not required if he or she is incapable of expressing
his or her will due to an illness or disability. A minor who intends to get
married is entitled to decide on his or her family name at the time of getting
married.
- Nationality.
In accordance with the Constitution of Finland, a person receives Finnish
nationality based on birth or the parents’ nationality, as is separately
provided by
law. Nationality can be granted in certain cases also upon
notification or application.
- Finland’s
new Nationality Act (359/2003) entered into force on 1 June 2003. The Act
replaces the former Nationality Act enacted
in 1968. The most significant
change is that the new Nationality Act provides for a wider application of
multiple nationality (dual
nationality). Finnish nationals will no longer lose
their Finnish nationality if they take another nationality. Similarly, foreign
nationals who are granted Finnish nationality will not need to give up their
former nationality. The legislation of the other country
determines whether a
person can have another nationality besides the one he or she already has.
- In
accordance with the new Nationality Act, a child who has attained the age of 12
years shall be heard when an application or notification
related to his or her
nationality is dealt with. A child who has attained the age of 15 years
can inform that he or she opposes
the granting of a new nationality or exemption
from a nationality. The best interests of the child can have an impact on the
adoption
of a nationality even if the child opposed an application or
notification made by somebody else but he or she.
- A
child receives Finnish nationality at birth if:
- − The
mother is a Finnish citizen;
- − The
father is a Finnish citizen and married to the mother of the child, or the child
is born in Finland and the man’s
paternity is
established;
− The father is dead but was a Finnish citizen when he died and he had
been married to the mother of the child, or the child
is born in Finland and the
man’s paternity is established; or
- − The
child is born in Finland and does not acquire any other nationality at birth
and, based on birth, is not even as a secondary
option entitled to any foreign
nationality.
- A
child that is born in Finland acquires Finnish citizenship based on the place of
birth if the parents have a refugee status in Finland
or if they have been
otherwise afforded protection against the authorities of their country of
nationality. An additional precondition
for the above is that the child does
not acquire the nationality of either of the parents except if his or her birth
is registered
with the authorities of either parent or elsewhere in a manner
that calls for the contribution of the authorities of the State in
question. If
the aforementioned protection has been afforded to one of the parents only, it
is further required that the child be
not given the other parent’s
nationality at birth or that he or she be not granted even a secondary right to
the nationality
of the other parent based on birth.
- A
foreign child aged under 12 years who has been adopted to Finland acquires
Finnish nationality based on adoption beginning on the
date when the adoption
becomes valid in Finland, if at least one of the adoptive parents is a Finnish
citizen.
- A
child can acquire Finnish citizenship based on the parents’ marriage to
one another beginning on the date when the parents
enter into marriage provided
that the husband was a Finnish citizen at the time when the child was born and
has been a Finnish citizen
since then, and the husband’s paternity was
established prior to the date of marriage. If the paternity of a man who is a
Finnish citizen is established only after the parents got married, the child
acquires Finnish citizenship beginning from the date
when the paternity was
established. If the father dies after the parents got married, the child
acquires Finnish citizenship beginning
from the date when the paternity was
established if the father was a Finnish citizen when he died.
- A
foundling found in Finland or a child born in Finland whose parents’
nationality is unknown is considered to be a Finnish
citizen as long as he or
she is not known to be a national of a foreign country. The same applies to a
child born out of wedlock
whose mother’s nationality is unknown. However,
if a child has attained the age of 5 and is found to be a national of a foreign
country only after that, he or she remains a Finnish citizen.
- The
parent or legal guardian of a child can apply for a Finnish citizenship for the
child. This requires that the person who completes
the application form is a
Finnish citizen and the child lives in the household of the person who completes
the application form.
- If
the co-applicant attains the age of 18 years or gets married before the
application has been dealt with, he or she has to amend
the application to apply
to him or her. If the child becomes 18 years of age or gets married before an
application made on his or
her behalf by a parent or legal guardian has been
dealt with, he or she has to confirm the application by signature. If the
application
is not confirmed, it will be
rejected.
- If
a foreign child is adopted to Finland after he or she has attained the age of 12
years, he or she acquires Finnish citizenship
upon notification. The
precondition is that at least one of the adoptive parents is a Finnish
citizen and the adoption is valid
in Finland. An adoptive child aged under 12
years acquires Finnish citizenship upon notification, if the decision concerning
adoption
has been made before the entry into force of the Nationality Act, that
is before 1 June 2003. At least one of the adoptive parents
shall be a Finnish
citizen and the adoption must be valid in Finland. The notification shall be
made within five years from the
date of entry into force of the Nationality
Act.
- In
case the husband’s paternity has been disestablished or action has been
brought leading to the disestablishment of paternity
before the child is 5 years
of age, or if an established paternity has been disestablished or action has
been brought leading to
the disestablishment of paternity within five years from
the date when the paternity was established, it is possible to decide that
the
child loses his or her Finnish citizenship that has been acquired based on the
father’s nationality. In that case, a decision
is made on the basis of a
thorough consideration of the child’s situation. The child’s age
and ties to Finland, in particular,
must be taken into account when the case is
assessed.
B. Preservation of identity (art. 8)
- Nationality.
The content of the new Nationality Act is described in section A above.
The provisions of the Act related to loss of nationality
and exemption from
nationality must not be applied if, as a result of it, the person concerned
would become stateless.
- Change
of name. A person’s name may only be changed on grounds provided by
law. A person can change his or her first name upon notification
once (the
change of name is made for the first time). In the notification, no reasons for
the change need to be specified. Otherwise,
the change of one’s first
name is conditional upon the submission of a written application to the Registry
Office. In that
case, a reason for the change is required.
- The
change of the name of a child who is 12 years or older is conditional upon his
or her own consent. A person who has attained
15 years of age can apply for the
change of his or her name alone.
- A
person can also change his or her family name upon notification in certain
specific cases or by submitting a free-form application.
The parents or legal
guardians of a child have to be unanimous about the change of the child’s
name. A good cause has to
be presented for the change of the family name, and
there may not exist any impediment for the new name. For example, if the
proposed
new family name belongs to another family, the change is not
possible.
- The
change of the family name of a child must always be applied for separately, that
is, a child’s family name does not change
automatically when the
parents’ family name changes. The family name of a child who has attained
12 years of age cannot be
changed without his or her consent. A person who has
attained 15 years of age can lodge an application concerning the change of
his
or her family name.
- Adoption.
As regards adoption, the Finnish legislation is based on the principle of a
socalled strong adoption, which means that the rights
and obligations of the
biological parents towards the child and the child’s legal ties to the
biological family are terminated
by adoption.
- An
adopted child and his or her adoptive parent and offspring have the right of
access (with appropriate counselling) to documents
related to the adoption.
Municipal social welfare authorities, the adoption office and the service
provider must retain the documents
related to an adoption for a minimum of 100
years from the date of their preparation. Access to information may be denied
if provision
of the information would endanger the health or development of the
adopted child or would otherwise be against the best interests
of the adopted
child or other private interests.
- Refugee
children’s identity. A major part of the refugee population of
Finland, approximately 6,000 persons, are citizens of Somalia. Nearly all of
them have
arrived in Finland without any documentary evidence of their identity.
On account of the civil war in Somalia, documents are still
not available. Some
of the refugees are children whose dates of birth and names have been recorded
incorrectly for a variety of
reasons, or they have arrived in the country
through family reunification with forged evidence of identity. Correcting false
information
on identity has proved to be an extremely difficult and
time-consuming process. In accordance with the Population Information Act
(507/1993), a foreigner shall submit a reliable account of the required
information to the population information system. In practice,
Somali children
and adults have not been able to verify their identity by other means but their
own stories, which have been considered
an inadequate means of evidence.
Refusals by the Registry Offices can be appealed to administrative courts of
law. The Helsinki
Administrative Court has corrected the personal data of minor
Somalis in at least two cases, based on witness statements in an oral
hearing
(Helsinki Administrative Court, 19 December 2000 and 19 May 2002).
C. Freedom of expression (art. 13)
- According
to the Constitution of Finland, everyone has the right to freedom of expression,
which entails the right to express, disseminate and receive information,
opinions and other communications without being forestalled by anyone. The
freedom of expression is constitutionally guaranteed
to everyone within the
Finnish jurisdiction, irrespective of his or her nationality or such aspects as
age.
- The
freedom of expression can be restricted by means of legislation only on grounds
based on child welfare. Restrictions on pictorial
programmes, for example, can
be necessary to protect children.
- A
new Act on the Use of Freedom of Expression in the Mass Media (460/2003) was
adopted in the spring
2003.[29] It replaces the
valid Act on Freedom of the Press and the Act on Responsibility for
Broadcasting.
- Participation
of children and young people. To succeed, society needs the active
participation of all its citizens. Acknowledgement of and respect for the
significance of
the rights of participation of the child is an investment in the
future. Both research and practical
- experience
have shown that children also have opinions and expertise in issues that relate
to themselves and, for example, their living
environment, if only there is will
and wisdom to hear their views. Giving children access to greater participation
is also an excellent
tool in their education to democracy, developing the
child’s capacity to take on responsibility for issues that concern him/
or
herself, which has, among other things, a preventive impact on such possible
adverse developments as social exclusion.
- The
Committee on the Rights of the Child noted that not enough attention has been
paid to the participation of children, inter alia,
in education at the
comprehensive school level. Starting from the economic depression of the early
1990s, schools have made savings
by means of cutting such activities as
after-school clubs and student bodies. The Committee has encouraged Finland to
take effective
action to step up the participation of children in, for example,
activities that relate to their own education.
- The
Ministry of the Interior administered a national Participation Project in the
years 1997-2002, which improved the opportunities
for participation and
influence of local
residents.[30] During the
project cycle, many municipalities and cities carried out various programmes and
projects to enhance the participation
of children and young people. An example
of the results is the Kempeleen Pikkuparlamentti (Children’s
Parliament in the municipality of Kempele). Children and young people draft
proposals related to their own school
and neighbourhood, and elected class
representatives meet under the leadership of the chair of the Municipal Council
to decide which
proposals will be accepted.
- In
addition, many child and youth organizations, such as the Central Union for
Child Welfare, are engaged in cooperative projects
that enhance children’s
participation and provide guidelines on how to exercise influence.
Municipalities operate at the moment
as many as some 250 youth workshops
and some 150 participatory projects for the youth.
- The
development of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the
reduction of the prices of equipment and programmes have
opened up new kinds of
learning and communication environments for children and young persons all over
the world. This has improved
the opportunities for participation and also for
internationalization and multiculturalism.
- However,
the information society revolution has its reverse side. All children and young
people do not have access to the advantages
that the new technologies offer,
which increases children’s and young people’s inequality. Children
and youth who have
access to welfare and “have travelled and seen the
world” are more prepared to take independent initiative and better
equipped to take part in discussions and to exercise influence when decisions
are made that concern them.
D. Freedom of thought, conscience and religion (art.
14)
- The
Constitution of Finland guarantees freedom of thought, conscience and religion
to everyone, including the right to profess and practise a religion,
the right
to express one’s conviction and the right to belong or not to belong to a
religious community. Of the Finnish population,
84.9 per cent belong to the
Evangelical-Lutheran Church, 1.1 per cent to the
- Orthodox
Church and 1.1 per cent to other religious communities. 12.9 per cent of Finns
do not belong to any religious community
(Statistics Finland, 2001). Finnish
comprehensive schools and high schools give denominational religious education
based on the
faith of the religious communities of the pupils and students.
- Parents
as their children’s religious educators. The provisions relating to a
child’s religious status are designed to secure the religious unity of the
family, to safeguard
the continuity of the child’s religious status and
his or her right to co-determination, and to protect minors.
- A
new Freedom of Religion Act (453/2003) will become effective on 1 August 2003,
superseding the valid Freedom of Religion Act from
the year 1922 (267/1922).
The new Act will bring the legislation concerning religious education given in
basic education and upper
secondary schools up to date, so that it better
corresponds to the provisions on religion and the freedom of conscience of the
Constitution. Another goal is to enhance the opportunities of pupils and
students to access religious education in accordance with their own
religion
and, in case denominational religious education in their own religion is not
organized, to other ethical education. It
also seeks to clarify the regulations
concerning such events and ceremonies in schools as are considered to fall
within the framework
of practice of religion.
- Based
on legislation, a child’s religious status is no more automatically
determined in accordance with the religious status
of the parents or legal
guardians. The parents or legal guardians of a child decide whether he or she
enters or leaves a religious
community. The change unifies the practices used
in the Registry Offices and also strengthens the right of various religious
communities
to decide themselves about the preconditions of entry in their
community and, on the other hand, reinforces the right of the parents
or legal
guardians to decide on their child’s religious status.
- The
parents or legal guardians settle on their child’s religious status
together. However, if the parents or legal guardians
do not reach agreement
about the religious status of their newborn baby, the mother, who is the
child’s guardian at this stage,
can make a decision about the
child’s religious community on her own. Similar presumptions, giving
preference to the mother
of a child, are included in the former Freedom of
Religion Act (267/1922) and in the Names Act (694/1985), according to which a
child
acquires the family name of the mother in case the parents have not,
within the given time limit, informed which of the two parents
shall give the
family name to the child.
- The
mother should then report the community in question about the entry of the child
into that community within one year of the date
of birth of the child. The
exception to this provision, mentioned above, refers only to a situation when a
child was born and his
or her religious status was not yet determined. All
later changes in the child’s religious status will be made jointly by
the
mother and the father or by the legal guardians.
- As
a deviation to the report of the Freedom of Religion
Committee,[31] the law does
not prevent the parents or legal guardians from joining the child to any
religious community of their choice. According
to the Committee’s
proposal, a child could only be made a member of the
- religious
community to which the parents or legal guardians or one of them belong. The
Committee was of the opinion that an exception
to this could be possible only if
it secured the child access to education corresponding to his or her earlier
religious education
or if the child’s permanent residence was not with the
parents or legal guardians. Assessment of whether the preconditions
for these
exceptional provisions are met would ultimately have remained the duty of the
Registry Office. However, the opportunities
for Registry Offices to find out
about the content of a child’s previous religious education would in
practice have been rather
limited. It is possible to say that in situations
like this the parents or legal guardians have better chances of assessing
whether
joining the child in a community other than their own meets the
requirement of the best interests of the child or not.
- When
the parents or legal guardians of a child are deciding upon his or her religious
status or considering of consenting to a change
of the religious community of a
15-year-old, they are also advised by the provisions on the objectives of the
care of a child given
in the Child Custody and Right of Access Act (361/1983).
The underlying principle is to safeguard a balanced development and welfare
of
the child in accordance with his or her individual needs and wishes. Joining a
child to a community where he or she does not
have any natural ties cannot, as a
rule, be considered to be in line with these objectives.
- Decisions
concerning one’s religious status have been considered to call for a
particularly sound judgement and maturity, which
is why a person cannot
make an independent decision on his or her religious status until after he or
she has attained 18 years of
age, and provided that the parents or legal
guardians have given their consent, at the age of 15. The age limits have not
changed.
To protect the continuity of a child’s religious status and his
or her right of co-determination, the right to be heard has
been expanded in
respect of persons aged under 15, and so the change of the religious status of a
child who has attained 12 years
of age is possible only subject to his or her
consent.
- Religious
education. Participation in religious education is provided for in the
provisions related to the education of religion and ethics in the Act
on Basic
Education (628/1998) and the Act on Upper Secondary Schools (629/1998). The
expression used in the present provisions,
“denominational
education”, is replaced by a wording that better describes the present
content and arrangement of religious
education, and goes as follows:
“teaching of the pupil’s own religion”.
- This
does not call for any changes in the present content of religious education in
Finnish schools. The pupil’s right and
obligation to take part in the
education of his or her religion or in the education of ethics has remained for
the main part as it
is today. Teachers of the Evangelical Lutheran and Orthodox
religions do not need to belong to the church in question.
- Pupils
who do not belong to the religious community of the majority of the pupils are
not given a separate exemption from the religious
education of the majority, but
they participate in the education only if they specifically enrol in the class.
Some minor other
amendments have also been made in the provisions concerning the
education of religion and ethics.
- A
pupil who belongs to a religious community can also attend classes of ethics in
case religious education is not organized in the
religion that he or she
professes. Furthermore, pupils and students who do not belong to any religious
community but whose religious
view is clear, based on their upbringing and
cultural background, have improved access to education of their own
religion.
- Act
on Basic Education, section 13 (454/2003). With reference to the grounds
expressed in the Freedom of Religion Act, the section has abandoned the concept
of “denomination”
and replaced it with the concept of “a
religious community”. This change is in line with the present practical
application
of the law. The expression “denominational education”
has also been deleted. Instead, the current content of religious
education is
better conveyed by using the wording “teaching of the pupil’s own
religion”.
- References
to the provisions of the Freedom of Religion Act that concern exemption from
religious education have been removed from
the section based on the grounds set
forth in the Act. The new Freedom of Religion Act does not include any
provisions on exemption
from religious education. According to the section, a
pupil need not participate in the religious education given based on the
religion
of the majority of the pupils if he or she does not belong to the
religious community professing that religion. However, the pupil
can take part
in the religious education that is based on the religion of the majority of the
pupils after his or her parent or legal
guardian has informed about the matter
to the provider of the education.
- The
amended section ensures better than before the materialization of the principle
of freedom of religion secured in the Constitution. In the provision on
religious education, the overriding concern is to secure the rights of the
pupils and not to support the interests
of religious communities.
- Subsection
4 deals with the right of the parent or legal guardian of a pupil to choose what
religious education the pupil attends if he or she
belongs to more than one
religious community at the same time. The provision is required because the new
Freedom of Religion Act
does not prohibit a person from belonging to several
religious communities simultaneously, but the religious communities shall decide
the matter by themselves. However, the new Freedom of Religion Act states that
the prohibition to belong to several religious communities
simultaneously,
provided by the former Freedom of Religion Act, shall be applied for three years
as of the entry into force of the
new Act. The parents’ or legal
guardians’ freedom of choice, referred to in subsection 3 of section 13 of
the Act, will
therefore become applicable only after the said period of
time.
- Subsection
5 provides that if a pupil belongs to a religious community the teaching of
which is not organized, the parents or legal
guardians may request that the
pupil be taught ethics. According to the former law, a pupil who belonged to a
religious community
could not attend teaching of ethics. This has been
considered a defect, because in situations like this a pupil is left outside
any
ethical education at all; for example, no denominational education was organized
for a pupil if the required minimum number of
three pupils in the same group,
set to entail a duty to organize teaching, was not met. Pupils who belong to a
religious community
and ask to receive the education of ethics referred to in
subsection 5 are taken into account when the duty of the organizer of the
education to make arrangements for the teaching of ethics is assessed.
- Subsection
6 lays down provisions concerning an exception to the principle according to
which a pupil’s participation in classes
of religion is determined based
on what religious community the pupil belongs to. In accordance with this
subsection, a pupil who
does not belong to a religious community can also
participate in such religious education organized by the education provider as
apparently, based on the upbringing and cultural background of the pupil,
corresponds to his or her religious views. The practice
has been already
observed in some municipalities. The provision will apply to such groups as
Orthodox or Muslim immigrants. It
often happens that immigrants do not join any
religious community registered in Finland, even if their religious views were
known.
Since the education provider’s duty to organize such religious
education as is other than that given based on the religion
of the majority of
the pupils may not remain subject to interpretation, the pupils referred to in
subsection 6 are not taken into
account when the education provider’s duty
to organize that education is assessed.
- The
Act on Upper Secondary Schools, section 9 (629/1998). Amendments
corresponding to those made to section 13 of the Act on Basic Education,
referred to above, have been made to this section,
too. In the upper secondary
schools, the right to be heard in issues related to the education of religion
and ethics is used by
the student instead of the parent or legal guardian. This
is in line with the general premise in the legislation concerning education,
according to which students in upper secondary schools exercise the right to be
heard in issues related to their own studies.
E. Freedom of association and assembly (art. 15)
- In
accordance with the Constitution of Finland, everyone has the right to arrange
meetings and demonstrations without a permit and the right to participate in
them.
In addition, everyone has the freedom of association, in other words, the
right to form an association without a permit, to be a
member or not to be a
member of an association, and to participate in the activities of an
association. The freedom of association
applies equally to the formation of
trade unions and to getting organized in order to look after other
interests.
- Provisions
related to the setting up of an association are laid down in the Associations
Act (503/1989). The fundamental principle is freedom of association, but the
purpose of an association must not be contrary to law or
good manners. For
example, such associations are prohibited as, on account of the obedience
required of members, the division into
units or groups or the equipping with
arms, are deemed militarily organized. Some associations may be set up subject
to a licence.
An association that operates in essential ways contrary to law or
good manners can be discontinued, and persons running an association
engaged in
illegal activities can be sentenced to a fine.
- To
form an association, a person must have attained 15 years of age. However, the
chair of the Board of Directors of a registered
association must have come of
age as is provided by law, that is, he or she must have attained 18 years of
age. The members of a
Board of Directors of an association must have reached 15
years of age, but membership of an association is not limited by any age
requirement. Therefore, the Act also secures the right of a child to join an
association for ideological purposes. Every member
of an association who has
reached 15 years of age has the right to vote in the meetings of the
association, unless otherwise provided
by the rules of procedure of the
association.
- Provisions
concerning the use of the freedom of assembly, provided in the Constitution of
Finland, are secured by a separate Assembly Act (530/1999), which also includes
the necessary provisions related to public order
when public meetings are
arranged. Public meetings may be arranged by private persons with full legal
capacity (18 years). A person
who has attained 15 years of age may arrange a
public meeting if he or she is capable of fulfilling the requirements imposed by
law
on the organizer, such as maintenance of order. A person who has not
attained 15 years of age can arrange a public meeting in cooperation
with a
person with full legal capacity. Everyone has the right to participate in a
public meeting irrespective of his or her age.
F. Protection of privacy (art. 16)
- Protection
of privacy is secured by the Constitution of Finland. According to the
Constitution, everyone’s private life, honour and sanctity of the home are
guaranteed. Protection of privacy is based on the principle
that private
individuals have the right to lead a life of their own without arbitrary or
groundless involvement by the authorities
or other parties in their private
lives. The elements of private life include, for example, an individual’s
right to freely
enter into and maintain relationships with other people and the
environment, and the right to make decisions concerning him/ or herself
and his
or her body.[32]
- Protection
of personal data falls within the framework of the protection of privacy secured
by the Constitution of Finland. Provisions on the protection of personal data
are laid down in a separate Act (Personal Data Act, 523/1999). An Act
(565/1999) and Decree (723/1999) have been enacted for the protection of
privacy and data security in telecommunications.
- Data
security. The protection of privacy stipulated in article 16 of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child is reinforced by a new Act on Data
Protection in Working Life (477/2001). The Act covers all employees, including
young employees who are under 18 years of age. The
Act, which entered into
force in 2001, seeks to implement the protection of private life and other basic
rights safeguarding privacy
in working life, and to promote the development of
and compliance with good data-processing practice. The provisions of the Act
apply to employees, civil servants and job applicants, and the Act complements
the Personal Data Act (523/1999).
- In
accordance with the Data Protection Act, an employer is allowed to process only
such personal data as is directly necessary from
the point of view of the
employment relationship, which concern the management of the rights and
obligations of the parties to the
employment relationship or the benefits
provided by the employer for the employee, or which arise from the special
nature of the
employee’s duties. No exceptions can be made to this
provision even with the employee’s consent.
- The
Act has also expanded the scope of issues to be dealt with in collaboration
between the employer and the employee, including collection
of information at
the start and during the employment relationship, and matters relating to the
technical monitoring of the employee
and of his or her use of the
information network and electronic mail. The requirement of necessity must be
respected also in the
cooperation procedure. A brochure entitled Data
Protection in Working Life is appended to this
report.[33]
- Provisions
related to data and communications offences are recorded in the Penal Code
(578/1995, chap. 38). A punishment has been
enacted for, inter alia, violation
of a secrecy obligation, that is such violations as opening a letter or other
closed communication
addressed to another person with a view to obtaining
information. The provision also applies to the violation of secret
communications
addressed to minors. After the reform, a provision was added to
the Guardianship Services Act (442/1999), according to which a guardian
is
entitled to open such letters addressed to his or her ward that can, on the
basis of the sender’s name or other specific
circumstances, be expected to
concern a matter that the guardian should know. As a rule, the inviolability of
the secrecy of communications
addressed to a minor applies also to a violation
by the parents.
- The
protection of the privacy of a child with disabilities may be threatened in many
ways. Disability organizations have emphasized
that, as concerns the protection
of privacy, children with disabilities must be secured an equal treatment in
relation to other children
in spite of their need of assistance. Children with
disabilities should be protected from any possible overprotection and excess
assistance from the part of their parents. The idea of the use of personal
assistants, for example, is to support a child with disabilities
to make full
use of his or her potential and not make him or her dependent on the personal
assistant. Children with disabilities
must also be allowed to test their limits
and to experience both success and failure.
G. Access to information (art. 17)
- Information
and communication technologies (ICT). Finnish children lead their daily
lives in the information society and are very skilled in the use of ICT.
Schools invested in
the information technology in the late 1990s, and households
also bought computers for private use. Today, nearly all children and
young
people in Finland have access to the computer, as required, at school, at home
or in a public library, for
example.[34] Electronic
literacy (e-literacy) and enhanced education of communication skills are in all
respects becoming of paramount importance.
- Prevention
of the development of a digital divide requires that all groups in society,
including children, have access to the new
media. The safe use of the content
services calls for effective self-regulation from the part of the service
providers and suppliers
at both the national and international levels. As
required, the activities are intensified by means of cooperation with the
authorities.
- Viewing
the TV. All four national television broadcasting companies have programmes
for children. The Finnish Broadcasting Company Ltd. (YLE)
has concentrated all
its children’s programmes to be broadcasted on Channel 2, and, for
example, television news and children’s
programmes are not sent one after
the other at weekends. YLE Channel 1 is responsible for programmes for young
people and young
adolescents. The Swedish programmes constitute a separate line
of activities in YLE. The Swedish Finlands Svenska Television broadcasts
programmes for children and young people in Swedish. The commercial television
broadcasting companies MTV3 and Channel
Four broadcast programmes to both
children and young people. Of the total supply of television programmes, YLE
Channel 1 broadcasts
the highest number of programmes for children (in 2000,
children’s programmes represented 9 per cent of the total supply,
amounting
to 11.1 hours a week).
- The
time used for watching TV on an average day in various age groups (watching
videos is not included) is as
follows:
Age group
|
2002
|
2001
|
4 to 9 years
|
68 minutes
|
72 minutes
|
10 to 14 years
|
100 minutes
|
97 minutes
|
15 to 24 years
|
115 minutes
|
108 minutes
|
Source: Finnpanel Oy (27 March 2003).
- The
Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE is a public service provider. The company is
responsible for the full provision of television
and radio broadcasting
services, including related supplementary and additional services, for all
citizens under equal conditions
(legislative amendment 492/2002). An amendment
enforced at the beginning of 1999 (746/1998) lays down provisions according to
which
the Finnish- and Swedish-speaking citizens must be treated on equal
grounds and services must be produced in the Sami, Romani and
sign languages,
and broadcasting services must be provided, as appropriate, also to other
language groups in the country.
- A
new Act on the Classification of Audio-visual Programmes (775/2000) took effect
at the beginning of 2001. The Act provides for
the inspection and
classification of audiovisual programmes and, for example, for programmes that
are harmful to children’s
development.
- Programmes
with an adverse effect on children. In the Act on Television and Radio
Operations (744/1998), provisions are laid down on television and radio
programmes and advertising
directed at minors. The legislation protects minors
from harmful programmes and advertising. Programmes that contain violence,
sex
and horror, and are unsuitable for minor viewers must be broadcasted at such
times of the day when children do not normally watch
television (legislative
amendment 778/2000). In addition, programmes that are inappropriate
for children must be labelled as such
prior to the start of the programme.
The Finnish Communication Regulatory Authority (FICORA) supervises television
and radio broadcasting
in Finland.
- Minors
are also protected in respect of television and radio advertising. Children
must not be urged to buy products or services
taking advantage of the fact that
they are inexperienced or credulous. A child’s trust must not be
exploited, and the advertiser
must not unreasonably show children in dangerous
situations. Provisions on television and radio advertising are laid down in the
Act on Television and Radio Operations.
- The
Consumer Ombudsman supervises compliance with the regulations pertaining to
advertising and, to complement the legislative guidelines,
issues instructions
to advertisers. In accordance with these instructions, broadcasters must devote
special attention to television
and radio advertisements directed at children (a
child is defined as a person between 2 and 14 years old). The instructions
emphasize
that an adequately clear distinction must be made between
advertisements and other programmes, because a child is not necessarily
capable
of understanding the difference between advertisements and actual
programmes.
- Violence
and pornography in the media and advertising. There has been much public
discussion recently about the increasing display of pornographic material in the
media and advertising,
which shapes the general picture of women and men and
offers harmful role models for boys and especially young girls. The media
often
represents girls as passive sex objects and persons who take an active
initiative. NGOs have appealed to the authorities to
take action on the issue,
because advertising often communicates a picture that is sexually
discriminating.
- According
to the Government programme of Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen
of 24 June 2003, an Action Plan will be drawn up to combat
violent entertainment targeted at children. In May 2003, the Minister
of Cultural Affairs, Tanja Karpela, invited 30 representatives
of the
media, the authorities and child welfare professionals to discuss ways
to reduce violent entertainment. The discussion focused
on the present
state of the content of the media from the point of view of the protection
of minors and on the practical problems
and problematic situations.
Responsibility for the use of the media by children and young people falls on
families and other carers.
Media education at school is probably the most
effective way outside the home to combat the impacts of harmful media
contents.
- Children
as users of library services. By international standards, Finland maintains
a high-quality and effective municipal library service. The first public
libraries
were founded in Finland 200 years ago. The library network serves the
Finns rather well, even though some parts of the country are
sparsely populated;
today, every Finnish municipality has a public library. Public libraries are
maintained by the local authorities
and financing is taken care of jointly by
the local and government authorities. In 2002, the expenses per inhabitant on
libraries
were an average of 43.35 euros. Access to public libraries and
lending of material are free.
- Public
libraries operate in nearly 1,000 different locations. On top of that,
municipalities have a total of 197 mobile libraries
with as many as 16,000
stops. Thanks to the dense service network, children have easy access to
libraries. Finnish libraries are
so-called family libraries, where services for
both children and adults are available in the same premises and the different
departments
are often separated only by means of pieces of furniture. The Finns
are active users of libraries. More than 90 per cent of children
under 15 years
of age visit libraries. Of young people aged 15 to 19, 81 per cent visit a
library at least five times a year.
- In
the libraries’ collections, 10 million items (28 per cent) are
children’s or youth literature. To ensure that the
collections are
interesting and that the most recent editions are available, about 600,000 new
items are purchased annually to complement
the children’s and youth
literature shelves. This represents 36 per cent of the total number of
acquisitions. As concerns
lending, items belonging to children’s and
youth literature account for 38 per cent of the total lending, representing
about
30 million items. In addition to books, libraries have a large supply of
other items such as magazines, music and other recordings,
videos, CD-ROMs and
DVDs. All Finnish public libraries have access to the Internet and, as a rule,
the use of the Internet in a
library is free of charge.
- Finnish
public libraries maintain a joint
portal.[35] The front page
gives direct access to the children’s pages from where visitors can go to
the pages of many other libraries’
pages targeted at children and young
people, to suggestions for reading, to book catalogues and literature pages, to
pages where
visitors are advised on the use of libraries, to the Ask the
Librarian - service, to children’s link library and pages meant to
serve librarians and teachers.
- Public
libraries arrange regular story-telling hours for small children. Some
libraries also organize puppet theatre and film presentations,
visits by
writers, fairy tale and painting sessions and various kinds of exhibitions. In
the past years, the libraries have especially
invested in book talks. Also in
Finland, reading competes with the other hobbies that children have. To
strengthen children’s
reading skills and interest in reading, book talks
has been adopted as a tool to make reading an interesting and appreciated hobby
also today.
- In
Finland, libraries have always worked in close cooperation with schools. About
half of the public libraries and 80 per cent of
the mobile library stops are
located in the immediate vicinity of schools and different educational
institutions. Libraries help
people become friendly with all kinds of reading,
contribute to improved e-literacy and encourage reading in general. Together
with
schools, libraries teach information retrieval skills and give advice on
how to seek and assess information.
- Access
to information in the minority languages. In their collections and
services, libraries also take into account the special cultural and linguistic
needs of the national linguistic
minorities and the foreign population.
Children of minorities have access to all public information services. However,
as concerns
minority groups, such as the Roma, only little material in their
native language is available. For example, radio or television
programmes are
not broadcasted for children in Romani. The National Board of Education has
developed material for the Roma population
primarily for educational purposes.
A first-reader workbook in Romani, together with supportive material for the
teacher, is being
prepared.[36] A new version
of a cassette and song booklet of Romani songs for children (Romanilapset
laulavat, 1997) will soon be published, entitled Behaven ta dzamben.
- The
situation is slightly better for the Sami. The Sami Radio (YLE) has broadcasted
programmes since 1947, with some 2,000 hours
of radio programmes a year in three
different Sami dialects, North Sami, Inari Sami and Skolt Sami, in their own
channels in the
north of Finland. Some of the programmes are produced in
cooperation with the Norwegian and Swedish Sami Radios. The Sami Radio
launched
a new project in the spring 2002, which involves production of children’s
programmes in the Sami language. The Sami
Radio also produces Internet services
in Sami.
- The
Library Act (904/1998) provides that in the municipalities of the Sami home
area, the needs of both the Sami and Finnish language groups shall
be taken into
consideration on equal grounds. The Lappi provincial library has been assigned
to serve as the special Sami library
in Finland (Ministry of Education 1990,
633/252/88). The special library has to maintain a collection of materials and
take care
of a Sami database in Finland, to participate in international
cooperation in the domain of interest, to manage an information service
on
issues related to the Sami, and to support the operation of municipal libraries
in the Sami home area. The Ministry of Education
grants an annual special
appropriation for the activities, which covers approximately half of the total
expenditure. The rest is
taken care of by the city of Rovaniemi. The municipal
libraries seek to make their services available to all without discrimination.
- Library
acquisitions in Sami have proved to be a problem compared with acquisitions in
the main language, however, because there is
no Sami network of bookshops in
Finland. At least all literature and audio-visual material that has been
produced in Finland is
purchased by the collections.
- Support
to a hotline contributing to child welfare. In spring 2003, the Ministry of
Transport and Communications granted 25,000 euros to the Northern Hotline
project Nettivihje of Save the Children Finland. The Northern Hotline
operates on the organization’s web site, where anyone who finds child
pornography
or such other material on the Internet detrimental to the
development of children can pass on the information on the web site of
the
organization. The project also involves training and campaigns organized to
promote a safe use of the Internet.
- Children
and the information society. The Information Society Institute of the
University of Tampere approaches the position of children in Finnish society
from the
point of view of different disciplines in a research project entitled
Children and the Information Society. The project addresses children as
actors in the information society and produces multidisciplinary information
about children’s
thoughts and activities in the information society. This
large-scale research project is scheduled to take place in the years
2001-2003.
- Coordination
of production of data on children. Monitoring and coordination of the
policy on children require increasingly intensive investments in the generation
of knowledge
and research. At the moment, regular data is produced only on the
number of non-institutional care units, child custody cases, placements
outside
the child’s home, and school health care (Stakes). Statistics on
non-institutional care units, custody cases and placements,
however, measure
only the quantitative development and do not tell anything about the actual
reasons and problems behind the growing
figures.
- Research
on childhood, child welfare and parenting is carried out in Finland by different
organizations and many universities. However,
child organizations have
criticized the fact that the findings of research cannot be made use of to an
adequate extent in child political
planning and decision-making because there is
not a body or party that would coordinate or assess or make political
conclusions on
the basis of the research that has been conducted. The Central
Union for Child Welfare has decided to focus on the coordination
of information
about the child in the future.
H. The right not to be subjected to torture or other form of
cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (art. 37 (a))
- Finland
does not accept torture in any form. Prohibition of torture is absolute and no
exceptions to this prohibition are possible
in any circumstances. In accordance
with the Constitution of Finland, no one may be sentenced to death, tortured or
otherwise treated in a manner violating human dignity. Capital punishment
in
times of peace was removed from the Finnish penal system in 1949 (Act 728/1949)
and totally in 1972 (Act 343/1972). The prohibition
of treatment violating
human dignity applies to both physical and mental
treatment.
- According
to the Constitution of Finland, a foreigner may not be deported, extradited or
returned to another country if in consequence thereto he/she would risk
capital
punishment, torture or other treatment violating human dignity. The Aliens Act
takes into account the prohibition of torture
and other cruel and inhuman
treatment in the provisions relating to refusal of entry into Finland and
deportation from the country
(legislative amendment 537/1999). A foreigner
who seeks entry into Finland cannot be turned back at the border, and a
foreigner
residing in Finland cannot be deported to an area where he or she may
become subjected to inhuman treatment or persecution or to
an area from where he
or she might be sent to such an area.
- The
Child Custody and Right of Access Act (361/1983) provides that a child shall not
be subdued, corporally punished or otherwise
humiliated. When Finland
prohibited the corporal punishment of children by an Act in the early 1980s, it
was one of the first countries
to do so.
- The
Government of Finland considers it important that the Optional Protocol to the
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment be enforced as soon as possible.
- Finland
has helped child victims of torture, for example, through international
development cooperation and cooperation with neighbouring
countries by improving
the position of street children, who are particularly vulnerable to poor
treatment.
V. FAMILY ENVIRONMENT AND EXTRA-FAMILIAL CARE
A. Parental guidance (art. 5)
- The
Child Custody and Right of Access Act (361/1983) provides that the parents and
other legal guardians of a child shall have both
the right and the duty to take
care of the child. The parent or legal guardian shall take care of, educate and
supervise the child.
Even if the principal decision-making authority in issues
concerning the child has been entrusted to the parent or legal guardian,
he or
she shall discuss with the child before making a decision, if possible, taking
into account the age and level of development
of the child and the nature of the
matter. The parent or legal guardian, therefore, has to take the child’s
views and wishes
into consideration.
- Local
authorities must make sure that the development of the municipal social welfare
and health-care services, provision of education
and other services for
children, young people and families with children support parents and legal
guardians in the performance of
their childrearing responsibilities.
B. Parental responsibilities (art. 18, paras. 1 and
2)
- In
accordance with the Constitution of Finland, the public authorities must support
families and others responsible for providing for children so that they have the
capacity to ensure the well-being and individual development of the child.
- Parents
have the principal responsibility for the upbringing and balanced development of
the child. During the past few years, there
has been much discussion in Finland
about parents’ “inability to bring up children”, a phenomenon
noticed by childcare
professionals in their work. Research has not provided
evidence that would support this view. However, parents in Finland today
discharge their parental responsibilities very much on their own and have to try
and find a balance between the conflicting pressures
arising from family and
work.
- There
is an obvious demand in Finnish society today for support services for parenting
and development of family skills. It is important
to upgrade the provision of
such basic services as maternity and child clinics to correspond to present day
needs and to support
couples and partners, parenting and paternity. For more
information about health-care clinics, see chapter VI, section B.
- Improvement
of the position of families with children continues to be one of the major
challenges facing Finnish society. Due to
the growing demands of working life,
parents often find reconciliation of work and family life a struggle that hangs
in the balance.
In Finland, the majority of working mothers and fathers work
full time, and the proportion of working women has traditionally been
very high.
Work is full of challenges and it takes away time and attention from the family,
which is why the well-being of families
and especially children may suffer.
Many Finnish children and young people miss the presence of an adult in their
daily life. Insecurity
has been said to be the reason for the growing incidence
of mental health problems among Finnish children and young people.
- Parents’
unemployment, occupational employment and the requirements of intensive and
hectic work also reflect in family life.
The opportunity of reconciling work
and family life is a central factor in efforts to support parenting. Problems
related to the
reconciliation of work and family life cannot be solved by means
of legislative measures only. Working communities must take on
commitments and
make value-based changes and decisions, and parents are required to manifest
greater capabilities and preparedness
to bring about equality both in family
life and on the labour market. Men’s opportunities for parenting must be
strengthened
because, from the point of view of the child, it is a key issue in
efforts to reconcile work and family life.
C. Separation of a child from the parents (art. 9)
- Recommendation.
The Committee has expressed its deep concern at the fact that the net income of
families with children has considerably decreased
as a result of the high
unemployment rate and budgetary measures that have led to the lowering of
benefits for children. The Committee
has recommended that Finland allocate more
funds to families with children and develop effective measures to provide those
families
with appropriate support in order to avoid, among other things,
placement of children in foster care or institutions (recommendation No.
34).
- The
State Budget for 2003 includes an allocation of 15 million euros to
municipalities and federations of municipalities to be used
as a discretionary
government transfer covering expenses arising from services targeted at children
and young people who run the
risk of becoming socially excluded. The transfer
is meant to strengthen cooperation between networks supporting children’s
development and families’ well-being and to improve multiprofessional
cooperation in municipalities. The transfer is based
on the Government report
to Parliament submitted in April 2002 concerning the well-being of children and
young people. More detailed
grounds for the transfer are given by a Government
decree, submitted on 30 January 2003, effective as of 17 February 2003.
- The
Government transfer is not meant to finance existing activities but to upgrade
and develop new activities. It is specifically
designed to support cooperation
between family welfare networks and various professionals engaged in work for
the benefit of children
and young people. The focal areas include maternity and
child welfare clinics, and child and family guidance work, arrangements
related
to the care and education of children who need special support in day care,
promotion of early intervention, and other measures
to combat social
exclusion.
- Recommendation.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child has noted with concern that the
number of children placed outside the home has grown in
the past years in
Finland. The Committee has recommended that Finland take all necessary measures
to ensure that placement of children
outside their family only occurs when it is
evidently in the best interests of the child and for the shortest period
possible (recommendation No. 36).
- The
number of children placed outside their families grew in Finland throughout
the 1990s. While the number of children placed outside
their families was
8,724 in 1991, the figure had soared as high as 12,224 in 1999. The same trend
has continued, and in 2001 the
number was 13,453. Of the children placed
outside their families, 7,396 were taken into custody, and of them 1,332 against
the child’s
own will. The rest had been placed as a noninstitutional
support measure. In 2001, as many as 3,955 new placements were made, of
which 1,293 were related to custody.
- The
economic depression of the 1990s in Finland seems to affect the child welfare
service with delay. The longer the parents have
been unemployed, the harder the
financial situation of the family is and the more mental health and intoxicant
problems exist. The
great number of children in custody who have been placed in
extra-familial care is also influenced by the fact that extra-familial
care
tends to last longer because of the seriousness of the problems that children
and families have.
- Child
welfare should focus on preventive measures and non-institutional care. One of
the objectives set in the National Target and
Action Plan for Social Welfare and
Health Care for the years 2000-2003 adopted by the Government is the promotion
of health and welfare
of children and young people and prevention of social
exclusion. The programme calls attention to preventive measures in particular.
The Target and Action Plan also emphasizes such issues as the need for resources
for the psychiatric treatment of minor children.
- Measures
to take a child into custody must not be taken before it has been confirmed that
custody is the alternative that best secures
the child’s development. It
is important to consider if there were any non-institutional support services
available that might
be successful or if the family and the social or other
support network of the family had any resources that had not been exhausted.
Preparation of custody must be linked to an adequate level of expertise, and the
preparative work should always take place in cooperation
with the child, his or
her family and the parties working with them, such as health care, school,
day-care professionals and the
police. The wishes of the child and the parents
or legal guardians must be clarified and they must also otherwise be invited to
take part in the treatment of the matter.
- As
a non-institutional support measure, a care arrangement in a family can be made
or in a residential institution in cooperation
with the parents, legal guardians
or person who takes responsibility for the care and upbringing of the child. A
child who has reached
12 years of age can be placed outside the family as a
non-institutional measure provided that he or she requests it or consents to
the
arrangement. A child who is under 12 years of age can be placed in this manner
to foster care or residential care for a maximum
of three months in case the
care of the child cannot be otherwise organized on account of the illness of the
parent or legal guardian
or for some other reason. The placement can be
extended to a maximum of three months if a special reason is provided. When a
child
is placed outside the family as a non-institutional support measure, the
placement is always based on the consent of the parties
involved, and the
placement must be discontinued without delay if, for example, the parents or
legal guardians of the child or the
child itself requests it. In order to
make such a decision, the child has to be 12 years of age or
older.
- Whenever
a child is placed outside the family, the objective should be his or her return
to live with his or her family, if possible,
and as soon as possible. The
social welfare authorities should always try to contribute to favourable
preconditions for the child’s
return. It is also important that the child
can use the right, granted to him or her by virtue of the Child Welfare Act, to
keep
in touch with his or her parents and other close persons while in
extra-familial care. In accordance with the provisions concerning
child
welfare, restrictions on contacts can apply only for a limited period of time,
and the restriction must be grounded on statutory
and weighty reasons. While
the child is in extra-familial care, support should be given also to the parents
by, for example, organizing
support services and, if required, rehabilitation.
Parents must also be encouraged to keep in touch with their child and the
contacts
must be supported.
- In
accordance with the Child Welfare Act, the local Social Welfare Board shall
discontinue the placement in custody as soon as it
appears that there are no
more grounds for custody and extra-familial care, unless ending the placement
would clearly be in conflict
with the best interests of the child. When the
best interests of the child are considered, attention should be paid to the
length
of the extra-familial care, the nature of the relationship between the
child and the person responsible for the extra-familial care,
and the contacts
between the child and his or her parents. Custody always ends with the child
reaching 18 years of age or getting
married. When decision is made concerning
termination of a custody order, the child shall be interviewed to find out about
his or
her own wishes. It is also important to find out if the child has
retained adequately good relations with his or her biological
family to ensure
that the return would be a positive change. The child should also be offered
the opportunity of keeping in contact
with the extra-familial care
provider.
- As
has been noted above, the difficulties that families wrestle with have become
more serious and complicated over the past few years,
and parents are not always
able to bring about adequate changes to improve their situation within a short
period of time. There
is sometimes no other option but to accept the fact that
the parents do not get rid of their difficulties and the child must stay
in
extra-familial care until he or she reaches
majority.
- Placement
outside the home should ensure the child stable and secure conditions and
permanent relationships. Situations where a child
has to move several times to
extra-familial care and back to the family, depending on how well the parents
are capable of looking
after him or her, should be avoided. Research has found
this kind of “ball game, back and forth” especially harmful
for the
child.
- Stakes
has published a booklet entitled Huostaanotto. Lastensuojelun
asiantuntijaryhmän suositus huostaanottoprosessin laatua ohjaaviksi
yleisiksi periaatteiksi (Taking a child into custody. Recommendation by a
group of experts for the general principles governing the quality of the
process.)
This is a detailed review of the process of taking a child into
custody and includes instruction on such issues as what has to be
taken into
account in the different phases of the process.
- The
child’s position in the social welfare has been improved, as has been
described earlier in this report, through the Act
on the Status and Rights
of Social Welfare Clients (812/2000).
- Decisions
by the Parliamentary Ombudsman. The Parliamentary Ombudsman, RiittaLeena
Paunio, has called attention to the right of a child separated from his
or her parents to maintain a personal relationship and direct contacts
with both
parents. In her decision[37]
on the materialization of some of the fundamental rights of children placed in
community homes, the Parliamentary Ombudsman said
that very treatment-intensive
placements (such as crisis stabilization or 24-hour on-site interventions) can,
depending on their
length and intensity, mean interference in the child’s
personal liberty referred to in the Constitution, or in the family life between
the child and his or her parents. The Parliamentary Ombudsman was of the
opinion that whenever these
rights of the child are interfered with by means of
treatment, a decision should be made on the matter, which is subject to appeal.
The decision should make it explicit that the care is temporary and
justified.
- Equalization
of the high expenses of child welfare. Based on an amendment of the Child
Welfare Act, which entered into force on 1 March 1999, each municipality is to
introduce an
equalization system that was set up to provide for the high costs
arising from child welfare services. The objective of the system
is to level
off the economic burden caused by the provision of child welfare services on
local authorities, and to channel resources
so that child welfare clients
receive appropriate and well-timed services. The equalization system makes
municipalities entitled
to a compensation of 70 per cent of the expenses that
are caused by child welfare measures recorded in the child’s care plan
and
exceed 25,000 euros a year per family (limit of a municipality’s
co-payment) as from the date of the first care plan.
A federation of
municipalities responsible for an equalization system may decide that the
municipal co-payment is lower than that
specified above or that the municipality
be reimbursed more than 70 per cent of the expenses exceeding the amount of the
co-payment.
The Government participates in the financing of the funding by
contributing half of the estimated total amount of the equalization.
Municipalities take on responsibility for the rest of the compensation. The
development of the equalization system has been monitored
by means of an annual
special survey.
- The
Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is preparing a legislative amendment to
the child welfare legislation. The reform is explained
in chapter I, section A,
above.
D. Family reunification (art. 10)
- Recommendation.
As concerns unaccompanied children seeking asylum, the Committee was concerned
about the delays in the processing of family reunification
applications and
encouraged Finland to shorten the application procedures (recommendation No.
38).
- Family
reunification in the valid Aliens Act. In accordance with the Aliens Act, a
child who has been granted a residence permit based on refugee status or the
need for protection
shall be entitled to family reunification without guaranteed
means of support, provided that the other conditions of the provision
are met.
If the child does not get asylum or a residence permit based on the need for
protection, the situation is different. In
that case the child is often granted
a residence permit based on the principle of equity. Situations like this do
not prevent the
possibility that the child’s family be reunified in the
country of origin. It is important that the situation in the child’s
country of origin and the parents’ circumstances are investigated
as thoroughly as possible. If the return of the child to
his or her
parents turns out to be impossible, the family can be reunified in Finland as
soon as the precondition of guaranteed means
of support is met or, at the
latest, when the family is entitled to a permanent residence permit.
- Application
for a residence permit based on a family tie is made by a person without a
permit. The Aliens Act has expanded the right
to lodge an application, and now
a person who has legal residence in Finland (a sponsor, that is, a third-country
national residing
lawfully in a Member State and applying or whose family
members apply for family reunification to be joined with him/her) has the
right
to lodge an application for a residence permit. Before a decision is made, both
the applicant and the sponsor are heard about
their wish to continue life as a
family in Finland and about other aspects that may call for clarification. If
the Directorate of
Immigration considers that the account of the family ties is
not satisfactory, it can direct the party to a DNA test. It is important
from
the child’s point of view that the reunification process leads to his or
her return to the parents’ care.
- In
2002, only a few of the unaccompanied minor asylum-seekers who arrived in
Finland have, to date, lodged an application to get a
residence permit for their
parents. More than 30 applications lodged prior to the year 2002 were
still pending at the end of 2002.
The majority of them are being dealt with in
the America-Africa Division of the Directorate of Immigration. An application
is pending
until the interested parties have been heard and the matter is clear
enough. The responsibility for the arrangement of hearings
and investigations
is shared between three authorities: the local police, the Directorate of
Immigration, and Finnish missions abroad.
In 2001, processing of applications
for a residence permit based on a family tie took an average of six to eight
months in all.
- Family
reunification in the Government Bill for a new Aliens Act. The Government
Bill[38] for a new Aliens Act
was submitted to Parliament in January 2003. However, Parliament did
not have time to adopt the Bill, which
is why it expired with the
parliamentary elections of
- March 2003.
In the preliminary debate in Parliament, one topic of discussion was family
reunification of unaccompanied minor asylum-seekers.
A Government Bill was
submitted to Parliament a second time on 13 June
2003.[39]
- In
the Government Bill, no amendment is proposed to the substantive content of the
provisions concerning a child receiving international
protection and his or her
family members. In accordance with the Bill, the parents of a child in need of
international protection
can be taken to Finland even if the requirement of
guaranteed means of support is not met. It has also been proposed that the
provision
according to which family ties is to be understood to represent an
undivided entity, that is, family ties is considered to lead the
family to a
third country, should be preserved. Provided that the child did not need
international protection, he or she could,
instead, be granted a residence
permit for a personal human reason. As concerns a family member, the
precondition of guaranteed
means of support would remain valid, but derogation
would be possible. This would open up opportunities for the parents of a minor
to receive a right of entry into Finland more easily than takes place today.
The Government Bill seeks to find a balanced solution
to the provision by
safeguarding, as far as possible, the status of an individual child without
ignoring the pull that such a measure
as an automatic reunification in Finland
could have.
- Decisions
by the Parliamentary Ombudsman. Decisions by the Parliamentary Ombudsman
and the Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman which concern the materialization of the
rights
of children who have arrived in Finland as unaccompanied minor
asylum-seekers and who have obtained a residence permit based on an
application
for asylum, are analysed in chapter VIII, section A, on refugee children.
- Judgements
by the European Court of Human Rights. In some cases concerning the taking
of a child into custody and placement in extra-familial care, complaints have
been lodged with
the European Court of Human Rights concerning family
reunification and parents’ rights to visit their children while the
children
are in extra-familial care. The Court has not found offences in
respect of actual cases of custody. However, in the case K. and T. v.
Finland,[40] the Grand
Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights stated that a child’s
admission into custody and, in the Court’s
opinion, inadequate action on
the part of the authorities concerning possible reunification of the
child’s family, violated
article 8 of the European Convention
on Human Rights (Treaty Series 439/1990). A similar violation was found in
the case
K.A. v. Finland.[41]
E. Illicit transfer and non-return (art. 11)
- Finland
is a contracting party to international conventions concluded on child
abductions: the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects
of
International Child Abduction (Treaty Series 57/1994) and the European
Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Decisions
concerning Custody of
Children and on Restoration of Custody of Children (Luxembourg Convention)
(Treaty Series 56/1994).
- In
Finland, the Ministry of Justice is the central authority in charge of issues
related to the aforementioned Conventions. As concerns
cases where a child has
been abducted to a State that is not a contracting party to one of the
aforementioned Conventions, the competent
authority is the Finnish Ministry for
Foreign Affairs.
- The
new Consular Services Act (498/1999), which took effect in December 1999,
specifically provides for consular services aiming at
the return of the child.
The Finnish diplomatic missions abroad can, based on the Consular Services Act,
contribute to:
- − The
achievement of an amicable agreement by, for example, making and keeping in
contact with the parent that has abducted
the child and with the child;
- − Investigations
concerning the whereabouts and conditions of the child;
- − Finding
a legal adviser and legal assistance, based on the local legislation, for
example by providing a list of local lawyers;
- − Access
to general information on the law of the State concerned, as appropriate;
- − Transmission
of relevant information and documents to the authorities and the legal adviser
who is in charge of the matter;
- − The
practical arrangements related to the repatriation of the child.
- Assistance
can be given also in case of abduction between two foreign countries, provided
that the provisions of the Consular Services
Act are observed.
- In
2002, there were 16 pending child abduction cases (to States that are not
contracting parties to international child abduction
conventions), involving a
total of 21 children. The Russian Federation was the State with the highest
number of abducted children.
One reason for this is the increase of
Russian-Finnish marriages in the past decades. The number of child abductions
is expected
to continue to grow.
- Finland
endeavours to promote dialogue with non-parties to the Hague Convention with a
view to preventing and handling child abductions
and makes every effort to try
and cooperate with the other EU member States on this issue.
- The
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Social
Affairs and Health, and parents of abducted children
have founded an
association, the Association for Abducted Children (Kaapatut Lapset ry), and
jointly prepared a brochure on international
child abductions. The brochure was
published in December 1999 and is meant to be both a set of firsthand
instructions to parents
and a guide for the authorities dealing with
international child abductions. The topics of the brochure include provisions
related
to child abductions, the content of the Hague Convention and measures
taken by the authorities in charge of cases concerning child
abductions. The
brochure can be requested from the Ministry of Justice. A link to the
brochure can also be found on the web site
of the Ministry of
Justice,[42] and further
information on international child abductions can be accessed on the web site of
the Ministry for Foreign
Affairs.[43]
F. Ensuring maintenance payments for the child (art. 27,
para. 4)
- The
new Security of Child Maintenance Act (671/1998) took effect at the beginning
of 1999. The Act secures the maintenance of children
living in Finland who
are under 18 years of age.
- Recovery
qualifications. Whenever maintenance is based on a maintenance order issued
by decision of a court of law or based on confirmation by a Social
Welfare
Board, it is subject to recovery. Maintenance can also be deducted from
earnings and other similar income for five years.
As concerns recovery of
debts, maintenance payments take priority over other items. This special
provision has been enacted to
ensure a child the right to sufficient
maintenance.
- Expiry.
The provision concerning the expiry of maintenance was amended in 1999
(Act on Child Maintenance, section 16c; 673/1998). Maintenance
can be
claimed for five years and the term cannot be terminated earlier. Maintenance
debts expire sooner than other debts. In case
a maintenance debt has expired,
it cannot be claimed any more.
- The
One Parent Federation in Finland has considered that the amended provision
concerning the expiry of child maintenance is unreasonable
for single parent
families and exacerbates their financial embarrassment. When outstanding
maintenance payments expire after five
years, children lose their opportunities
to retroactively claim what is due to them.
- Maintenance.
If a person who is liable to provide maintenance for a child neglects payment
or, for example, the paternity of the child has not
been established, the child,
based on the Security of Child Maintenance Act (671/1998), is entitled to
receive maintenance from the
municipality. Either the parent, legal guardian or
guardian (a person representing the child and managing his or her affairs) of
the child can claim the maintenance. Full maintenance for one child is 112.52
euros per calendar month from one person liable to
provide maintenance.
Maintenance can also be paid in smaller amounts. Municipalities recover the
maintenance payments that they
have paid from the person liable to provide
maintenance.
- Based
on statistical data from Stakes, as many as 106,858 children received
maintenance at the end of
2002.[44] The number of
children receiving maintenance was slightly lower than at the time of the second
periodic report. Last year (2002),
maintenance grants amounted to a total of
144.1 million euros.
- Changes
in the cost of living. The amount of maintenance is raised or lowered based
on changes up or down in the general cost of living. A separate law has been
enacted to provide for the tying of maintenance to the cost of living
(660/1966).
G. Children deprived of the safety of a family (art.
20)
- Care
of a child who has been taken into custody. A child has the right to a safe
and inspiring living environment and a balanced and many-sided development, and
to a priority status
as regards special protection. The objective of child
welfare is to secure that children have these rights. This takes place by
means
of influencing the general conditions where children are
- raised,
supporting parents and legal guardians in their duties and carrying out
family-specific and individually targeted child welfare
work. Family-specific
and individually targeted child welfare work includes non-institutional support
measures, custody, extra-familial
care and after-care. The objective is to
secure the child, in all conditions, such care as is provided for in the Child
Custody
and Right of Access Act.
- The
principal form of support is non-institutional measures. In 2001, a total
of 49,610 children and young people were in non-institutional
care. A
child is taken into custody or extra-familial care only if the child’s
living environment constitutes a serious threat
to his or her development or
health, and the situation has not improved by means of non-institutional
care.
- When
a child has been taken into the care of a municipal Social Welfare Board, the
Board has the right to decide on the care, upbringing,
supervision and other
care and the child’s place of residence. However, the Social Welfare
Board must try to work in cooperation
with the child’s parents and other
legal guardians. The Board and the head of the institution which has taken the
child into
custody decide about the nature of the contacts between the child and
his or her parents and other close persons.
- A
child that has been taken into the custody of the Social Welfare Board can be
placed in extra-familial care. This means care and
upbringing of the child
outside his or her home. Extrafamilial care can be organized either in a family
(foster care) or in an institution
(residential care) or in some other place, as
appropriate. Placement of a child who is under 12 years of age in a
community home
or other similar private child welfare institution must be
carried out in cooperation with the child’s parents or other legal
guardians.
- Extra-familial
care must provide the child with such permanent and secure personal
relationships as are important from the point of
view of his or her development.
The child has the right to meet his or her parents and other close persons and
to keep in contact
with them. The Social Welfare Board must support and
contribute to the contacts between the child and his or her parents and the
child and other persons that are close to him or her. Provided that it is in
the best interests of the child, communication can
also be limited on the basis
of grounds that are specified in the Child Welfare Act.
- After
the end of extra-familial care, the Social Welfare Board is always under an
obligation to arrange after-care for the child or
young person. After-care
supports the child or young person who has been in extra-familial care and his
or her parents and legal
guardians as well as the person who has been taking
care of and brought up the child. Also foreign children who are for example
waiting for a residence permit in Finland are entitled to child welfare by
virtue of Finnish legislation.
H. Adoption (art. 21)
- The
Finnish legislation is based on the principle of so-called strong adoption,
which means that the rights and duties of the biological
parents towards the
child are terminated and transferred to the adoptive parents. The child’s
legal bonds to the biological
parents are also terminated by adoption, and he or
she becomes a member of the adoptive family with the same rights as the
biological
children of the family.
- The
provisions related to adoption are included in the Adoption Act (153/1985) and
the supplementary decree (508/1997). Adoption
can be applied for by married
partners jointly or by a single person, provided that the applicants/applicant
are/is at least 25 years
of age. Cohabiting partners cannot adopt a child
together. Registered same-sex partners cannot adopt a child together. Neither
is interfamily adoption possible in a family of same-sex partners. There is not
any actual ceiling for the age of the applicant,
but the adoptive parent should
not be more than 45 years older than the adoptive child. Prospective
adoptive parents must visit
the municipal Social Welfare Board or a licensed
Adoption Agency for adoption counselling.
- In
accordance with Finnish legislation, adoption cannot be confirmed if transfer of
money is involved. International adoption agencies
can collect a fee for their
services.
- Intercountry
adoptions. Intercountry adoptions have become increasingly popular in
Finland. As many as 200 children are adopted from abroad annually.
Given the
fact that all children born in Finland in need of adoptive parents can be
adopted by Finnish families, Finland is only
on the receiving side as concerns
intercountry adoptions.
- Finland
ratified the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation
in Respect of Intercountry Adoption in 1997 (Treaty
Series 29/1997).
Finland’s national legislation complies with the provisions of this
Convention. The Finnish Adoption Board,
founded on the basis of the Hague
Convention and operating under the authority of the Ministry of Social Affairs
and Health, is the
national central adoption authority. The tasks of the Board
are specified in the Decree on the Finnish Board of Intercountry Adoption
Affairs (509/1997).
- The
Adoption Act also includes provisions on intercountry adoptions. An
intercountry adoption is conditional upon adoption counselling
and an adoption
permit from the aforementioned Adoption Board. The applicant pays the expenses
arising from an intercountry adoption
(service fee, travel expenses, translation
of documents, etc.). Since 1 December 2002, the Finnish Social Insurance
Institution
KELA has given financial support to prospective intercountry
adoptive parents.
- Intercountry
adoption service providers in Finland are:
− Helsinki Social Welfare Office, Family Affairs Office (contacts with
Colombia, Thailand, Estonia,
Cambodia);[45]
− Save the Children Finland (contacts with the Russian Federation, China,
Thailand, Poland and the
Philippines);[46]
− Interpedia ry (contacts with South Africa, Ethiopia, India, China and
Thailand).[47]
- Since
1998, families that have adopted a child from abroad, and children, young people
and young adults who have been adopted from
abroad have been able to contact an
adoption counsellor or use a telephone counselling
service.[48] The counsellor
gives advice to help the client find a solution to possible problems related to
adoption. Callers to the hotline
can remain anonymous if they wish, and the
conversation is confidential.
I. Periodic review of extra-familial care orders (art.
25)
- According
to the Child Welfare Act and Decree, child welfare targeted at a family or an
individual always requires a care plan, made
for each specific case in
cooperation with the parties involved. In the plan, the parties identify the
things and issues that the
measures are designed to influence, the tools to be
used, and the time that will be used to bring about the desired effects. The
care plan must state how often the plan becomes subject to revision.
- As
concerns a child who has been taken into custody or placed on the basis of a
noninstitutional support measure, the care plan must
also record the purpose and
objectives of the placement, any special support arrangements and assistance for
the child and, for example,
detailed information about the organization of
cooperation and contacts between the child’s parents and other close
persons.
- A
child must be withdrawn from custody as soon as there is not any need for
custody and extra-familial care.
J. Violence and neglect (art. 19) and physical and mental
recovery
and social reintegration (art. 39)
- In
accordance with the Constitution of Finland, the public authorities must support
families and others responsible for providing for children so that they have the
ability to ensure the well-being and personal development of children.
Promotion of well-being covers protection against violence,
subordination and
abuse.
- When
Finland enforced the Child Custody and Right of Access Act in 1984, it was the
second country in the world to prohibit all forms
of corporal punishment in the
family. Even though legislation and, in principle, also public opinion are
against domestic violence,
it is still fairly common in Finland. Domestic
violence occurs in all social groups and in all age groups, and both mothers and
fathers have been found guilty of violence. Since 1995, domestic violence has
been an offence subject to public prosecution, but
outsiders very seldom step
in. Statistical data on domestic violence are still based on estimates because
the victims often remain
silent about what has happened.
- Recommendation.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child has expressed its concern about the
number of cases of violence against children in their
homes, including sexual
abuse. The Committee has also regretted the lack of information about this
phenomenon. The Committee has
recommended that Finland consider taking
additional measures to prevent and, if the case be, to identify at an early
stage instances
of violence against children within families so as to be able to
intervene at an early stage and to develop child-friendly preventive
programmes
and services for treatment and rehabilitation with personnel specially trained
to work with children (recommendation No. 40).
- Finland
carried out a five-year campaign to prevent violence in 1997-2002. One of its
key elements was prevention of domestic violence
against children, and efforts
were made to draw attention to the fact that it is also harmful for a child to
be an eyewitness of
an act of violence.
- Domestic
violence that has come to the attention of the police. In cases of domestic
violence that has come to the attention of the police, the complainant has
usually been a woman who has become
a victim of abuse by her partner. In many
cases, domestic violence takes place in a family with children, and these
children have
to live their childhood and youth in violent conditions. Some of
these children become themselves victims of violence by their own
parents or
either parent’s partner. In 2002, the police was alerted about 60,000
times to deal with cases of domestic violence.
In as many as 53,000 cases, a
police squad had to be sent to a scene of domestic violence. Of these,
approximately 15,000 cases
met the aforementioned criteria of domestic
violence.
- Only
some of the cases to which police officers have been alerted are identified and
filed in statistics as crimes. In 2002, for
example, the police recorded 27,936
offences as assaults. These figures include all cases of assault that were
reported to the police.
Statistics of crime do not specify how many of the
reported cases involve domestic violence.
- Information
on the number of and expenses arising from domestic violence, based on
research. In 1998, a survey was made on the experiences of some 5,000
Finnish women becoming a target of violence by a man; the survey was
entitled
Usko, toivo, hakkaus (“Love, hope and
battering”).[49]
According to the results of the survey, nearly every third Finnish woman has
become a victim of physical violence at some phase
after her fifteenth birthday.
One out of five women reported experiences of violence or a threat of it in the
relationship that they
were in at the time of the survey.
- During
the past year, as many as 112,000 women had come across domestic violence, which
had been physical in 90,000 of the cases.
Only 10 per cent of the victims had
reported the violence to the police and 12 per cent had sought assistance on
domestic violence.
- Even
though domestic violence and violence in a close relationship occurs in all
social groups, violence that takes place in the higher
social groups rarely
comes to the attention of the police, while police officers may be easily
alerted to such families with problems
as belong to the lower social categories.
In the biggest cities and populated areas, there are families to which police
offices are
alerted even tens of times a year because of domestic violence.
- Another
survey was published in October 2000, entitled Väkivallan hinta -
Naisiin kohdistuvan väkivallan kustannukset Suomessa (“The price
of violence - expenses arising from violence against women in
Finland”).[50] It
shows that in 1998, the direct expenses caused by violence against women to
society were 49.7 million euros (296 million Finnish
marks). The indirect
expenses may have been even twice as high. An account of the expenses was made
in respect of health care,
social welfare services and the legal system. The
expenses were the highest in the area of the administration of justice, where
they rose to 26.6 million euros (158 million marks). The distribution of
the expenses was as follows: police 6.2 million euros
(37 million marks),
sentencing the perpetrator in court 6.5 million euros (39 million marks) and
imprisonment of the perpetrator
13.8 million euros (82 million
marks).
- As
concerns expenses in the field of social services, the provision of sheltered
homes, crisis services, social services and various
kinds of therapies to women
who had become victims of violence cost 14.8 million euros (88 million marks).
Visits to a doctor and
a hospital because of physical injuries caused by
violence led to an expense of 3.4 million euros (20 million marks) in the health
sector. Approximately the same amount of money had to be used on
medicines.
- Violence
against women also causes indirect expenses in the form of lost life,
deteriorated health and loss of productive output.
Accurate calculations cannot
be made, but it has been estimated that 60.5 to 111 million euros (360 to 660
million Finnish marks)
are lost indirectly every year.
- The
perpetrator of violence against women is often a close person or spouse. A
major part of the expenses arises from violence in
a relationship. The survey
does not specify all the expenses caused by domestic violence, because the focus
was only on women who
had become victims of violence. The expenses arising from
violence experienced by children and other possible victims were not
studied.
- Measures
by the police to prevent violence. The Supreme Police Command has drawn
special attention to the prevention of domestic violence and violence against
women by appointing
a steering group to coordinate and develop the work and to
prepare a plan of action. The plan of action has been completed.
- In
the basic education and training of future police officers, domestic violence is
dealt with extensively. Domestic violence is
discussed in basic police training
in, for example, the module dealing with household emergencies, but also in law
studies, psychology
and criminology.
- Most
cases of domestic violence involve male violence against women. Police officers
must be trained to recognize all the various
forms of violence within families:
the wife may also use violence against the husband, children against their
parents, and vice
versa.
- In
police training, domestic violence is defined as all forms of physical, sexual
or psychological violence or threat of violence
within a family, exercised by
one member of the family towards another. Violent acts are committed against
the will of the victim
and cause suffering to him or her.
- In
the Basic Degree of Police Studies, domestic violence is studied both as an
element of the aforementioned subjects and in connection
with certain larger
thematic entities. In the latter, domestic violence is dealt with as a
phenomenon that can be prevented by means
of the tools that are available.
Assistance of the victim and official and voluntary work lay the preconditions
for the authorities
to investigate also offences that may involve much hidden
crime. Of these, mental violence and sexual offences can be highlighted
as
offences targeted also against children. In the context of the module on
violent criminality, domestic violence is a central
theme. The themes of a
course entitled Lapsi esitutkinnassa (“a child’s role in
pre-trial investigations”), designed for senior police officers, include
the position of the
child in a violent family, after-care, cooperation between
the authorities, drugs and youth, the Convention on the Rights of the
Child and
incest.
- Police
officers’ in-service training. In-service training related to
domestic violence must be very practical and based on hands-on experience. The
objective is to
motivate police officers to adopt such an attitude towards cases
of violence as helps them discharge their duties as well as possible,
and
stimulate their interest by illustrating the issue through grass-roots examples.
Field squads are trained to deal with issues
where they have to be capable of
looking beyond the surface and, for example, recognize when a person assumes the
role of the victim
and see the real situation of the children that are involved.
Children and the elderly always require special attention.
- Restraining
order. A working group at the Ministry of Justice has proposed extension of
the Act on the Restraining Order (898/1998) to also include
cases where the
parties involved live together. A person on whom a domestic restraining order
is imposed should move away from the
common home for a fixed period of time, and
he or she would not be entitled to contact the person who is protected. The
objective
is to protect the person who is likely to become a victim of violence
before anything takes place. A domestic restraining order
could protect not
only the partner who lives at the same address but also the children living in
the same household. The Ministry
intends to submit a Government Bill to
Parliament in autumn 2003, based on the proposals and the statements received on
it.
- The
authorities’ role in case a child has become a victim of domestic
violence. In the context of the inspections carried out in 2003 by the
Parliamentary Ombudsman, RiittaLeena Paunio, special attention will
be paid
to the prevention of domestic violence and help directed at child victims of
domestic violence. The Parliamentary Ombudsman
will focus on the work of the
social welfare and health authorities, education authorities, the police and the
prosecutors, and also
on the provisions and instructions that oblige them to
cooperation.
- Children
with disabilities and violence. Children with disabilities find it
especially difficult to defend themselves against assault or violence. A child
with disabilities
can be made to feel guilty because of his or her disabilities
or he or she can be subjected to supremacy on grounds based on the
disabilities.
The Disability Forum has requested that an account be made on children with
disabilities as victims of cases of domestic
violence or sexual abuse.
VI. BASIC HEALTH CARE AND SOCIAL WELFARE
A. Children with disabilities (art. 23)
- The
development of services targeted at supporting children with disabilities and
their families is one of the items recorded in the
Government programme of
Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen of 24 June 2003.
- Recommendation.
The Committee has recognized Finland’s efforts to assure the rights of
children with disabilities, but recommends that Finland
continue its efforts to
ensure equal support and assistance to families with chronically ill children
and to provide them with the
help of specialized staff (recommendation No.
42).
- Social
exclusion. The Cooperative Group of Associations of Parents of Children
with a Chronic Illness or Disabilities (YTRY), operating under the
administration of the Central Union for Child Welfare, says that families with
children with multiple disabilities are the most vulnerable
to becoming socially
marginalized. Other in-between groups include children who have not been
diagnosed with an illness, because
it may take even years to arrive at a
definite diagnosis of a child’s disability or illness. The present system
of allowances
is based primarily on medical diagnoses.
- More
attention should be devoted to the mental well-being of families with children
with a chronic illness or disabilities than takes
place today. Families get
exhausted because of such reasons as lack of mental and financial support and
inadequate home help or
occasional assistance at home. Non-governmental
organizations are unable to respond to all the occasional care needs of
families.
The situation is hard to control, partly because the relevant
legislation is very complicated. About 17 different laws have been
enacted that
provide for the allowances and services for children and young people with a
chronic illness or disabilities. There
are about 40 different allowances and
services. Different care, rehabilitation and service plans are made for
children with disabilities,
and the families themselves do not even always know
about what is available. A complex application procedure is often
complemented
by a multi-tier complaint procedure, which the parents have to
rely on to get the support and services that they are entitled to.
The Central
Union for Child Welfare has proposed that the dilemma could be solved by means
of service coordination.
- A
trial with case management and service coordination for children and young
people with long-term illnesses or disabilities and their
families
2001-2003. The project offers a new tool to help children and young people
with long-term illnesses or disabilities and their families to
cope with their
daily life. A case manager finds out about the needs of the family concerned in
more detail than normally takes
place in social welfare work and helps
coordinate the various services that are required in the family. Case
management is now being
tested in various places in the country.
Municipalities, primarily the local social service and health-care centre, and
the office
of the Finnish Social Insurance Institution Kela, but partly also
central hospitals and education services and organizations, cooperate
through
the case manager in order to give the client (which refers to the whole family)
a greater say in their own affairs and to
improve the coordination of services
provided.
- The
trial period will end in 2003 and an evaluation will be made in the autumn.
After that, information about the various service
coordination models will be
disseminated to other municipalities in order to establish this new form of
service.
- Deputy
Parliamentary Ombudsman’s decisions. The Deputy Parliamentary
Ombudsman, Riitta-Leena Paunio, took
decisions[51] based on two
complaints, in which she gives an assessment of the actual implementation of the
right of children with disabilities
to rehabilitation and basic education.
Attention has also been directed to article 23 of the Convention on the Rights
of the Child.
The Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman was of the opinion that the
materialization of the rights of children with disabilities is not
the
responsibility of the parents or legal guardians only. She asked the
authorities to pay attention to the preparation and monitoring
of rehabilitation
and education to make sure that they are carried out in compliance with the law.
The Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman
considered that the public authorities could
thus ascertain that the fundamental and human rights of the child are
implemented as
is provided in the Constitution of Finland.
- Community
planning and traffic. The promotion of barrier-free access in community
planning and planning related to traffic and building of houses improves in many
ways the quality of the life of children with disabilities. Accessibility has
been one of the guiding principles governing the planning
of buildings since
1973, supported by the provisions of the Land Use and Building Act and different
regulations and sets of instructions. Today, children and young people with
disabilities have an increasing number
of opportunities for equal access to the
built environment together with their families and legal guardians, and to
different services
from day care to educational institutions. The regulations
and guidelines on barrier-free building from the year 1997 will be amended
to
correspond to the objectives set in the new Land Use and Building Act (132/1999)
and to provide material for building engineers to be able to revise the former
guidebook on barrier-free access.
B. Health and health-care services (art. 24)
- Recommendation.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that Finland ensure that
children in all municipalities benefit to the same
extent from the services
provided by mother-and-child clinics (recommendation No. 48).
- Maternity
and child clinics. In 2003, a group of specialists appointed by the
Ministry of Social Affairs prepared a handbook on the organization of services
in municipal childcare clinics. The handbook is in two parts and designed to
serve primarily the staff of clinics, their supervisors
and municipal decision
makers. Part I specifically targets decision makers and deals with proposals
concerning the organization of multidisciplinary cooperation and the
creation of
preconditions for the operation of clinics. It also includes a summary of
recommended measures. Part II is for persons engaged in daily work in clinics.
The handbook is useful also for parties collaborating with clinics and for
teachers
and students who may want to consult the book in order to learn about
the content of the work and the procedures used in clinics.
- The
Working Group’s recommendations for further measures include preliminary
suggestions for the upgrading of the statistical
and information systems of
child clinic activities. Other suggestions are also made, such as making
children and young people one
of the priority areas in the next government
programme and in the National Target and Action Plan for Social Welfare and
Health Care
for the years 2004-2007, working out quality recommendations for
child clinics, securing the position of health promotion and preventive
work in
the legislation, and strengthening of continued development and research of
clinical activities.
- Clinics.
The national recommendations are meant to secure that municipalities offer
families with children clinical services that are of
an equal standard
independent of the place and municipality of residence. The recommendations
also cover issues related to adequate
staffing, and provide municipalities with
instructions concerning recruitment. Finnish legislation (the Public Health Act
66/1972)
is premised upon municipal responsibility to provide for health-care
services. In 2002, Parliament granted discretionary government
transfers to
municipalities to be used for the development of maternity and child clinic
activities.
- The
usage rate of the services of mother-and-child clinics is high. In 2001, for
example, 99.2 per cent of all the children born
in 1997 used the free
services of municipal clinics. As many as 92.5 per cent of the children born in
that year had received all
the vaccinations that they were scheduled to have
based on the vaccination programme.
- Clinics
for the Sami. As concerns Sami children, maternity and child welfare
clinics should take the child’s linguistic and cultural background
into
consideration before it is born. The Sami Parliament has noted that parents
should receive support and counselling prior to
the birth of the child in, for
example, bi- and multilingualism. It would be very important that child welfare
clinics in the Sami
Homeland hire staff members who can speak Sami, acquire
written material on these issues in Sami, and take care that the staff members
receive relevant training. The provision of such maternity and child welfare
clinic services to Sami families with children and
Sami children would require
arrangement of services in their own language and recognition of their cultural
background in the content
of the services.
- School
and student health care. A handbook entitled Kouluterveydenhuolto
2002[52] (“School
health-care survey 2002”) has been made for school health-care
professionals, comprehensive schools and municipalities.
The handbook provides
a review of the objectives, content and organization of health care in Finnish
comprehensive schools and is
primarily targeted at school health-care
professionals. It seeks to convey an up-to-date picture of the present
situation to the
municipal decision makers and also support school health nurses
and doctors in their often rather lonely work, to the benefit of
the well-being
of schoolchildren and school communities. School health care is an integral
element of the school community and,
to be successful, calls for cooperation
with teachers.
- A
school health-care quality recommendation is under preparation. It is targeted
at municipal elected officials and municipal decision
makers.
- According
to a report made by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in 2002, the
content and extent of student health-care services
differ from one municipality
to another. A set of guidelines for municipalities on student health-care
services, prepared by the
Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the Ministry
of Education, will be ready by the end of 2004.
- Children’s
nutrition. Finnish mothers are motivated to breastfeed. According to a
report prepared in 2000 nearly all newborn infants were breastfed
when they left
the maternity hospital. However, the mother’s concept of breastfeeding
does not always coincide with the actual
experience, and Finland does not reach
the breastfeeding objectives set by the World Health Organization (WHO). The
report reveals
that in 2000, every sixth infant was exclusively breastfed at the
age of 4 months. About half of infants in Finland are breastfed
until they are
6 months old, and every fourth until the age of 9-11 months. Breastfeeding
has become slightly more common in the
past years and mothers breastfeed longer
than before.
- Due
to the northern location of the country, all infants and toddlers in Finland
must be given vitamin D supplement independent of
how the infant is fed. The
system has worked well. Only some 5 per cent of infants under 1 year old have
not received the supplement
as
- recommended.
Rickets has been identified in some rare cases, caused by neglect of the use of
the supplement. To secure a good vitamin
D status among Finnish children, young
adults and also the whole population, vitamin D supplement has become common in
milk and some
milk products as from the beginning of 2003.
- Finnish
children have not been found to have any nutritional deficiencies. An
increasing number of overweight and obese children
is a new problem. In
the various age groups, 510 per cent of children are overweight.
- Children
who are in full-time day care receive meals that cover two thirds of their
recommended daily nutrition requirement. Children
in part-time day care or
pre-school receive meals that cover one third of the daily requirement, and
special diets are also served.
Different food allergies are common and set a
challenge to those in charge of children’s nutrition. Provision of meals
in
day care is meant to not only offer food but also set an example to families.
- Children
of statutory school age are entitled to receive a balanced meal free of charge
on schooldays. Based on a report made in
1998, schoolchildren’s attitudes
towards school meals were positive and the food is considered to be good.
However, only about
17 per cent of them eat all the food offered (main course,
salad, bread and drink), girls even less than boys. Nearly all have the
main
course, but only every second schoolchild takes the salad. Finnish
schoolchildren have not been identified to have any nutritional
deficiencies.
Girls’ eating disorders, especially those that are related to loss of
weight, have become slightly more common
(incidence 0.2-0.8 per cent); concerns
about one’s weight and slimming are common. However, the growing
incidence of obesity
is a greater problem.
- Nutritional
education has been integrated into other subjects, and it is an important
element of the domestic science, common to all
in seventh grade. There is a new
subject, health and hygiene, which gives improved opportunities for schools to
disseminate information
related to nutrition and health.
- Recommendation.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child encouraged Finland to address the
shortage of child psychiatrists and psychologists, in
particular in the northern
and eastern parts of Finland and in small municipalities without enough
resources, in order to provide
children with more timely access to mental health
services and to prevent the institutionalization of mentally-ill children with
adults (recommendation No. 46).
- Psychiatric
mental health services for children and young people and a special government
grant. On account of detected shortages in the psychiatric services for
children and young people, the Government has, during the period
under review,
granted a special transfer (grant) to be earmarked for child and adolescent
psychiatry. The special grant has been
allocated to cover expenses borne by
municipalities and subregions and arising from measures to support the mental
development of
children and adolescents, the prevention of disturbances, and
safeguarding of the provision of psychiatric services. The grant has
made
possible the creation of hundreds of temporary and permanent offices in public
health care and the implementation of developmental
projects in this field.
- By
European comparison, there are enough child psychiatrists and psychologists in
Finland in per capita terms. The problems lie rather
in the shortage of
personnel and a biased distribution of qualified staff in the different parts of
the country. While a significant
number of public mental health positions are
vacant, public health-care units have purchased the required mental health
services
for children and adolescents from the private sector.
- In
the Government budget for 2000, 11.8 million euros (70 million Finnish marks)
were granted for the upgrading of child and adolescent
psychiatric services. In
2001, 7.6 million euros (45 million marks) had been granted, of which 0.8
million euros (5 million marks)
were earmarked to meet the service needs of
national importance. The grant was allocated, by application, to the joint
municipal
authorities of hospital districts, to be used for projects implemented
by the hospital district and municipalities of the region.
It was possible to
channel the grant to both new developmental projects and ongoing projects which
had been launched under financing
granted in 2000.
- Hospital
districts had to submit an account of the use of the grant to the State
Provincial Office by 30 June 2002 at the latest.
Of the grants, slightly over
80 per cent had been used by 30 June 2002. In 2001, the share used
for projects in the basic health
care had somewhat grown compared to the
previous year, being of 58.3 per cent and 49.8 per cent respectively.
27.2 per cent of the
Government grant was used for activities in the field
of special medical care and 14.5 per cent for other joint activities. Reporting
on the number of positions created thanks to the grant (about 60 permanent and
220 temporary positions) is difficult because it is
impossible to find out how
many of the postings had been created using the previous year’s grant and
only taking advantage
of the new grant to continue the financing of the
postings.
- A
total of 325 training events were reported in 2001. The most common subject
matter in the training sessions and also the most popular
developmental theme
was support for early interaction. As in 2000, the most typical subsidized
training event in 2001 was a one-off
session, which formed part of a larger
educational entity. Hospital districts used the Government grant to fund a
total of 287 projects,
of which two thirds were projects that had been started
in 2000. The waiting lists did not markedly change compared to the year
2000,
but there was very much variation both between and within hospital
districts.
- The
Ministry of Social Affairs and Health allocated a Government grant
of 0.8 million euros (5 million Finnish marks) to the Helsinki
and Uusimaa, Varsinais-Suomi and Pirkanmaa hospital districts to be
targeted at the development of projects concerning child and
adolescent
psychiatry. The joint municipal authority of the Helsinki and Uusimaa hospital
district started an auditing project of
adolescent psychiatry, the joint
municipal authority of the Varsinais-Suomi hospital district started an auditing
project of child
psychiatry, and the joint municipal authority of the Pirkanmaa
hospital district launched measures to establish a psychiatric treatment
unit
for children and adolescents who are dangerous and refractory to treatment.
- The
Government grant for 2001 has helped continue the positive development in child
and adolescent psychiatry, which was started under
the grant allocated in 2000.
The amount of the grant for the year 2002 was 3,160,000 euros. A report on the
use of the grant will
be prepared in the course of 2003.
- In
Finland, mental health services for children and young people are available
through separate service systems. The separation of
functions has helped
develop and strengthen both sectors. As from the start of 2001, there have been
provisions for the maximum
time that an assessment of a physician’s
referral and arrangement of treatment may last. An assessment of the need for
care
or treatment and of its urgency must be made within three weeks at the
latest from the date of receipt of the referral by the hospital
or other special
care unit or comparable operational unit, and the care must be arranged to take
place within three months at the
latest, taking into account the urgency of the
case. In addition, specific instructions have been created for the forms and
objectives
of local cooperation that supports the service system.
- Several
psychiatric units for children and adolescents have been established. The
situation will further improve with the creation
of two national units of
treatment for very refractory and dangerous children and adolescents in the
Pirkanmaa hospital district
and Niuvanniemi hospital. It is still possible
today that in some rare individual cases, a child or adolescent is taken to
involuntary
treatment in the same unit with adult patients.
- The
right of access to mental health services by children placed in community
homes. The Parliamentary Ombudsman, Riitta-Leena Paunio, took an
independent initiative in 2002 and started to find out how well the rights
of the child materialize in community homes. All community homes maintained by
the Government were investigated. In her
decision,[53] the
Parliamentary Ombudsman assessed the right of access of children placed in
community homes to the required mental health services
as soon as possible. She
was of the opinion that children in community homes have the right of access to
the mental health services
that they need in the mental health service unit that
is the nearest to them. She also stressed the need for a greater level of
expertise in child and adolescent psychiatry in community homes. The decision
was brought to the attention of the Ministry of Social
Affairs and Health, in
accordance with article 3, paragraph 3, of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, according to which the
institutions, services and facilities responsible
for the care or protection of children shall conform with the standards
established
by competent authorities. See also chapter VIII, section C, below.
- Young
people’s sexual health (sexually transmitted diseases, contraception,
pregnancies). The rate of childbirths and terminations of pregnancies among
girls age 1519 years in the years 1998 to 2002 (per 1,000 girls)
was
as
follows:
|
1998
|
1999
|
2000
|
2001
|
2002 (estimate)
|
Childbirths
|
9.0
|
9.2
|
9.8
|
10.1
|
10.7
|
Terminations
|
13.0
|
14.1
|
14.8
|
15.4
|
16.1
|
Source: Stakes; Register of childbirths and register of terminations
of pregnancies.
The number of childbirths and terminations of pregnancies among young girls
has increased since the late 1990s, even though the total
numbers are still very
low by international comparison. There has been a rise in cases of chlamydia,
too. Young people can visit
their school health professionals, the municipal
health-care centre, or private health-care centres for contraceptives. Since
2003,
health and hygiene is taught as a separate subject in grades 1 to 9 of
comprehensive school. Sexual health and education related
to contraceptives are
among the themes discussed in class in grades 7 to 9.
- Emergency
contraception (morning-after pill) has been available without a
physician’s prescription at the pharmacist’s
as from May 2002 for
persons under 15 years of age. In the early part of 2002, the number of
terminations of pregnancies of girls
between 15 and 19 years old was slightly
higher than during the same period in the previous year, but the fourth quarter
of 2002
showed slightly lower figures than in the same period in 2001.
- By
29 April 2003, a total of 35 persons under 25 years of age have been diagnosed
with HIV infection.
- Environmental
health. The standard of health care, environmental protection and control
of the environment and health is high in Finland by international
comparison,
which also lays preconditions for the promotion of children’s and young
people’s health.
- Finland’s
National Programme on Environmental Health, prepared jointly by the Ministry of
Social Affairs and Health and the
Ministry of the Environment in
1997[54] still lays a good
foundation for the maintenance and creation of an environment that is healthy
from different population groups’
point of view. The programme also
emphasizes issues that are important from the viewpoint of children’s
health, such as high-quality
drinking water, safe foodstuffs, high-quality
indoor air and urban air, and the need to cut down harmful noise and to decrease
the
psychological and social health hazards in the environment. Many
municipalities have worked out an environmental health programme
for their own
region, dealing with local environmental health issues from the point of view of
the different population groups, especially
children and other vulnerable
groups.
- As
concerns efforts to improve the quality of indoor air, special attention has
been paid to the elimination of the harmful effects
that arise from tobacco
smoking, and humidity and fungus problems in schools and day-care centres, in
particular. The year 2002
was dedicated to indoor air. More and more young
women smoke daily. From the point of view of public health, it is alarming that
Finnish children take up the habit of smoking at a very early age.
- In
spite of the decrease of emissions into the air, it is rather common in Finnish
cities that the guideline values for air quality
are exceeded. Minor particle
emissions have been identified as a significant health hazard. When new
guideline values were set
for air quality in 2001, special attention was
directed at such vulnerable groups as children. The Ministry of the Environment
aims
at ensuring that Finland does not exceed the set limits for good air
quality adopted by the EU for the period 2005-2010.
- The
noise problem is aggravated by an increasing amount of traffic and people
concentrating in the growth centres. The adverse effects
of noise can be
reduced by careful community and traffic planning and noise control.
- Children
are usually prone to accidents. Most of the serious accidents take place in
traffic and on the water (drowning). Security
has been one of the main concerns
and targets of investment in traffic planning and, in the 1990s, Finland managed
to get the number
of serious traffic accidents down on previous figures.
Traffic safety is also improved by investing in the improvement of pedestrian
and bicycle paths.
- Children’s
health has been taken into account as a key factor in the control of hazardous
chemicals. The EU’s Chemicals
Policy Strategy aims at phasing out
hazardous emissions during the lifetime of the next generation. The Plan of
Action of the National
Nutrition Council, prepared in 2002, emphasizes food
safety from the point of view of the different population groups, such as
children.
- Terveys
2015 (Health 2015) is a national public health programme, which reviews the
challenges facing a person’s health in the various phases of life,
also in
childhood. The programme emphasizes the assessment of health impacts, which is
also an important element of environmental
impact assessment.
- Assessment
of risks related to environmental health must be developed, taking into account
the position of vulnerable population groups
such as, in particular, children,
and monitoring of environmental health and related indicators must be upgraded.
The Ministry of
the Environment takes responsibility for the monitoring and
reporting that is related to the state of the environment. Development
of the
monitoring of the environment started in 2000. The work is premised on the
objectives set in the Land Use and Building Act (132/1999) enforced in 2000
and the national land-use objectives. The objective of land-use planning is to
promote the creation
of a safe, healthy, pleasant and socially well-functioning
living and working environment, which meets the needs and service requirements
of different population groups, such as children, the elderly and persons with
disabilities.
- Environmental
legislation essentially aims at the protection of human health, pursued by
preventing and reducing the incidence of
hazardous changes to the environment.
Protection of the environment is based on the principle of preventing and
minimizing harmful
effects.
- The
national administration in charge of the environment takes care that the health
aspects of children’s environment are taken
into account in international
cooperation, such as the development and implementation of different
environmental agreements and promotion
of sustainable development. Important
issues include management of chemical substances and setting of standards for
ozone-depleting
substances and greenhouse gases, as well as promotion of access
to safe drinking water and sanitation. In the bilateral and multilateral
processes in which Finland is engaged and in its neighbouring area cooperation,
emphasis is laid on the health of vulnerable population
groups, especially
children. Special attention must be paid to the improvement of the health of
the environment of children living
in the developing countries and countries in
transition, and to the creation of preconditions for socially and economically
sustainable
development. The Fourth Ministerial Conference on Environment and
Health in Budapest in 2004 will adopt a plan of action for the
environmental
health of children.
- To
promote sustainable development, the Plan of Implementation adopted by the
World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg
dedicated special
attention to the most vital global environmental health problems, that is,
access to safe drinking water and indoor
air to the children of the world.
These issues continue to form a bottleneck, which prevents favourable
development in the field
of environmental health.
- Even
if access to safe drinking water and the question of the quality of indoor air
do not represent a real threat to Finnish children,
Finland must seek to ensure
that the microbiological environment of children is safe. Local problems are
handled in cooperation
with different authorities. An example of such
cooperation is cross-administrative work and acquisition of financing to improve
indoor air quality in schools, done in many schools over the past few years.
This has laid a foundation to systematic efforts to
arrive at good indoor air
quality in Finnish schools through the adoption of quality standards. These
indoor air quality standards
can also be used to improve the indoor air of
day-care centres. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has recently
revised its
instructions concerning indoor air, stepping up the implementation
of the Health Protection Act and in this manner also promoting
children’s
health. The Ministry of the Environment will also revise its D2-indoor air
standards in autumn 2003.
- Finland
will continue cross-administrative work to guarantee food safety. To ensure
that children’s health status stays good,
the Ministry of Social Affairs
and Health, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Ministry of Trade and
Industry and the Ministry
of the Environment are collaborating to provide
guidelines for intensified cooperation in the environmental health
administration
so that food and water hygiene are guaranteed in Finland. To
this effect, administrative cooperation across municipal borders is
intensified
in Finland.
- Noise
control related to securing children’s health is carried out in
cooperation with the Ministry of the Environment, and
special efforts are
made with a view to implementing the EU directive 2002/49/EC on noise.
- Finland
participates in the preparation of the Fourth Ministerial Conference on
Environment and Health in Budapest, focusing on the
promotion of
children’s health. The runup phase is coordinated by a working group on
environmental health set up by the Ministry
of Social Affairs and Health.
- It
is very important to also intensify interdisciplinary cooperation in schools and
the daycare service to facilitate early recognition
of children with special
needs and their timely support. Special attention must be directed to the
availability of mental health
services for children and safe financing of the
services in the long term.
- Social
welfare and health-care services in the Sami language. The Government
budget for 2002 included for the first time a special appropriation for the
safeguarding of social welfare and health-care
services in Sami, which the
municipalities in the Sami region can use to launch projects to develop
services in the Sami language.
The amount of the appropriation was
200,000 euros in 2002 and 300,000 euros in 2003.
- In
accordance with what is stated in the Government budget, the appropriation can
be used in the form of a government transfer payable
through the Sami Parliament
to safeguard Sami social welfare and health-care services in the Sami Homeland,
referred to in section
4 of the Act on the Sami Parliament (974/1995). Based on
instructions given by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, the
appropriation
must be granted to subsidize social welfare and health-care
services in all the varieties of the Sami language. The Sami Parliament’s
objective in
- the
social welfare and health-care sector is that to give effect to the linguistic
and cultural rights of the Sami, social welfare
and health-care services must be
offered in Sami, plans made taking into account the Sami background, culture,
traditional values,
and way of life and ways of thinking, and arrangements must
be based on the cultural independence of the Sami.
- The
Sami Parliament is of the opinion that the Government transfer to the Sami
social welfare and health care must target the Sami
municipalities mainly to
develop such new services as the implementation of endeavours concerning social
welfare and health care
identified by the Sami Parliament.
- Challenges
of a multicultural society. The non-medical circumcision of boys has given
rise to an exchange of opinions in Finland. In recent years, approximately 100
such operations, based on cultural and religious traditions, have been performed
yearly on Jewish and Muslim boys in Finland. Because
circumcision does not fall
under the sphere of actual health care, all health-care units have not agreed to
perform the operation
as a public health-care service. Primarily Muslim
families with a refugee background have found that private hospitals are too
expensive
for them.
- The
authorities have long discussed the issue of male circumcision performed at
home, but the matter gained wider publicity at the
beginning of 2002, when the
media brought up the case of a Muslim boy who had been taken into hospital
because of post-operative
complications resulting from a circumcision performed
at home. Proper performance of the operation calls for sufficient medical
expertise, hygiene, and painkillers. In March 2003, the Ministry of Social
Affairs and Health and the Association of Finnish Local
and Regional Authorities
issued a letter to hospital districts, recommending that to ensure the
well-being of children and to reduce
any risks, circumcisions should also be
performed in the public health care.
- The
Ministry of Social Affairs and Health set up a working group in spring 2003 to
assess the legislative foundation concerning the
non-medical circumcision of
boys, to find out about the need for new legislative provisions and the
preconditions of the operation,
and to prepare relevant legislative proposals.
The working group will convene until the end of November 2003.
- The
Ombudsman for Minorities has taken part in consultations between different
authorities and also given interviews to newspapers
and television. The
Ombudsman has expressed his concern about the possible consequences to the
families and children if the public
health-care service remains unwilling to
perform male circumcisions or to use public funds for the purpose. The
Ombudsman has also
sought to support efforts to find solutions that respect the
best interests of the child.
- Children
and the environment. In accordance with the Constitution of Finland, the
public authorities must endeavour to guarantee that everyone has the right to a
healthy environment and the possibility
for exercising influence in decisions
that concern their own living environment. In the past few years, the Ministry
of the Environment
has laid strong emphasis on the fact that
children are also entitled to enjoy this right. Research on the relationship
between children and young people and their environment
has revealed that they
are accorded a secondary position when questions that are related to their own
growth and development are
dealt with. What children need is usually conveyed
through an adult person’s point of view.
- Finland
has adopted the principle recorded in the Habitat Agenda, the final document of
the second United Nations Conference on Human
Settlements (Habitat II),
according to which children constitute a vulnerable group. Children are
recognized as actors in their
own life who must be heard when decisions are made
and whose needs must be taken into consideration when plans and decisions are
made that have an impact on their housing and living environment. The Land Use
and Building Act (132/1999), which took effect at the beginning of 2000,
includes a significant legislative amendment, providing that both land-use
planning and directions related to building shall aim at the creation of a safe,
healthy, pleasant and socially well-functioning
living and working environment,
which meets the needs and service requirements of different population groups
such as children, the
elderly and persons with disabilities. This provides a
framework for the integration of children’s views in the assessment
of the
impacts of plans concerning town planning and building permits on the living and
housing environment of the child. In connection
with residential buildings, a
special provision lays down that enough space must be reserved for safe outdoor
playing areas. The
provisions and instructions of the National Building Code
issued in 2001 give building engineers detailed guidelines on how to avoid
solutions that might be hazardous for children. The Building Code is premised
on Council Directive 89/106/EEC of 21 December 1988
on the approximation of
laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the member States relating to
construction products.
- The
link between children’s health and the environment calls for new
information based on continuing research. Important issues
include, inter alia,
children’s exposure to hazards caused by indoor air, urban air, noise and
chemicals, as well as the promotion
of children’s health as an element of
community planning. Evaluation and control of risks to environmental health,
especially
as concerns such vulnerable groups as children, calls for more
information and development of methods. A research programme on environmental
health, SYTTY,[55] sponsored
by the Academy of Finland, ended in 2002. It has made available significant new
information, based on research, that can
be used also in planning targeted at
the promotion of children’s health and the elimination of health
risks.
C. Social security and children’s day care (art. 26 and
art. 18, para. 3)
- Social
security of families with children. Finnish legislation related to social
security applies to all persons living and/or working in Finland. This means
that every
child is also entitled to personal social security. Every child with
a residence in Finland is, inter alia, insured against illness
from birth as
provided for in the Health Insurance Act.
- Of
the amendments made after June 1998 in the field of the insurance service, the
following in particular directly contribute to the
position of the child and
pertain to the provisions of article 26, articles 3 to 5 and article 18 of the
Convention.
Amendments to the Health Insurance Act
− As of 1 October 2001, fathers are entitled to
freely divide the 18 working days of their paternity leave into at the most
four
separate periods of leave during the maternity and parental allowance
period;
− As of 1 January 2003, partial parental allowance is payable to both
parents simultaneously. Both the mother and the father
are entitled to make
arrangements with their respective employers for part-time work and to be on
part-time childcare leave at the
same time. This facilitates the reconciliation
of family and working life;
− As of 1 January 2003, the father is entitled not only to a paternity
allowance period, which comprises 18 working days during
the maternity and
parental allowance period, but also to a one-off paternity allowance period of 1
to 12 working days immediately
after the end of the parental allowance period,
if he has been on paternity leave at least the last 12 working days of the
parental
allowance period;
− As of 1 January 2003, adoptive fathers have been entitled to the same
paternity allowances as other fathers;
− As of from 1 January 2003, when more than one child is born or adopted
at the same time, parents have been eligible for an
extended parental allowance
to be taken either entirely or partially during the maternity and parental
allowance period, if both
parents simultaneously take part in the care of the
children. Beginning from 1 January 2003, an adoptive parent is entitled to
parental
allowance after a socalled intrafamilial adoption in case the adopted
child is under 1 year of age;
− As of from 1 January 2003, it has been possible to transfer the
mother’s entitlement to a maternity allowance to the
father, payable as a
parental allowance, if the mother, due to illness, becomes incapable of taking
care of the child. Entitlement
to daily allowance is transferred to the father
not earlier than when the mother’s illness has lasted for the period of
time
qualifying for daily subsistence allowance, including the date when she was
taken ill and nine subsequent working days.
- Pensions.
The child increase that used to be payable in the context of national pensions
was reintroduced as of the beginning of 2002 to support
families on pension
responsible for the maintenance of a family.
- As
from the beginning of 2005, earnings-related pension in the private sector
starts to accrue at 1.5 per cent a month during maternity,
parenthood and
paternity allowance periods, based on the income on which the allowances are
paid. In addition, unpaid home care
of a child under the age of 3 entitles the
caregiver to accrual of pension at 1.5 per cent a month, based on earnings of
500 euros
per month.
- A
report on the situation of children’s day care. In January 2001, the
Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the Association of Finnish Local and
Regional Authorities compiled
a report on day care for children. The report
concentrated on the number of children and the number of staff members in day
care,
and on the arrangement of special care and care in the evenings, at night
and during weekends.
- Day
care for Sami children. Children have access to Sami day care in the
following municipalities in the Sami Homeland: Utsjoki, Inari and
Enontekiö.
The only Sami daycare centre in Finland is located in
Karigasniemi, in the municipality of Utsjoki. The municipality offers day
care
in the carer’s home also in Nuorgam and Utsjoki. In Utsjoki, children can
choose a group where both Finnish and Sami
are used. In 2003, the municipality
received a Government grant of 30,000 euros, payable through the Sami Parliament
and to be used
for the arrangement of day care in North Sami.
- The
municipality of Inari maintains two North Sami cooperative care arrangement
systems, one in Ivalo and the other in Inari. Day
care in the form of so-called
“language nests” may significantly contribute to the development and
maintenance of Sami
as the child’s own language. There is a Sami language
nest for Inari Sami in the municipality of Inari. The municipality
has bought
the daycare services from a private service provider. A total
of 73,400 euros is channelled through the Sami Parliament
to Sami day
care in Inari.
- In
the municipality of Enontekiö, there is a group daycare centre in Heta and
a bilingual group daycare centre in Karesuvanto,
where both Finnish and North
Sami are used. The Sami Parliament supports the daycare centre in Heta by a
Government grant of 24,760
euros which becomes payable through it.
D. Standard of living (art. 27)
- Criticism.
The Finnish Federation for Social Welfare and Health, for example, has noted
that poverty among families with children has increased
during the past decade;
their income development has remained behind that of other population groups.
Such basic allowances as family
allowance, minimum maternity, paternity and
parental allowances, and homecare allowance are not, even today, at a level that
would
enable families to depend on them and, without difficulty, manage to bring
up a family.
- Government
report. In its report to Parliament, the Government has noted that as
regards the well-being of children and young
people,[56] income
development has been especially poor in singleparent households. Improvements
in the employment situation have contributed
to the economic position of
families with children. However, this has not decreased the number of families
living under the poverty
line. Provided that the proportional poverty line is
set more loosely at 60 per cent of the median income, the number of poor
families
with children in Finland in 1999 was of about 64,000, that is, some 10
per cent of all families with children. The main reason for
poverty among
families with children is unemployment, especially long-term unemployment.
Families that suffer from long-term unemployment
find their economic situation
particularly fragile. The unemployment rate has been somewhat below average
among families with children
with two providers, but higher than the average
among families with a single provider. Unemployment in families with children
may
be linked not only with economic problems but also with many other
difficulties that reflect in the wellbeing of the children.
- Housing
expenses and housing allowances. In Finland, housing expenses are fairly
high. Housing allowance is granted to even out the housing expenses of
low-income households
by channelling Government funds to cover a part of the
household expenses, based on what is regarded as reasonable expenses. Housing
allowance significantly contributes to a more balanced distribution of expenses
among families. The amount of the housing allowance
depends on such aspects as
the number of family members, income and housing expenses. In 2001, as
many as about 70,000 families
with children were eligible for a general housing
allowance, which corresponds to about 9 per cent of all families with children.
The number of recipients has decreased since the latter half of the last decade,
partly because criteria for the allowance were
tightened in 1995-1996 and partly
because the employment situation has improved during the past years. The
majority of the recipient
families with children are provided for by a single
parent. The grounds for eligibility for the allowance were loosened in 1998
to
help better coordinate the provision of housing and income allowances. The
lowestincome families still need to depend also on
income support to manage
their housing expenses.
VII. EDUCATION, LEISURE AND CULTURAL ACTIVITIES
A.
Education, vocational education and career guidance (art. 28)
- Recommendation.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child has recommended that Finland implement
the revised school legislation in order to ensure
equality between different
regions of the country and between different school and educational
establishments (recommendation No. 50).
- Equality.
The legislative amendments related to education took effect on 1 January 1999.
The new acts on education and training bring about
extensive reforms and
introduce new and multiple opportunities in the field of operation of the
Finnish education system as a whole.
On account of the social impacts of the
reform, Parliament required that the Government submit a report on the education
policy
after the laws have been effective for three years, assessing the results
of the reforms and the implementation of the objectives
that were set. The
following is a list of some of the main principles on which the legislative
reforms were premised:
- − The
largely incoherent, scattered and overlapping legislation should form more
uniform entities;
- − The
legislative provisions should lay an emphasis on the unified nature of the
education system;
- − The
adaptability of the education system to changes in society should be stepped
up;
- − The
borderlines between different forms of education and different levels of various
education systems should be lowered,
and cooperation between providers of
education and training and educational establishments should be
upgraded;
- − The
quality and effectiveness of education should be improved by means of, for
example, introducing systematic assessments;
- − Legislation
should be as neutral as possible, basic education excluded, in the sense that it
would be the same independent
of whether the provider is a municipality,
federation of municipalities, a registered community or fund.
- The
amended Acts also led to certain substantive reforms. One of them is a
statutory option granted for the parents or legal guardians
of children of
statutory school age to apply for a place of education in other than the nearest
school appointed by the municipality.
Other reforms include the abolition of
the distinction between the lower and upper stages of comprehensive school,
amendments related
to the provisions concerning private schools that give basic
education, transfer of the education provided in community homes to
the
administration of the education service, amendment of the provisions concerning
the teaching of minority languages, obligation
of the providers of secondary
level education to cooperate, abolition of provisions related to the working
time of students in other
educational institution than a school that provides
statutory education, a provision concerning an opportunity to acquire
educational
services from communities and funds that have not been awarded a
permit to organize education, amendment of provisions related to
teachers, and
provisions incorporated in the legislation concerning the assessment of
education with a view to ensuring the quality
of education that is provided.
- Between
1993 and 1995, as part of the measures to scale down public expenditure, cuts
were made in the unit prices on which the Government
transfers for education and
culture are based. These cuts, which were made in percentage terms, were
targeted at the Government
grants payable to the financiers of the institutions
and they consequently reduced the financial obligation of the municipality
concerned.
Since 1997, the responsibility of a municipality for
the financing of expenses arising from education has been based on the
number
of local residents, and the provision according to which each
municipality used to contribute to education per number of pupil was
abolished.
- Between
1996 and 1998, cuts in the public expenditure on education were targeted solely
at municipalities and the municipal economy.
Unit prices were not lowered any
more but new savings targeted local residents. Funds for municipalities were
raised by a total
of about 109 euros (650 Finnish marks) per local
resident. On account of the higher share of municipal funding, the statutory
Government
transfers of 57 per cent to education dropped to slightly less than
half of the expenses that belong into the sphere of Government
transfers.
- The
cuts in the unit prices led to operational savings also in municipalities, which
was one of the ideas behind the lowering of unit
prices. In the recent years,
however, the unit prices of different functions have risen, in tandem with the
overall economic recovery
of municipalities. Based on data from 1999, the unit
prices in basic education, upper secondary education and vocational education
and polytechnics were lower than the actual unit prices by 12 per cent,
9 per cent and 14 per cent respectively. The aforementioned
activities’ unit prices were underestimated by an average of 12 per cent.
Unit prices for adult education centres, for basic
art education to be funded
based on the number of class hours, and for libraries were underestimated by 11
per cent, 12 per cent
and 7 per cent respectively.
- From
the point of view of the structure and foundations of the financing of
educational and cultural services, the average inadequacy
of the unit price
amounts has been a problem. The calculated system is founded on an assumption
that the financier of the function
obtains the benefit from expenses that are
lower than the calculated unit price and, correspondingly, has to take on the
share of
expenses that are higher than the calculated unit price. The excess
burden caused by the average inadequacy of the unit prices has
not been taken
into account when the system was created. The development has led not only to
lower expenses but also to pressures
to pay separate municipal reimbursements,
which from the system’s point of view are otherwise unnecessary. The
situation is
problematic also because the different groups that are in charge do
not necessarily receive similar treatment. Of the providers
of education only
municipalities can compensate for the inadequacies by means of such measures as
general Government transfers to
local government or tax revenue, and, on the
other hand, there is reason to keep the opportunities for collecting income by
means
of proceeds from fees a very limited education political option.
- The
Act on the amendment of the Act on the Financing of Educational and Cultural
Provision (1389/2001), linked with the budget of
2002, repealed the cuts on unit
prices. Since the beginning of 2002, unit prices have been based on the real
expenditure in the
education to which the financing is based on the planned
expenses. Unit prices were raised also at the beginning of 2001 in accordance
with the Act on the amendment of the Act on the Financing of Educational and
Cultural Provision (1146/2000) by not only the amount
due to a higher level of
expenses but also by an additional 5 per cent on the previous year. However,
the increases in the municipal
financing made from 1996 to 1998 are still
valid.
- It
is too early to give any estimate of the possible impacts of the removal of the
inadequacies in the unit prices on the organization
of education. The recent
deterioration of municipal finances and their insecure future prospects,
including the major differences
between the municipalities as regards their
financial situation, play a role when decisions that concern education and its
development
are made by local authorities. The Ministry of the Interior
anticipates that the overall improvement of the municipal finances will
continue
up to 2004. The Ministry also expects that the regional developmental
differences will level out during the same period
of time. In the next few
years, problems related to inadequate financing will affect the most small
municipalities with less than
6,000 residents.
- A
survey has been conducted among providers of education and, according to the
responses, 37 per cent of providers of basic education,
29 per cent of providers
of upper secondary level education, 60 per cent of providers of vocational
education, and 23 per cent of
providers of adult education centre services
intend to increase their share of financing.
- In
accordance with the Constitution of Finland, everyone has the right to basic
education free of charge. Provisions on the duty to receive education are laid
down
by law. According to the Constitution, the public authorities shall, as is
provided in more detail by a law, guarantee for everyone an equal opportunity to
receive other
educational services in accordance with their ability and special
needs, and an opportunity to develop themselves without being prevented
by
economic hardship. This provision, which is enacted in section 16, subsection
2, of the Constitution, gives individual citizens the right to lifelong
education. The right is not guaranteed as a subjective right in the way
basic education
is guaranteed, but the provision
- implies
that the public authorities are under an obligation to make the practical
arrangements required to ensure that a variety of
educational services are
available in the country. Reference to an equal opportunity to receive
educational services corresponding
to one’s ability means, among other
things, that everyone should be granted these opportunities irrespective of
place of residence.
Fundamental cultural rights apply to all persons residing
in Finland, independent of the person’s age and nationality. The
term
“public authorities” refers not only to the State but also to local
authorities. Section 121 of the Constitution provides that municipal
administration must be based on the self-government of local residents.
Municipalities can only be assigned
duties that are laid down by a law.
- According
to the Act on Basic Education, a child who attends class shall have a statutory
right to receive education and counselling
based on the curriculum on working
days. The education shall be arranged so that it corresponds to the
child’s age and capabilities.
The educational institution shall keep in
contact with the child’s home. The providers of education are of the
opinion that,
as concerns general education, the right of the child to receive
education that is based on the curriculum apparently materializes
very well.
Teachers’ lay-offs for economic reasons have become less common during the
new legislation.
- PISA
survey. Finnish children succeeded admirably in the OECD Programme for
International Student Assessment (PISA) survey, the widest and most
versatile
survey of educational achievement conducted in the OECD countries. All the 28
OECD countries and 4 non-member countries
participated in PISA. The
survey targeted 15-year-olds, in Finland mainly children in ninth grade of
comprehensive school. Nearly
4,900 schoolchildren and 156 schools
were involved in Finland. PISA tested the children’s literacy in reading,
mathematics
and science in situations that were as close as possible to real
future needs. The survey’s principal domain of interest was
literacy in
reading. Finnish children’s performance was the best in the reading
literacy test. They proved to be among the
elite by international comparison,
also when mathematical and scientific literacy was tested.
- The
survey revealed that 50 per cent of Finnish children are excellent readers,
while the average percentage in the OECD countries
was 32 per cent. As concerns
the different dimensions of reading, the Finns seem to be especially good in
retrieval of information
and understanding and interpretation of texts. Only 7
per cent of Finnish children proved to be poor readers, as compared to OECD
average of 18 per cent.
- The
outcome of the survey revealed that girls in all the 32 countries under review
were better readers than boys. The difference
between girls and boys was the
widest in Finland. Based on the survey as a whole, Finnish girls proved to
outperform all others.
Finnish boys were the best among boys in the OECD
countries. As concerns mathematic literacy, boys did better than girls in
almost
every country, but the differences were mainly rather small. In Finland,
boys and girls were equally good in mathematic literacy.
Boys and girls were
equally competent in scientific literacy, both in Finland and in the majority of
the other countries that were
tested.
- The
survey also indicated that as concerns school achievement in different schools,
the differences between schools were the smallest
in Finland. As a rule,
Finnish urban and rural schools produce equally good results, but boys in rural
schools tend to remain clearly
below the
- average
national school performance. The socio-economic background of the parents
appears to have an explicit link with school performance.
In all participating
countries, children of parents with the highest socio-economic background
performed better than others. In
Finland the distinction is also clear but
remains below the OECD average.
B. Aims of education (art. 29)
- Education
and upbringing to respect for human rights. Teaching at all levels of
education is based on the grounds set in the national curriculum adopted by the
National Board of Education,
specifying such important aspects of the statutory
school education as education to respect for human rights, knowledge of and
respect
for different cultures, promotion of multiculturalism and tolerance.
Education to respect for human rights has been carried out,
inter alia, by
arranging events and projects to combat racism and intolerance in schools.
- In
connection with the overall reform of the legislation pertaining to education,
educational institutions were accorded significantly
greater freedom as concerns
curricula, which allows them more latitude than before in covering such areas of
interest as issues related
to human rights. Human rights has been a theme also
in continuing education courses for teachers.
- Education
to respect for human rights is carried out in Finland through permanent networks
and UNESCO schools. At the moment, 60
UNESCO schools and educational
institutions are active in Finland (comprehensive schools, special schools,
upper secondary schools,
vocational schools and teacher education units). The
governing ideas in these schools include peace, human rights, democracy and
sustainable development.
- Prevention
of social exclusion in education. The senior adviser Elsi Veijola
has studied the prevention of social exclusion of young people in the field of
education by order of the Ministry of
Education.[57] The study was
completed in spring 2003 and it states that education is an important tool in
efforts to prevent social exclusion
because unemployment, which is one of the
principal reasons for social exclusion, is more prevalent among those with less
education.
- Prevention
of social exclusion should start as early as possible (early intervention).
Pupils with poor school performance are at
risk of social exclusion after they
have completed comprehensive school. The ones who do not manage to get a
school-leaving certificate
or who pass with poor grades “out of mercy by
the teacher” face the greatest risk of exclusion. There is only a small
likelihood that these students continue any further education. Accurate
statistical data on social exclusion are not available,
but it has been
estimated for example that of the 61,000 children who finished comprehensive
school in spring 2003, approximately
3,000 were socially excluded or at risk of
becoming marginalized.
- Good
results have been obtained from the so-called “oma ura”
classes (“creating one’s own career”) designed to serve the
needs of young people at risk of exclusion.
The first classes were founded at
the beginning of the 1990s on the initiative of the Mannerheim League for Child
Welfare. At the
moment, 30 classes are active. “Oma ura”
classes integrate school attendance with practical training at a workplace that
meets the interests of the young person, and
learning takes place mainly in
other places than the school.
- Ms.
Veijola’s study puts forward 18 urgent measures to prevent social
exclusion. The measures include, for example, more effective
pupil counselling,
making the “oma ura” model an established element of
education at the municipal level, monitoring of studies after comprehensive
school, and development
of the education of immigrant children. Carrying out
the proposed measures would require both legislative amendments and additional
economic resources.
- Children
with disabilities and bullying. The Finnish Disability Forum has brought to
light the question of bullying of schoolchildren with disabilities. Education
to tolerance
in schools should cover also information about disabilities.
Children with disabilities are targets of bullying but also children
of parents
with disabilities are bullied because of their parents. Children with
disabilities must be secured the right to attend
school without becoming bullied
and to feel safe in their school communities.
C. Leisure, recreation and cultural life (art. 31)
- Youth
work and youth activities. Finland’s second periodic report submitted
in 1998 includes an overall account of the systems related to the
administration,
financing and development of Finnish youth work and
activities.
- Based
on the Youth Work Act (235/1995), the Ministry of Education is in charge of the
general administration and development of youth
work in Finland. For the
purposes of the Act, youth work means promotion of non-governmental activities
and improvement of the living
conditions of children and young people. The
Advisory Council for Youth Affairs, operating under the administration of the
Ministry
of Education, is an important authority in issues related to young
people.
- The
Ministry of Education finances cultural, sports and other activities targeted at
children and young people. The funds are channelled
to municipal youth work,
support for national youth associations, development of workshops for young
persons, support for national
youth centres, international cooperation,
promotion of youth research and youth culture, support for youth information and
information
services, educational and other development projects related to
youth work, activities of the Advisory Council for Youth Affairs
and of the
committee submitting proposals to the Ministry of Education concerning annual
grants, and the provincial youth work services.
A new target of support and
form of youth work is to combat intoxicants and drug abuse. In 2003, the
Ministry of Education granted
a total of 22.4 million euros to youth work and
related activities.
- Youth
work at the local level. The Government supports municipal youth and sports
activities by an amount that is calculated per resident (10.8 euros per resident
were channelled to municipalities, and 12.3 euros per resident under 29 years of
age to youth work in 2003). In accordance with
the Youth Work Act, youth work
is one of the duties of municipalities, and the municipalities may decide how to
make appropriate
use of the transfer assigned for the purpose to the benefit of
youth work. In 2002, municipalities spent about 140 million euros
for youth
work, of which the Government transfer covered about 4.3 per cent (6 million
euros). Together with other Government transfers
targeted at youth work
(including youth workshops, afternoon activities for schoolchildren, combat
against abuse of intoxicants and
drugs), the Government’s share of
expenses in financing of municipal youth work is of around 6 per cent. The
location and
size of municipalities have an impact on the carrying out of youth
work. The general idea is that municipalities create the preconditions
for the
activities of youth associations, maintain the premises for youth activities,
and make arrangements that enable maintenance
of youth cafés
and different recreational activities.
- The
regional administration of youth work is carried out under the administration of
five State Provincial Offices, which are part
of the central Government.
The youth service of the State Provincial Offices is mainly responsible for
the distribution of funding
for youth workshops obtained from national sources
and the European Social Fund, support for afternoon activities for
schoolchildren,
assessment of the basic services for municipal youth work,
provision of topical courses and consultation services to municipalities
that
are related to various youth projects.
- Workshops
and youth centres. The activities pursued in workshops have been further
developed. Youth unemployment is still high in Finland, although it has eased
down as much as to a third of the 100,000 recorded in the years of recession in
the early 1990s. Workshops have served as a tool
to alleviate the adverse
effects of youth unemployment and its impacts at the local level. The idea of
the activities is to motivate
and encourage young people to enrol in training
and take on employment and to improve young people’s life management
skills.
There are some 220 workshops of which over 90 per cent are municipal
property. Each year, approximately 8,000 young people between
17 and 24 years
of age find employment for a period of six months in the workshops.
- The
Ministry of Education subsidizes 10 national youth centres based on the
provisions of the Youth Work Act. The centres seek to
make arrangements
enabling the organization of camps and nature schools, courses and camps for
youth associations and young people
active at the local level and travel
services for young people throughout the year. They are also centres for social
youth work
and places where related methodologies are developed. These centres
produced a total of 140,000 youth work days in 2002.
- Grants
for youth associations are made available based on outcomes. The grounds
for assessing the outcome of planned or completed activities include the
quality,
extent and economy of the activity. Among the subsidized groups are
associations for young adolescents, which organize activities
for children.
When the annual subsidies are granted, particular attention is paid to the
expansion and development of the content
of afternoon activities for
schoolchildren. In addition to the afternoon activities for schoolchildren,
these associations offer
different kinds of camp, club and adventure activities
mainly for children under 15 years of age. In 2003, the total value of the
general grants by the Ministry of Education to associations for young
adolescents amounted to nearly €3 million.
- Afternoon
activities for schoolchildren. In accordance with the Government
programme, special attention is directed to the afternoon activities for
schoolchildren, because
children 7 or 8 years old who attend first or second
grade of comprehensive school often need supervised after-school activities
before the parents come home from work. Some children would also need
supervision in the mornings before school. Furthermore, it
has been noted that
older schoolchildren would benefit from regular hobbies after school at least
once a week.
- Afternoon
activities organized by local authorities, schools or NGOs are available in many
places. There is no statutory provision
obliging any party to arrange for
afternoon activities, and participation in them is not a subjective right.
Afternoon activities
aim at the provision of opportunities for equal access to
hobbies and other recreation and at the prevention of social exclusion
of
children and young people. The Government supports afternoon activities by
channelling funds to it from a number of appropriations.
A working group set by
the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and
complemented by representatives
of local authorities, has been planning a
reorganization of the activities. In the summer of 2002, the working group
suggested that
arrangements be made with a view to introducing morning and
afternoon activities. These activities have been continued based on
the
original suggestion. The viewpoints of NGOs have also been taken into account.
- Physical
exercise of children and young people. The objective of the Sports Act
(1054/1998) is to promote sports and exercise as well as to support
children’s and young
people’s development by means of physical
exercise. The Ministry of Education is responsible for the general
administration
and development of physical education and its integration in the
State administration.
- Nearly
all Finnish children and young people practise some sport. Boys tend to be
somewhat more physically active than girls. The
most active sports enthusiasts
are found in the north of Finland, and the most popular sports are football,
cycling, swimming, skiing
and floorball. About 40 per cent of Finnish children
and young people practise sports within the framework of a sports association.
The majority of sports associations are non-governmental organizations, which
operate on the basis of voluntary work. Nuori Suomi
ry (Young Finland
Association) is an independent organization active in the promotion of various
sports activities for children and
young people at the local level by, for
example, supporting the ethical and educational work done in the context of
different sports.
- The
Ministry of Education granted €85.8 million to sports in 2003. The
transfer will be used to support, for example, national
and regional sports
associations with an emphasis on the physical exercise of children and young
people; building of sports facilities
and especially the improvement of the
preconditions for exercise of sports by children and young people;
a threeyear sports programme
for children and young people; and training
and research. The threeyear programme consists of project grants to
supervised extra-curricular
afternoon activities for children age 6 to 12 years,
and national and local projects to encourage children and young people to
take
an interest in sports and physical exercise.
- The
regional functions that are related to sports and physical exercise are
administered by the five provincial authorities of Finland.
The provinces take
responsibility for such tasks as building sports fields and arranging for sports
for schoolchildren who take
part in organized afternoon activities.
- The
majority of the 30,000 sports fields and other places where physical exercise
can be practiced are owned and maintained by local
authorities. During the past
few years, priority has been given to building sports facilities in the vicinity
of residential areas.
The Government supports the construction work by
allocating budgetary resources for that purpose.
- Municipalities
also create preconditions for local exercise of sports, especially for the
operation of sports associations, and organize
sports events taking into account
the needs of special groups. A government transfer of €10.80 per resident
(based on a certain
calculation) is granted to municipalities to be used for the
promotion of sports and physical exercise.
- There
are 11 national and 3 regional sports institutes in Finland. They provide not
only training, education and coaching services,
but also facilities for a
variety of hobbies and interests for persons of all ages. Children and young
people are the most active
users of these services.
- Programme
against racism in sports. Since 1998, the Ministry of Education has been
carrying out a programme against racism, together with the Finnish Sports
Federation
(an umbrella organization of Finnish sports) and individual sports
associations. The Ministry has for example financed local, regional
and
national sports projects that encourage people to tolerance. In addition to the
financial support of projects, the programme
has included dissemination of
information about issues related to immigrants and multiculturalism, training
and international cooperation
and research on matters linked to the theme.
Based on research, participation in sports activities significantly contributes
to
the integration of immigrants into Finnish society.
- Promotion
of children’s cultural activities. In Finland, the promotion
of children’s cultural activities falls mainly under the administration of
the Ministry of Education.
Key actors are the National Board of Education and
the Arts Council of Finland at the national level, and local authorities and
regional arts councils at the municipal level. In practice, numerous private
associations, organizations and other institutions
active in that field play a
key role, and they often receive assistance from the Government or
municipalities. Of the 57 theatres
that receive government transfers, 9 have
children as their main target group, and of the 25 orchestras that are
sponsored, 1 specializes
in children’s music.
- Children’s
culture is a broad concept. It incorporates culture for children, which
means all manifestations of culture targeted at children from pedagogical and
cultural institutions to NGOs and commercial
provision of culture. On the other
hand, it is primarily children’s own culture; culture created by
children themselves through play and narration, taking on influences from the
adults, but largely based on laws
of its own.
- Children’s
culture has been an established concept in the cultural policy of Finland since
the 1970s. In the Government’s
administration of arts, there has been a
specific appropriation for children’s culture for about two decades
already, and the
Arts Council of Finland has a Children’s Culture Division
since 1987.
- Children’s
culture is one of the priority areas of interest of the Ministry of Education
in 2003. The operating and financial
plan of the Ministry for the years
2004-2007 also lays emphasis on children’s culture and has identified it
as one of the areas
of development. This has also shown in the form of concrete
measures. Taikalamppu (“a magic lamp”), a network of centres
for children’s culture, launched its first term (2003-2005) at the
beginning
of this year. The network, which functions in all parts of the
country, has been granted €406,000 for the year 2003. It is
assigned
to support and develop existing children’s culture centres and to
- stimulate
an interest in the setting up of centres in places that still lack one.
The activities include development of know-how
pertaining to the different
fields of art, and all kinds of knowledge related to children’s culture
(exhibitions, presentations,
art education, events, research).
- In
2003, an allocation of €370,000 was channelled to special subsidies and
grants, which promote children’s culture and,
above all, encourage
interaction between the artist and the child in art education, focus on the
presence of art in the living community
of the child, and support projects
designed to prevent social exclusion (art in children’s institutions).
The appropriation
has been increased by 132 per cent compared to 1997.
- The
Ministry of Education is also preparing a children’s cultural policy
programme for the whole administration, based on a
proposal entitled
Kulttuuri kasvaa lapsissa (“culture grows in children”),
submitted by the Arts Council of Finland. The programme will consist of such
elements
as suggestions for the basic objectives of children’s cultural
policy, and a range of extensive and detailed measures in the
various fields of
children’s culture, from the operation of art institutions to art
education, from the traditional media to
the new media and children’s
culture centres, and municipal and governmental responsibility for
children’s culture and
its promotion. The programme also relies on the
Art and Artist Policy Programme adopted by the Government, which is premised on
the idea that everyone has the right to enjoy art and that the preconditions for
creativity and innovation are based on children’s
culture and art
education.
- Youth
circus plays an increasingly important role in the promotion of culture for
children and young people. The Ministry of Education
has supported the Finnish
Youth Circus Association with a view to promoting circus activities throughout
the country and also active
local circus groups. Youth circus represents both
an activity for the young, a cultural activity and a physical exercise, and the
Ministry of Education has devoted much attention to it.
- Children’s
movies. Children’s movies and children’s movie culture have
become one of the priority areas of cultural policy in the recent
years. The
Ministry of Education has commissioned a development programme to improve
children’s movies, which includes suggestions
for measures in the years
2002-2005. A plan of action was also made in the film industry in 2002, which
for its part supports the
development of children’s movies. The plan of
action illustrates the policy line of the film industry as regards the
development
of public support in the next few years.
- The
suggestions made in the aforementioned development programme were very ambitious
and covered suggestions concerning the production,
dissemination and
distribution of children’s movies, including television programmes.
- Based
on the suggestions made in the development programme, films have already been
presented in cooperation with schools. In addition,
producers of
children’s movies have been offered professional continuing training.
Thanks to this development programme, attention
has also been paid to the
improvement of the preconditions of the production of children’s movies,
and public subsidies channelled
to children’s movies have been partly
earmarked for this purpose.
- The
idea is that the year 2004 will be a children’s movie theme year, when
special attention would be directed to the visibility
and promotion of the
position of children’s movies. A number of actors in the film industry
are engaged in the project. In
Finland, one annual film festival specializes in
children’s movies.
- Further
measures and provision of funds would be required to help increase the provision
of Sami radio and TV programmes and other
cultural activities (including
magazines, literature, music, theatre, video, puppet shows) for children and
young people.
VIII. SPECIAL PROTECTION MEASURES
A. Children in situations of emergency
1. Refugee
children (art. 22)
- During
the period under review, significant legislative amendments have been
made in Finland. The Aliens Act now includes both procedural
and
substantive rules on family reunification (537/1999). Prior to the
enforcement of this amendment, these issues were regulated
through
instructions given by the Ministry of the Interior. A new Act on the
Integration of Immigrants and Reception of Asylum-Seekers
(493/1999, as
amended 118/2002, 1292/2002) took effect in 1999.
- Unaccompanied
children seeking asylum. In 2001, 34 unaccompanied children seeking asylum,
also referred to as “unaccompanied minor asylum-seekers”, arrived
in
Finland. In 2002, there were 66. The numbers seem to follow the general trend
in the number of asylum-seekers; the total number
of asylum-seekers in 2002 was
nearly double over the preceding year. In 2001, unaccompanied minor
asylum-seekers arrived in Finland
from as many as 14 different countries, the
majority of them from Somalia and Angola. In 2002, unaccompanied minor
asylum-seekers
were from 18 different countries, the majority from Somalia,
Iraq, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola. Most of the
unaccompanied minor asylum-seekers were over 15 years old, but in 2002 a few of
the arrivals were born in the late 1990s. Very young
asylum-seekers seldom
arrive in Finland alone.
- In
Finland, asylum-seekers are accommodated in reception centres situated in
various parts of the country. Families with children
are placed, as far as
possible, in centres located in an environment that is suitable for
children.
- Reception
units (group homes) set up for the care and education of minors are often
located in conjunction with the reception centres
for asylum-seekers. Both
reception centres and units for minors are maintained by the Government, a
municipality or an organization.
Units that are meant to serve as a group home
for unaccompanied minor asylum-seekers are very often established under the same
roof
as family group homes for unaccompanied children who have already received
a residence permit. This prevents any unnecessary transfers
from one
institution to another. One of these units is now maintained by the Government;
five are run by local authorities.
- Persons
who claim asylum by definition take responsibility for the well-being of their
children. The reception centres organize club
activities for children under
statutory school age for the time that their parents participate in workshops
and educational activities.
Schoolchildren are entitled to attend the local
primary or comprehensive school. In the summer, supervised summer camps are
arranged.
The situation of children who have attained post-comprehensive school
age has been facilitated by means of various projects related
to studies and
workshops.
- Treatment
of claims for asylum submitted by unaccompanied children seeking asylum.
It very rarely happens that an unaccompanied child seeking asylum is
considered a refugee. Eligibility for refugee status requires
that the
individual has been personally threatened with persecution. Many minor children
are often considered to be in need of international
protection, mainly because
of the conditions in his or her home country and a clarification of a threat of
an individual human rights
violation is not required. Some unaccompanied minor
asylum-seekers are admitted to Finland based on the so-called principle of
equity
or a family tie, while some are denied asylum and the residence permit is
refused.
- In
2002, the Directorate of Immigration decided on the treatment of 58
unaccompanied minor asylum-seekers. Of them, 27 were considered
to be in need
of international protection, 10 were granted asylum in Finland based on the
so-called principle of equity, and 3 based
on a family tie. Of the
unaccompanied minors, 12 were refused asylum and a residence permit,
and 6 applications were considered
to have expired. The ones that
were refused asylum and residence permit were mainly nearly-adult applicants who
had not presented
any such grounds for their application as would have led to
granting them an asylum or a residence permit. In some cases, the applicant
had
first accompanied the parents who had sought asylum in Finland and, having been
denied entry, left the country and returned later
alone in the hope of getting
asylum.
- Decisions
by the Parliamentary Ombudsman. The Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman,
Riitta-Leena Paunio, started to investigate, on her own initiative, the issue of
the rights
of unaccompanied minor asylum-seekers and of children who had been
granted a residence permit based on an application for asylum
(referred to below
as unaccompanied refugee children). The Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman examined
many of the group and family
group homes that are meant to accommodate these
children.
- In
her decisions (29 December 2000, Register No. 2822/2/99), the Deputy
Parliamentary Ombudsman drew attention to the fact that the
processing of
children’s applications for asylum took very long (up to two years), and
to the adverse effects of the so-called
residence permit based on the principle
of equity, especially from the point of view of family reunification and of
placement after
a residence permit has been granted. The Deputy Parliamentary
Ombudsman criticized the so-called residence permits based on the
principle of
equity especially for the fact that, as concerns children who are granted the A4
status, family reunification in Finland
becomes in practice impossible. The
Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman stated that contact with family members,
especially the parents,
is one of the principal human rights of the child. The
decision also calls attention to the fact that arrangements have not been
made
for the provision of aftercare to unaccompanied refugee children arriving in
Finland, comparable to section 34 of the Child
Welfare Act. The Deputy
Parliamentary Ombudsman also paid attention to the position of persons who
had arrived in Finland alone
when they were children and
turned 18 years of age in Finland. In the decision, the Deputy
Parliamentary Ombudsman asked the Ministry of the Interior and the
Ministry of
Labour to find out, for example, about the average processing times of asylum
applications concerning unaccompanied children
seeking asylum, and how the
processing times could be shortened.
- In
its answer submitted in June 2001, the Ministry of the Interior gave an account
of the measures that the Ministry had taken in
order to shorten the
processing times of applications of unaccompanied children seeking asylum and to
improve the position of children
in the hearings relating to asylum. In
February 2001, the Ministry of Labour gave an update of a Government bill that
it has been
preparing. A subsequent amendment (Act on the Amendment of the Act
on the Integration of Immigrants and Reception of Asylum-Seekers
118/2002)
remedied some of the defects that the so-called residence permit based on the
principle of equity can cause to a child.
However, the residence permit based
on the principle of equity even now does not make family reunification possible
in Finland.
- In
2002, the Parliamentary Ombudsman, Riitta-Leena Paunio, took the initiative and
submitted the issue of the rights of unaccompanied
refugee children under
reconsideration. The Ministry of the Interior gave its account of the
issue to the Parliamentary Ombudsman
in December 2002. According to the
Ministry, the average processing times of asylum applications submitted by
unaccompanied children
have become shorter. As concerns pending proceedings,
the Parliamentary Ombudsman intends to specifically assess the processing
times
in cases involving family reunification, the mental services available for
unaccompanied refugee children and the materialization
of their fundamental
right to receive basic education, as guaranteed by the Constitution.
- In
the light of the new account, the Parliamentary Ombudsman has noted that the
processing time of the asylum applications of unaccompanied
refugee children has
become significantly shorter. However, problems still exist in the processing
concerning family reunification.
In a recent
decision,[58] the Deputy
Parliamentary Ombudsman Ilkka Rautio states that the processing of an
application concerning family reunification in the
Directorate of Immigration
has lasted an unduly long time. The decision makes reference to article 10 of
the Convention on the Rights
of the Child, according to which applications by a
child or his or her parents to enter or leave a State party for the purpose of
family reunification must be dealt with by States parties in a positive, humane
and expeditious manner.
- Criticism
by NGOs. NGOs have criticized the residence permits granted to
unaccompanied children seeking asylum based on the principle of equity.
These
are granted because refusal would have shown evidence of lack of equity. When
granted, a child receives an immigrant’s
residence permit status (A4),
according to which family reunification, for example, involves less exclusive
rights than are granted
to refugees and persons in need of international
protection. The reunification of the child’s family is made conditional
upon
guaranteed means of support, which in many cases is an insurmountable
barrier for the child. NGOs have suggested that the requirement
of guaranteed
means of support be formulated in a less rigid manner and that this requirement
not be applied to children at all.
In addition, NGOs have said that the right
to family reunification is problematic also in that according to the Aliens Act,
a minor
sibling is not defined as a family member. In case the only living
relatives of the child are his or her minor siblings, the children
effectively
form a family that has the right to live together.
- The
Government proposal to Parliament concerning a new aliens act is discussed in
chapter V, section D, above. The proposal contains
improvements that would make
family reunification easier than it is today.
- The
best interests of the child. In its decisions concerning the refusal of
entry of a foreigner, the Supreme
Court[59] has laid special
emphasis on the need to address such aspects as the best interests of the child
and the child’s development
and health, whenever a refusal of entry is
considered.
- Prioritizing
claims by unaccompanied children seeking asylum. The instructions on
asylum matters issued by the Ministry of the
Interior[60] state that
applications for asylum made by unaccompanied minors call for urgent
processing. The authorities that are involved in
the asylum process (the Police
Service, the Frontier Guard and the Directorate of Immigration) are trained to
meet unaccompanied
children seeking asylum in the course of the process and to
ensure the materialization of their best interests. Processing of applications
received from unaccompanied minor asylum-seekers is given priority by all the
authorities involved.
- The
Refugee and Asylum Division of the Directorate of Immigration set up a Child
Affairs Unit in August 2001 to deal with asylum applications
submitted by
unaccompanied children. The members of the Unit take responsibility for the
interviews of unaccompanied minor asylum-seekers
and for the decisions
concerning residence permits, made on the basis of asylum applications and
family ties. The Unit has also
sought to contribute to the materialization of
the best interests of the child by organizing meetings with interested parties
and
by participating in training and other events.
- At
present, the Directorate of Immigration is dealing with and making decisions on
only such applications as have been taken under
consideration in 2002 and
2003. In 2002, a total of 66 applications were pending, and by the
end of the year, a decision had been
taken in 22 cases. The average
processing time was about five months.
- Transfer
of responsibility for asylum investigation and training of the staff of the
Directorate of Immigration. The Committee has recommended that Finland
ensure adequate resources for the training of the officials who receive refugee
children.
It also encourages Finland to consider measures through which
children seeking asylum and refugee children can be granted equal
access to the
same standard of services, in particular education, irrespective of who they are
and where they live (recommendation No. 52).
- Since
the responsibility for the investigation of the grounds for asylum have been
gradually transferred from the Police Service to
the Directorate of Immigration,
the latter has been in charge of asylum investigations concerning unaccompanied
minor asylum-seekers,
since 2002. The police are still responsible for
finding out details related to the identity, route of travel and entry in the
country
of the applicant. The Directorate of Immigration hears the child about
the reasons of persecution. If possible, the police and
the Directorate of
Immigration try to arrange their hearings one after the other on the same
day. The Directorate of Immigration
makes arrangements to carry out the
hearings in close cooperation with not only the police but also with the staff
of the group or
family group home and the representative of the child. During
the hearings, the representative of the child is accompanied by an
interpreter
and, as a rule, also by a legal adviser from the Refugee Advice Centre.
- Unlike
adult asylum-seekers, unaccompanied children seeking asylum are heard, as a
rule, in the group or family group home where they
have been accommodated. The
hearings take place in an environment that is friendly to the child, and the
child has an opportunity
to have a meal and, if required, also rest during
breaks.
- The
asylum investigation of unaccompanied minor asylum-seekers is carried out in the
Child Affairs Unit, which specializes in minors
and possesses the required
expertise. It is important from the point of view of the decision-making that
an official from the Directorate
of Immigration meets the child. This helps
better appreciate the applicant’s individual situation and level of
development,
there is less need for requests for further information, and the
assessment of the credibility of the applicant’s statement
is more
well-grounded than it would be on the basis of written evidence only.
- Before
the practice of hearings was introduced, the Directorate of Immigration
participated in a project entitled Children First - Minors in the Asylum
Process: A training Programme for Officials (2001-2002), financed by the EU
Odysseus Programme, which aimed at developing the reception of minor
asylum-seekers. In addition to Finland, Ireland, Poland and Lithuania also took
part in the project. Other participants from Finland were the Ministry of
Labour, the Perniö reception centre, the police of
the city of Salo, the
Finnish Red Cross, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the
Refugee Advice Centre. The responsible
authorities were the Ministry of Labour
and the Directorate of Immigration.
- The
project was carried out in 2000 and 2001, and it was targeted at the
authorities, aiming at finding out how to encounter a child
in the asylum
process and how to assess the child’s best interests in the best possible
manner. In the context of the project,
the Directorate of Immigration worked
out guidelines for interviewing unaccompanied children seeking asylum (referred
to as “separated
minors” in the guidelines) and a form for
interviews (a copy of the material is enclosed). The guidelines are exhaustive
and
provide a thorough account of the issue, and are also used by the regional
offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
A separate
section is devoted to the question of how to meet and interview traumatized
children. Meeting a traumatized child has
also been discussed in the training
courses organized for the staff of the Directorate of Immigration.
- The
Ministry of Labour focused on the development of the working methods used in the
reception units and called attention to such
questions as strengthening of the
official networks of persons working with children, consultations with the
immediate family, and
psychosocial interviews and plans concerning the process
of voluntary return. The central material of the project is available on
a CD
and in a publication in English, produced by
IOM.[61]
- What
was said above also responds to the Committee’s recommendation No.
54, where it advises Finland to ensure that every effort be made to identify
children who require special support upon their arrival
in the State party, as
well as consider providing adequate psychological assistance to them and their
parents.
- Representatives.
The Act on the Integration of Immigrants and Reception of AsylumSeekers
(493/1999) lays down that a representative may be assigned
to a refugee child or
a child applying for a residence permit or seeking asylum who is in Finland
without a parent or legal guardian
or any other legal representative. The
representative shall protect the best interests of the child, taking into
account his or
her ethnic, linguistic, religious and educational
background.
- The
system of representatives was developed under an EU project financing before the
entry into force of the Act on the Integration
of Immigrants and Reception of
Asylum-Seekers. During its validity, the act has been developed under ERF
(European Refugee Fund)
financing in a project entitled Lapsen edun
mukainen vastaanotto (Reception in accordance with the best interests
of the child). Two organizations, the Central Union for Child Welfare and the
Refugee
Advice Centre, have taken responsibility for the project. During the
project cycle, representatives have received training and a
brochure on the
reception and representation of unaccompanied children seeking asylum has been
prepared for immigrants. The brochure
is available in all the main immigrant
languages.[62] A separate
handbook on the work of the representatives is under preparation.
- Multicultural
care work. In 2000, all employees in the group and family group homes who
work with children were offered the possibility to attend a tailor-made
training
course entitled “Multicultural care work”. The training was
organized by the University of Tampere Institute
for Extension Studies.
Employees working with children can also take part in a two-day training session
organized annually and tailored
to suit the needs and interests of the
participants. They can also take part in such other training in their own
field, at the employer’s
expense, as they consider important. Individual
and group job counselling is also available for employees.
- Integration
of immigrants and reception of asylum-seekers. The Act on the
Integration of Immigrants and Reception of Asylum-Seekers (493/1999, as amended
118/2002, 1292/2002) took effect in May
1999. The Act covers immigrants who
have a place of residence in Finland. Residence in Finland is provided for in
the Municipality
of Residence Act (201/1994) and also calls for a residence
permit granted by virtue of the Aliens Act (378/1991).
- The
Act on the Integration of Immigrants and Reception of Asylum-Seekers
requires that local authorities prepare an integration programme
for the
immigrants they receive. This programme is worked out also for individual
immigrants. An integration programme is made
in collaboration with the job
centre or with the local authorities for working age immigrants and those who
are outside the labour
force, respectively. Integration plans are made for
individual families. There is no separate programme for children. Children
are
integrated mainly through day care and the comprehensive school.
- The
Act on the Integration of Immigrants and Reception of Asylum-Seekers was
complemented in 2002 (118/2002) by provisions on the establishment
of group
homes in conjunction with the reception centres to facilitate the reception of
unaccompanied children seeking asylum and
children in need of temporary
protection. The operation of the group homes is governed by a provision of the
Child Welfare Decree
(1010/1983) on the maximum number of children and young
people in one unit of accommodation, the maximum number of children in the
same
set of buildings, and the minimum number of staff members in charge of care and
education.
- When
services are organized for minors or victims of torture, rape or other physical
or sexual violence or persons who are otherwise
disadvantaged, the special needs
arising from their situation are taken into account. Children who are seeking
asylum and whose
parents suffer from mental problems or are for some other
reason incapable of assuming responsibility for sufficient care of their
children are entitled to either municipal day-care or subsidised family
assistance.
- The
Government report on the implementation of the Act on the Integration of
Immigrants and Reception of Asylum-Seekers. At the time when Parliament
adopted the Act on the Integration of Immigrants and Reception of
Asylum-Seekers, it requested that
Government submit a report on the amendment
three years after the entry into force of the Act. The Government
report[63] was submitted to
Parliament in May 2002. It brought up problems and offered suggestions for
development concerning, inter alia,
the integration of children and young
people, reception of unaccompanied children seeking asylum and the duties of the
representative.
In its reply, Parliament called attention to the need to
improve the position of children seeking asylum and refugee children.
Accordingly, the Government will submit its proposal for amendments to the Act
on the Integration of Immigrants and Reception of
Asylum-Seekers to Parliament
in 2004, taking note of the suggestions for improvements included in the
parliamentary reply.
- Some
of the suggested improvements have already been carried out. The Ministry of
Labour and the Ministry of Education have jointly
launched a project that aims
at the creation of a model for early recognition of problems among young
immigrants and at the development
of multidisciplinary working methods to help
prevent and intervene in problems. The University of Tampere is now collecting
material
for the project, in cooperation with the City of Tampere. Financing is
obtained from the two ministries.
- Materialization
of the right to basic education of immigrant children. In 2002, the
Education Department of the City of Helsinki requested the Ombudsman for
Minorities to find out about immigrant pupils
and their admission to school.
The inquiry was based on cases found in schools where some immigrant children
starting preparatory
class or basic education did not have a residence permit.
In the instructions to schools, it has remained unclear whether immigrant
children can or must be required to possess a valid residence permit or not.
The enquiry dealt with the need of common principles,
and the Ombudsman for
Minorities was requested to inform about the issue at the national level.
- The
Ombudsman for Minorities stated that, as provided for in section 16 of the
Constitution of Finland, everyone has the right to basic education free of
charge. However, section 25 of the Act on Basic Education provides that
statutory education applies only to children with a permanent
residence in Finland. According to the statement, decision on a permanent
residence shall be based on the Municipality of Residence Act. Thus an
immigrant
child can be considered to be under the obligation to attend school if
he or she, based on the provisions of the Municipality of
Residence Act, has a
permanent residence in Finland.
- Confusion
obviously arises in respect of immigrant children from the content of section 4
of the Act on Basic Education, according
to which the local authorities shall be
responsible for the organization of basic education and pre-school education for
children
of statutory school age
- with
a residence in the municipality. In his statement, the Ombudsman for
Minorities noted that a child could be considered to have a residence in the
territory of a municipality
if his or her stay in the municipality is based not
on a visit but on some other reason. In that case, residence is based on a
residence
permit and can be for a fixed period of time or continuous.
Accordingly, a temporary visit based on a visa or visa-free entry would
not, by definition, meet the preconditions of residence.
- However,
arrival in Finland with the intention to stay and live in the country is
possible either with a visa or based on the visa-free
regime. Children who have
arrived in the country without a residence permit and who are waiting for a
decision about one cannot
be considered to be under an obligation to attend
school. In practice, however, they have settled down in some municipality and
can, therefore, be considered to be entitled to receive basic education free of
charge.
- Provided
that the majority of the amendments to the Aliens Act enter into force, it is
obvious that cases where a person can arrive
in the country without a residence
permit and obtain one in Finland will increase. It is common knowledge that
processing of residence
permits may take long, and it is hard to predict the
length of time that the applicant needs to wait for his or her permit. It would
be unfair towards the children involved to be denied access to school while
waiting for a residence permit.
- According
to the statement of the Ombudsman for Minorities, schools have not been
specifically assigned to assess if a pupil has a
residence permit or not or if
the preconditions are met. But the school can ask immigrant children to provide
the information that
is normally requested when a child enrols in school, such
as personal details, home address, etc. The purpose of the child’s
stay
in the country can also be clarified. Other aspects related to the arrangement
of teaching can also be investigated, such as
whether the child seeks asylum or
whether he or she belongs to the refugee population. In the context of the
reception services
available to refugees and asylum-seekers, the school can, for
example, make arrangements to obtain interpretation free of charge
at
parent-teacher meetings.
- A
statement given to the Education Department of the City of Helsinki was sent for
information to the Ministry of Education and the
National Board of Education,
and the competent authorities were requested to take the necessary measures to
implement the right to
basic education of immigrant children.
- Statements
based on the Aliens Act. The Ombudsman for Minorities has also duties
provided for in the Aliens Act, that is, he has to submit statements concerning
applications
for asylum and the deportation of aliens from the country.
Considering the field of responsibility of the Ombudsman, the statements
typically focus on finding out if it is possible to arrive at a favourable
decision on asylum and on whether the preconditions required
to make a decision
on deportation are met.
- When
the Directorate of Immigration asks the Ombudsman for Minorities to provide a
statement on an asylum issue, the Ombudsman submits
a statement with reasons, if
considered necessary based on reasons related to the application or its
processing. Otherwise, the
- Ombudsman
for Minorities states that the material concerning the applicant’s refugee
issue, available at the time of the statement,
did not produce any evidence that
would call for a more detailed statement by the Ombudsman.
- In
2002, the Ombudsman for Minorities submitted a total of 644 statements
concerning asylum on the basis of the Aliens Act. Of these,
33 statements dealt
with unaccompanied children who had arrived in Finland. Requests for statements
concerning unaccompanied children
seeking asylum have been considered to be
urgent, and statements have been submitted as soon as possible.
- As
concerns deportation, the Ombudsman for Minorities submitted a total
of 117 statements in 2002, of which 15 were related to unaccompanied
children who had arrived in Finland either as unaccompanied minor
asylum-seekers or with their families, based on Finnish origin
or after one of
the parents had married a Finnish citizen. While in Finland, these young people
had got involved with crime and
some of them had also become substance
abusers.
- In
both asylum and deportation issues, the Ombudsman for Minorities has taken into
account the different situation of the child as
compared to that of adults. For
example, the time spent in Finland and the ties that have developed in the
country are different.
The problems young immigrants encounter in Finland
cannot be solved by means of denying their problems and getting them out of
sight.
We require an active and broad-based integration policy, where all the
phases of the integration process are open to adjustment.
- The
Ombudsman for Minorities’ action related to the status of immigrant
families and children. In 2002, the Office of the Ombudsman for Minorities
took part in the work of a group that planned, financed and published a brochure
for immigrants, entitled Tasa-arvoisena Suomessa - tietoa
maahanmuuttajanaiselle ja - miehelle (Equality in Finland - Information for
Immigrants). The brochure gives basic information about such issues as marriage
and cohabitation,
upbringing and education of children, studies, job seeking,
and difficulties in family life and solving problems. The brochure has
been
published in the publication series of the Ministry of Labour. It has been
printed in 8 languages and is available in 13 languages
on the web site of the
Ministry of Labour.[64]
- The
Ombudsman for Minorities has, in cooperation with other actors, also organized
seminars on equality, equal opportunities and multiculturalism
for immigrants
and persons working with immigrants.
- Aliens
in detention. The Act on the Treatment of Aliens and Detention Units
(116/2002) took effect on 1 March 2002. The Act provides for the treatment
of
aliens who have been taken into detention by virtue of the Aliens Act,
especially in the detention unit that has been specifically
reserved for this
purpose. Arrangements are made to ensure that they have accommodation, full
board and access to interpretation
services, and that their other basic needs
are met in the detention unit. Their rights must not be restricted more than
the purpose
and security of the detention and the maintenance of security and
order require.
- In
accordance with the Aliens Act, persons under the age of 18 may not be placed in
detention without first hearing the social welfare
authorities or the Ombudsman
for Minorities. As an exception to this provision, an alien in detention can be
placed in the detention
facilities of the police if all detention units are
temporarily engaged, or the alien is taken into detention far from the nearest
detention unit, in which case the detention may last a maximum of four days.
A person under 18 years of age can be placed in the
detention facilities of
the police only together with his or her family or legal guardian.
- DNA
tests. In 2000, a provision was added to the Aliens Act concerning DNA
tests (114/2000). Provided that a family member residing in Finland
cannot
otherwise prove that his or her family ties are based on a biological
relationship, the family tie can be ascertained by means
of conducting a DNA
test financed by the Government. The test calls for the consent of the person
to be examined.
2. Children in armed conflicts (art. 38) and promotion
of
their recovery and social integration
- Optional
Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of
children in armed conflict. The Optional Protocol took effect in
Finland on 10 May 2002 (Treaty Series 31/2002). The Protocol concerns
armed conflicts, for which
Finland is prepared by means of compulsory military
service. By virtue of the Conscription Act (452/1950), all Finnish men are
liable
for military service to be able to defend their country and the legal
social order. The Act on Women’s Voluntary Military
Service (194/1995)
lays down provisions on the preconditions under which a woman can be accepted to
do voluntary military service.
- The
minimum age of conscripts was lowered by an Act (364/2000) in May 2000.
According to the amendment, a person is allowed to start
also voluntary military
service only after he or she has attained 18 years of age. A corresponding
amendment has been made to the
Act on Women’s Voluntary Military Service
(365/2000). Consequently, persons who have not reached 18 years of age are not
recruited
to combat.
- When
the ratification instrument to the Protocol was deposited, Finland submitted a
statement based on article 3, paragraph 2, of
the Protocol that Finland requires
that all persons recruited to serve in the national armed forces are at least 18
years of age
and that the minimum age requirement applies to both men’s
compulsory military service and women’s voluntary military
service.
Finland will submit its initial report on the implementation of the provisions
of the Protocol in May 2004.
- The
Government of Finland has channelled funds from the appropriations for
international development cooperation to support the work
of the Office of the
Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict.
Development cooperation funds
have also been used to support the activities of
the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers,
created by international NGOs to stop the use of child soldiers.
B. Children and criminal law
1. Criminal liability (art.
40)
- Minimum
age for criminal liability. In Finland, the minimum age for criminal
liability is 15 years. A child younger than that cannot be arrested or
imprisoned, but
measures based on child welfare can be applied. Liability for
damages caused by crime covers also young people under 15 years of
age. A young
offender refers to a person between 15 and 20 years of age. Based on the
provisions of the Penal Code, a less severe
penal scale is applied to young
offenders (613/1974). A separate law, the Young Offenders Act (262/1940), has
been enacted to provide
for them.
- Based
on statistical information compiled by the police, the number of homicides
committed by young people is on the rise but, in
a long-term perspective, the
total number of offences committed by young people has not risen. When all the
offences investigated
by the police in 2000 are reviewed, the suspect was under
15 years of age in only 2.1 per cent of the cases.
- Number
of persons under 20 years of age who were suspected of having committed homicide
or an attempt of one in the years 1997 to
2002.
Age of suspect
|
1997
|
1998
|
1999
|
2000
|
2001
|
Jan.-June 2002
|
Under 15
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
5
|
5
|
15-17
|
17
|
20
|
19
|
34
|
41
|
12
|
18-20
|
24
|
18
|
38
|
48
|
67
|
35
|
Total
|
41
|
38
|
59
|
84
|
113
|
52
|
Change
|
|
-7.30%
|
+55.30%
|
+42.40%
|
+34.50%
|
|
Source: Police data. Häkkänen & Hagelstam. Young
homicide offenders: recent developments and their background. Crime
investigation 2002. National Bureau of Investigation. Helsinki 2003.
- During
the past years, a few exceptionally brutal offences committed by young people
have led to much public discussion. There has
been debate about whether the
minimum age for criminal liability should be lowered in order to make young
offenders (some of the
young offenders were very young) take responsibility for
their acts. In its report, the Committee on Juvenile
Crime,[65] which has been in
charge of the reform of the punishment system, has not seen it appropriate to
lower the minimum age for criminal
liability from the present 15 years of age.
- Organizations
promoting the rights of the child have opposed lowering the minimum age for
criminal liability, noting that children
and young people possibly know more
than before, but there is no evidence of their becoming mentally mature earlier
than before.
On the contrary, it takes children and young people longer than
before to reach the capacities required by an adult. Children and
young people
whose behaviour is disturbing have in most cases received inadequate care and
upbringing. Such defects cannot be remedied
by means that are available in the
framework of the system of criminal sanctions.
- Juvenile
punishment. The Juvenile Punishment Experiment Act (1058/1996) complemented
by a Juvenile Punishment Experiment Decree (1066/1996) took effect
in 1997.
A trial phase, which involves tests in conjunction with criminal cases in
seven different district courts, will end in
2004. A young offender who is 15
to 17 years of age can be sentenced to juvenile punishment in case a fine is
considered an inadequate
punishment, but there are weighty reasons against the
use of punishment to an unconditional sentence of imprisonment. Juvenile
punishment
consists of youth service, which can be 10 to 60 hours of service,
and means regular, unpaid work done under supervision and guided
duties that
enhance the offender’s social capacities. A young offender’s
supervision may last from a minimum of four
months up to a maximum of one year.
A plan of implementation of the juvenile punishment provides for how frequently
and in what
ways the offender needs to be in contact with the supervisor, lays
down a timetable for the youth service and describes how the service
is carried
out. The Probation Service takes responsibility for the implementation of
juvenile punishments. Based on statistics
compiled by the Probation Service, 50
juvenile punishments were imposed in 2001. During the trial period from 1997 to
2001, as many
as 133 completed juvenile punishments were recorded, and courts of
law had interrupted 80 juvenile
punishments.[66]
- In
spring 2003, the Committee on Juvenile
Crime[67] proposed that the
experimented juvenile punishment be introduced in the whole country after some
changes had been made based on the
experience gained during the trial phase.
For example, the juvenile punishment should be applied more often in cases where
the young
offender has committed an offence for which a conditional sentence
would not be sufficiently severe and effective. The scope of
application of the
juvenile punishment should also be expanded to cover offences committed by
persons 18 to 20 years old. A major
change to the present system
would be an amendment according to which a juvenile punishment could be imposed
wholly or partly in
the form of obliging the offender to receive mental health
care or intoxicant abuse treatment, as a rule complemented by the core
functions
of the juvenile punishment. This idea is grounded on the experience that
juvenile offenders tend to have problems in these
areas.
- Supervision.
To intensify a conditional imprisonment, offenders who are under 21 years of age
can be sentenced also to be under supervision.
The provisions on supervision
are included in the Young Offenders Act (262/1940) and the Decree on Young
Offenders (1001/1942).
The idea of supervision is to prevent the sentenced
offender from committing another crime. Prior to the start of supervision,
the
young person’s life situation is charted and a personal history report is
made. The impacts of the various alternative
forms of punishment on the young
person’s situation are then evaluated based on the report. Persons under
18 years of age
are sentenced to an unconditional imprisonment only for very
weighty reasons. A special supervision plan is made to determine the
objectives
of and means to be used during the period of supervision. At the beginning
of 2002, approximately 1,600 young offenders
who had been sentenced to a
conditional punishment were under
supervision.[68]
- Arbitration.
Offences committed by young people and also acts of misdemeanour by persons
under 15 years of age can be subject to arbitration.
Impartial arbitrators with
a special training for this purpose help the parties arrive at reconciliation
and decide about compensation.
Both the victim of the offence, the offender,
the parents of a minor offender, the police, the
- prosecutor
or a social welfare officer can make an initiative to start arbitration.
Provided that the parties arrive at an understanding,
an agreement is made.
Arbitration is voluntary and free of charge. Suggestions have been made to make
the voluntary arbitration
system a statutory practice.
- In
spring 2003, an advisory committee on criminal matters was set up under the
administration of the Ministry of Social Affairs and
Health. The Committee
functions as a criminal policy discussion forum, which deals with matters
related to the management of crime
investigation. The Committee follows and
evaluates the arbitration of criminal matters and makes suggestions for
development.
2. Deprivation of liberty, arrest, imprisonment and
involuntary
treatment (art. 37, subparas. (b) to (d))
- In
Finland, a child or young person may be subjected to deprivation of liberty on
grounds provided by law in the following situations:
- − When a
person who has attained the age of 15 is arrested, imprisoned or given a
custodial sentence or found guilty of a criminal
act;
- − When a
minor is subject to child welfare measures against his or her own will or
against the parents’ will;
- − When a
minor is taken into psychiatric care against his or her own will or against the
parents’ will.
- Sentences
of imprisonment. In Finland, relatively few prisoners and remand prisoners
are younger than 18 years of age. This is partly because of a provision
in the
Penal Code (520/2001) according to which a person may not be sentenced to an
unconditional imprisonment if he or she was under
18 years of age at the time
when the offence was committed, unless it is called for by weighty reasons.
Prisoners under 21 years
of age on 1 January 2003 were as
follows:
|
Remand prisoners
|
Convicted prisoners
|
Total
|
Men
|
Women
|
Men
|
Women
|
15-17 years
|
7
|
0
|
5
|
0
|
12
|
18-20 years
|
42
|
1
|
62
|
2
|
107
|
Total
|
49
|
1
|
67
|
2
|
119
|
Source: The Criminal Sanctions Agency, 1 January
2003.[69]
- Treatment
of prisoners. According to the Enforcement of Sentences
Act,[70] prisoners shall be
entitled to a fair treatment and respect for their human dignity. The
prohibition of discrimination is applied
to prisoners, and they must not be
placed in an unequal position with respect to one another for such reasons as
age. However, when
a sentence is imposed on a young offender, special attention
shall be paid to the special needs arising from his or her age and maturity.
- The
Prison Administration Department of the Ministry of Justice has issued
instructions (No. 2/011/96) concerning the treatment of
young offenders in
prison. The content of the instructions was explained in more detail in the
second periodic report.
- Treatment
against the patient’s will. The Mental Health Act (1116/1990) lays
down provisions concerning the treatment of minors (954/1992). A minor can be
ordered treatment
in a psychiatric hospital against his or her will if he or she
needs treatment and other mental health services are inadequate or
inappropriate. A minor psychiatric patient shall always be placed in a ward
that is specifically designed for child or adolescent
psychiatric patients.
Minors shall be treated separately from adult patients, unless it is considered
that it is in the best interests
of the child to act otherwise. As concerns
ordering a minor to treatment, the medical criteria are of paramount importance
and the
order does not call for the consent of the parent or legal
guardian.
3. Prohibition of capital punishment and life imprisonment
(art. 37, subpara. (a))
- Capital
punishment during peacetime was abolished from the Finnish penal system
in 1949 and entirely in 1972.
- Finland
is a State party to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the
abolition of the death penalty
(Treaty Series 49/1991) and to Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on
Human Rights, concerning
the abolition of the death penalty (Treaty Series
63/1999; as amended by Protocol No. 11). In May 2002, Finland signed Protocol
No. 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights, concerning the abolition of
the death penalty in all circumstances. The Protocols
will be ratified in late
2003.
- Life
imprisonment may not be imposed for an offence committed by a person
under 18 years of age (Penal Code 3:2; 613/1974).
4. Physical and psychological recovery and social
reintegration (art. 39)
- In
Finland, cases that fall within the scope of application of this article are
mainly related to neglect or abuse at home. The Finnish
Child Welfare Act also
covers after-care that the social welfare authorities are always responsible to
arrange for a child or young
person at the termination of extra-familial care.
The purpose of after-care is to provide support for the child and his or her
parents.
The duty to arrange after-care ends when the young person attains the
age of 21.
C. Children in situations of exploitation, and promotion of
their
physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration
1.
Economic exploitation, including child labour (art. 32)
- As
a rule, cases of exploitation of child labour referred to in article 32 of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child do not occur
in
Finland.
- Young
workers. The Young Workers Act has been amended by an Act (754/1998), and
the amended provisions took effect at the beginning of 1999.
The most
significant amendments are as follows:
- − Children
of statutory school age, who have attained 14 years of age or will be
14 years old during the said calendar year,
can go to work for half of
their school holidays and at the most two thirds of their holidays. The
amendment has been made due to
the supervision practice of the European Social
Charter of the Council of Europe (Treaty Series 44/1991);
- − The
regular hours of work and training of an apprentice may not exceed 8 hours a
day, and 40 hours a week;
- − In
addition, the provision on emergency work was revised so that a person who has
attained 15 years of age can, as provided
for in section 21 of the Hours of Work
Act (605/1996), be engaged in emergency work only if an 18 year old or older
person is not
available. If adults are not available at the workplace or there
are not enough of them, a 15 year old can be assigned to do emergency
work;
- − The
provision of daily rest periods was revised to apply to all young workers, that
is, to persons who are under 18 years
of age. When the daily hours of work of a
young person are longer than four and a half hours, he or she has to be allowed
to have
at least one rest period of a minimum of 30 minutes.
- Employment
as a member of a ship’s crew is not covered by the provisions of the Young
Workers Act. Young persons working on
board a Finnish ship are covered by the
provisions concerning young workers contained in the Seamen’s Act
(423/1978) and Seamen’s
Hours of Work Act (296/1976).
- A
decree of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health on a Non-exhaustive List of
Tasks Dangerous for Young Workers (128/2002) took
effect at the beginning
of March 2002. Hazardous tasks listed in the decree may not be assigned at all
to persons who are under
16 years of age. The tasks may be assigned to persons
who have attained 16 years of age if adequate precautions have been taken.
In
that case, the employer also has to notify the Occupational Safety and Health
District of the assignment. This decree repealed
the Decision of the
Ministry of Labour concerning Work which is considered Dangerous to Young
Persons of 23 October 1996 (756/1996).
- Participation
in international work against child labour. Finland supports the
International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) related to ILO
Convention No. 182 concerning
the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the
Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour. Finland’s grant in 2000
was of
€589,000 (3.5 million Finnish marks) and €336,000 (2.0
million Finnish marks) in 2001.
- In
2000-2003, Finland has been involved in a three-year project to put an end to
the exploitation of child labour in gold mines in
Camarines Norte (Philippines),
in the framework of ILO/IPEC. Finland’s role in the project ended in
summer 2003.
- Finland
has also allocated funds from regional appropriations to three projects carried
out by ILO/IPEC in the Russian Federation:
- − Street
Children in St Petersburg: From Exploitation to Education (2000-2003);
- − Working
Street Children in the Leningrad Region: Initial Action to Fight the Worst
Forms of Child Labour (2003-2004);
- − Russian
translation of the ILO/IPU handbook for parliamentarians Eliminating the
worst forms of child labour. A practical guide to ILO Convention No.
182.
2. Drug abuse (art. 33)
- In
Finland, the use and possession of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances
are punishable acts. The production, sale, importation
and transport of
narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances are also punishable.
- Recommendation.
The Committee has noted with appreciation the Decision-in-Principle on Drug
Policy of 1999 and encourages Finland to empower positive
culture changes and to
pursue its awareness-raising and preventive measures, including drug education
in schools. It has further
recommended that Finland allocate more
resources to the child welfare service system for treatment therapies and
rehabilitation services
specifically tailored for children (recommendation
No. 56).
- Prevention
of drug abuse. In Finland, drug abuse has been less common than in the rest
of Europe. Drug abuse became more common in the 1990s, but levelled
off in the
early 2000. More resources have been channelled to the prevention of drug abuse
among young people. The Ministry of
Education, for example, has allocated
separate funds directly to preventive work and to the enhancement of the skills
and capabilities
of persons who work with young people, such as teachers and
youth workers, and persons who participate in non-governmental activities
who
need to be equipped with responses to challenges arising from drug abuse. The
funding has been premised on the belief that support
to effective and fruitful
youth work and youth activities can lead to real alternatives to drugs and other
intoxicants. Preventive
work is carried out in collaboration with the youth and
education sector, the social welfare and health-care administration, the
police,
and the legal authorities at both governmental and local levels.
- The
future enlargement of the EU and the removal of border controls will pose
additional challenges to those engaged in the prevention
of drug abuse,
including pressures to set higher taxes on alcoholic beverages and to remove
import restrictions. It is important
that developments in this area be followed
especially from the point of view of the prevention of the adverse effects of
drug abuse
and the development of rehabilitation.
- Materialization
of some of the fundamental rights of children placed in community homes.
The Parliamentary Ombudsman Riitta-Leena Paunio took independent initiative in
2002 and, at her request, a survey was made on the
materialization of the rights
of the child in all community homes run by the Government. In her statement (31
December 2002, Register
No. 3170/2/01), the Parliamentary Ombudsman drew
attention to such issues as treatment of
- child
addicts, and especially to the fact that drug tests are run in community homes
without a legislative foundation. She also paid
attention to the compliance
with fundamental and human rights provisions in cases where the child is in need
of particularly intensive
care. Compliance with the fundamental and human
rights of the child is particularly demanding during the care period, for
example,
the restriction of contacts between the child and the parents and
limitation of the freedom of movement of the child. A more detailed
account of
the decision is given in chapter VI, Section B, above.
- Drug
abuse prevention in workshops. In May 2003, the Ministry of Social Affairs
and Health and the Ministry of Education set up a Board of Senior Officials to
plan
and implement training courses on the prevention of drug abuse, targeted at
youth workers who should be equipped to deal with clients
with a drug problem.
One of the main objectives the Government of Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen is to
find out more effective ways
to prevent the social exclusion of young people and
to enhance their social skills. The Government will draft a resolution and a
programme on combating the harmful effects of alcohol and draw up an action plan
on drug abuse.
- Provision
of workshops has proved to be an effective way to attend to young people who
have not managed to establish proper links
with society and the labour market.
In accordance with the Government programme, workshops for young people will
become an established
form of youth work during the Government’s term in
office. The general objectives of the project are to improve the skills
of the
workshop staff to encounter and deal with drug issues and to prepare proposals
and recommendations to help reduce the adverse
effects of the abuse of narcotic
drugs and psychotropic substances and their consequences. Every workshop will
observe the same
rules concerning drugs.
- Narcotic
drugs as a threat in the future. In a survey conducted in 2002 by the local
and district offices of the Mannerheim League for Child
Welfare,[71] drug abuse was
considered to represent the greatest threat factor in the future. It is
alarming to note that parents do not have
the strength to step in or do not care
about their children’s drug abuse. The combat of drug abuse should
target, above all,
at the values held by adults, because children do not live in
a vacuum but in the world of values of the adults. The Mannerheim
League and
other child welfare organizations have expressed their deep concern about the
recent views in the public discussion that
have been in favour of drugs.
3. Sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children (art.
34)
- Recommendation.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child urged Finland to undertake
adequate measures to combat the sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children
and to pursue international cooperation
for the investigation and the
prosecution of sexual abuse and exploitation of children by Finnish citizens
abroad (recommendation No. 58).
- The
sexual abuse of children has been much discussed both in public and among
professionals. The general opinion on the sexual abuse
of children and on
attempts to commit such acts is strictly disapproving. The authorities have
started several measures to protect
children from sexual exploitation and
abuse.
- National
Action Plan. The National Action Plan on Combating the Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children (Lasten kaupallisen seksuaalisen
hyväksikäytön vastaiset toimet), prepared by the Government
of Finland, was completed at the beginning of 2000. Measures that were
suggested in the Action Plan
have been implemented in 2000-2002, in cooperation
between the authorities and NGOs. Both preventive and rectifying measures have
been taken. In accordance with the Action Plan, information about the sexual
abuse of children will be an element of the basic and
continuing education of
persons working with children, such as staff members of day-care centres,
teachers, social welfare and health-care
staff and the police. Community and
Youth Police, who visit day-care centres and schools, will give children
information about how
they can avoid becoming victims of sexual abuse. The
police and the prosecutor will be provided with clear instructions and explicit
rules of procedure for possible cases involving sexual abuse of a child or
purchase of sexual services from a minor abroad by a Finnish
citizen.
Information will also be disseminated about the hotline and e-mail address of
the National Bureau of Investigation, where
citizens can inform about any child
pornographic material that they may have found on the Internet. Information is
also given to
the public about the fact that possession of child pornography is
a crime and that the prohibition of possession covers also material
obtained via
the Internet.
- Sexual
offences against the child. The provisions of the Penal Code that pertain
to sexual offences against children (563/1998) took effect at the beginning of
1999.
A person who has sexual intercourse with a child younger than 16 years of
age or otherwise performs a sexual act with a child younger
than 16 years of age
can be sentenced for sexual abuse of a child to imprisonment for a maximum of
four years. Attempted abuse is
also punishable.
- If
the victim of a sexual abuse is a child whose age or stage of development is
such that the offence is conducive to causing special
injury to him/her, is
committed in an especially humiliating manner, or conducive to causing special
injury to the child owing to
the special trust he/she has put in the offender or
the special dependence of the child on the offender, the offender can be
sentenced
for aggravated sexual abuse of a child to imprisonment for at least 1
year and at most 10 years. An attempt is also punishable.
- The
purchase of sexual services from a young person, that is, a person who is
younger than 18 years of age is a punishable act. Procurement
is also
punishable in case it involves a person under the age of 18.
- The
production, possession and dissemination of obscene pictures of a child, that
is, child pornographic material, are punishable
acts since the beginning of
1999. These provisions are included in the Offences against Public Order,
criminalized in the Penal
Code (563/1998).
- Abolition
of dual criminality. If a Finnish citizen is found guilty of a sexual abuse
of a child, purchase of sexual services from a person who is younger than
18
years of age, procurement involving a person under 18 years of age, or
production, dissemination or possession of child pornography
and the offence was
committed abroad, he/she can be punished in Finland. As concerns these
offences, dual criminality was abandoned.
This means that the act need not be
punishable based on the legislation valid in the country where the offence took
place (lex loci delicti). The Finnish police actively cooperate with
foreign counterparts, especially with the police of the neighbouring areas in
Estonia
and the Russian Federation to prevent these phenomena.
- In
2001, judgement was delivered to one person in Finland for the purchase of
sexual services in the Russian Federation from a person
under 18 years of age,
and in 2002, and to another one for the sexual exploitation of a child in the
same country. These cases were
dealt with very extensively in the media, which
may have increased awareness of the illicit character of such acts. On account
of
the nature of these offences, investigation was rather difficult, but in
spite of that, cooperation with the Russian authorities
was very successful.
The fact that the purchase of sexual services from a young person is a crime
even when the act takes place
abroad was discussed in Finland also during a
campaign against trafficking in women, conducted in Finland in 2002.
- The
Ministry of Justice has had a liaison prosecutor in Tallinn since the beginning
of 2001 to work as a link between Finnish and
Estonian legal authorities
and to facilitate and enhance the cooperation carried out by the authorities.
The liaison prosecutor
can, as required, also step up the investigation and
prosecution of offences related to the sexual exploitation of children. The
Ministry of Justice intends to post another liaison prosecutor to work in the
Russian Federation.
- An
Act took effect at the beginning of 2003 (1313/2002), according to which
cooperation can also be enhanced by establishing a joint
board of investigation,
composed by official representatives of Finland and a foreign country, to carry
out the preliminary investigation.
- Nordic-Baltic
campaign against trafficking in women in Finland in 2002. The information
campaign built up knowledge and showed that prostitution and trafficking in
human beings are interlinked. The
objective of trafficking in humans is, in
most cases, sexual exploitation or prostitution. Sexual service advertisements,
pornography,
sex phones and sex bars, intimate massage services, escort
services, sex tourism, trafficking in women and children, and prostitution
are
all part of the sex industry that has today developed into a modern form of
slavery worldwide.
- Checking
the criminal background of persons working with children. The Act on
Checking the Criminal Background of Persons Working with Children (504/2002)
took effect at the beginning of 2003.
The purpose of the Act is to protect the
personal integrity of minors and to promote their personal security. The Act
contains provisions
on the procedure for obtaining the criminal record of
persons appointed to work with minors, that is, with persons under 18 years
of age. The new procedure improves the protection of the child from all forms
of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse, called for
in article 34 of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child.
- The
procedure of checking an employee’s criminal background applies both to
work performed in private law relationships and
to civil service employments
which involve, on a permanent basis and to a material degree and in the legal
guardian’s absence,
raising, teaching or caring for or looking after a
minor or other work in personal contact with a minor. A private individual can
obtain information about his/her criminal record free of charge if he or she
seeks employment to work with children.
- The
procedure of checking the criminal background applies, under the aforementioned
preconditions, also in the following cases:
- – Work
service carried out by a person in non-military service;
- – Work
performed at a workplace by a person being coached for working life, or during a
trainee or trial period;
- – Family
care in the carer’s private home (Act 312/1992);
- – Work
carried out be private social welfare and health-care
providers.
The employer or other person who is responsible
for checking the criminal background of an applicant asks him or her to submit
an
extract of his or her criminal record, referred to in section 6,
subsection 2, of the Criminal Record Act. The extract shows whether
the person
has, based on the Penal Code, been sentenced to punishment for a sexual offence,
violent offence or drug offence. The
procedure of investigating
applicants’ criminal background is part of the applicability testing for
the work in question.
An entry in the criminal record does not prevent
employment or granting of a licence, but the applicant’s suitability for
the
work in question is ultimately decided upon by the employer or an authority.
The procedure does not apply to work or service lasting
for a maximum of three
months.
- Recommendations
for social welfare professionals on the sexual and physical abuse of
children. The Parliamentary Ombudsman Riitta-Leena Paunio took independent
initiative in 2001 and started to look into the question of what
procedures
are used by the social welfare and health-care authorities when suspected cases
of sexual exploitation of a child are
investigated. The Ministry of Social
Affairs and Health, for example, was asked to find out if the bodies that
operate under its
administration possess enough information about the penal and
procedural principles to be able to conduct legal proceedings without
jeopardizing the legal protection of the parties. The Ministry set up a working
group in September 2001 to clarify and address cases
related to the sexual and
physical abuse of children
- As
a result of this work, Stakes published, in spring 2003, a set of
recommendations for the social welfare and health-care staff
and the police to
help them recognize and investigate cases of sexual and physical abuse of
children.[72] These
recommendations differ markedly from the instructions issued earlier in that
they recommend the involvement of the police
in the investigation at an early
phase. Related concepts and the appropriate provisions of the Penal Code
are specified. In addition,
concrete instructions are given to help resolve
suspected cases of sexual and physical abuse of children. The theme will be
dealt
with in detail in different educational events, and the media has taken
much interest in broadcasting material focusing on the issue.
- The
Northern Hotline. Save the Children Finland maintains a child welfare
hotline on the Internet, entitled the Northern Hotline. The purpose
of the hotline is to eliminate child pornography from the Internet and protect
young people from harmful and illegal
uses of the Internet. Messages to
the hotline are dealt with in confidence and laying an emphasis
on the child’s point of
view. The Northern Hotline observes the
principles of INHOPE (The Association of Internet Hotline Providers in
Europe) and, whenever
illegal material is identified on the Internet, forwards
the material either to the hotline in the country where the material was
located, to the corresponding teleoperator and/or the National Bureau of
Investigation. The hotline works in close cooperation with
the lawmakers, the
guardians of law and order, and representatives of education, health and social
welfare, and the authorities and
private service providers on the Internet. The
operation of the hotline is financed by the European Union, the Finnish Slot
Machine
Association (RAY) and private donors.
4. Sale of and traffic in children and child abduction (art.
35)
- In
Finland, cases of child abduction mainly relate to disputes between divorcing or
divorced parents and concern the custody, place
of residence, and right of
access of the child. Child abduction was dealt with in more detail in chapter
V, section E, above.
- It
is extremely unusual in Finland that anyone becomes guilty of child abduction or
deprivation of the liberty of a child with a view
to obtaining economic benefit.
The provisions concerning offences of deprivation of liberty, such as abduction,
deprivation of liberty,
and taking of a hostage, are laid down in the Penal Code
(chap. 25; 578/1995). Arbitrary taking of a child as hostage is also an
offence of deprivation of liberty.
- In
accordance with Finnish legislation, adoption against payment is prohibited.
Adoption cannot be confirmed if a payment is involved.
Providers of
intercountry adoptions can charge a fee for their services.
- Preparation
of penal provisions related to trafficking in persons. The Ministry of
Justice set up a working group in November 2002 to prepare a plan for new penal
provisions related to trafficking
in persons. Amendment of the provisions is
necessary mainly because of the international conventions signed by Finland and
the framework
decisions concluded by the EU. Provisions on trafficking in
persons are included in the Protocol to the United Nations Convention
against
Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo Convention) to prevent, suppress and
punish trafficking in persons, especially in
women and children. Provisions
related to trafficking in persons that are binding on Finland are also recorded
in the Optional Protocol
to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the
sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography and the EU Framework
Decision on combating trafficking in human beings. The valid legislation in
Finland does not expressly cover trafficking in persons
even though many acts
that are generally related to it are punishable offences.
- The
working group submitted its first report on 3 July 2003. It proposes that the
purchase of sexual services be enacted punishable.
An attempt to buy sexual
services would also be subject to punishment. According to the report, the
maximum punishment for the
purchase of sexual services from persons under 18
years of age would also be made more severe. The maximum punishment would be
one
year’s imprisonment instead of the present six months.
The report proposes that marketing of sexual services (such as
advertisements
in newspapers and on the Internet) be made punishable. In
addition, the new provisions would cover gross procurement, trafficking
in
persons, and gross trafficking in persons. The working group’s assignment
lasts until the end of 2003 and also includes
preparation of amendments
concerning illegal entry into Finland and child pornography.
- Finland
signed the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the
sale of children, child prostitution and
child pornography in September 2000.
The Protocol will be ratified in connection with the preparation of the penal
provisions concerning
trafficking in persons and child pornography.
- Finland
signed the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime
(Palermo Convention) and the Protocol to Prevent,
Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, in December 2000. The
ratification of the Convention
and Protocol is part of the preparation of
legislation, carried out in Finland, concerning trafficking in persons.
- Trade
in human organs. The provisions on the medical use of human organs and
tissues are laid down in the Act on the Medical Use of Human Organs and Tissues
(101/2001), according to which no donor or assignee of a donor may be promised
or paid a fee for the removal and use of an organ
or tissue. The penal
provisions related to assault offences might be applied to trafficking in
persons with the intention of removing
human organs.
D. Children belonging to a minority or an indigenous group
(art. 30)
- The
Sami. The Sami are an indigenous people who live in the territories of
Finland, Sweden, Norway and the Russian Federation. The some
75,000-100,000 Sami live in an area which stretches from central Norway and
central Sweden across the northern parts of Finland
to the Kola Peninsula in
Russia. The Sami have their own language, culture, life style and identity, and
in the various regions
that they inhabit, they are united by common history,
traditions, habits and communities. The material foundation of the Sami form
of
culture lies in their traditional livelihoods, such as reindeer husbandry,
hunting and fishing.
- Based
on data collected by the Sami Parliament, about 7,500 Sami lived in Finland
in 1999. Of them, 3,842 lived in the Sami Homeland
in the north of Finland
(Enontekiö, Inari and Utsjoki municipalities and the Lappi reindeer
owners’ association in Sodankylä).
An estimated 3,000 Sami live
outside the Sami Homeland and the rest live abroad. The Sami thus constitute
about a third of the
entire population of the Sami Homeland.
- In
accordance with the Constitution of Finland, the Sami as an indigenous people
have the right to maintain and develop their own language and culture in the
Sami Homeland
and, as is provided for by a separate law, linguistic and cultural
self-government. The right of the Sami to use the Sami language
before the
authorities is provided for by a law (516/1991). A new Government Bill on the
use of Sami will be submitted in autumn
2003.
- Day
care, pre-school education and school education. It is essential from the
point of view of the maintenance of the linguistic and cultural identity of the
Sami population that the
position of the Sami language be strengthened in
children’s day care, pre-school education and school education. In
accordance
with the Act on Children’s Day Care (36/1973, as amended
875/1981), municipalities shall take care that children have access
to day care
where their mother tongue is used, be it Finnish, Swedish or Sami. However, day
care in Sami is available to very few
children, because the municipalities of
the Sami Homeland have not had the economic resources to arrange for Sami day
care.
- According
to the Basic Education Act (628/1998), Sami pupils in the Sami Homeland are
entitled to receive most of the statutory education in the Sami language. The
Act
on Upper Secondary Schools (629/1998) and the Act on Vocational Education
(630/1998) provide for education in Sami. In the basic
education, upper
secondary education and vocational education, the Government reimburses the
expenses arising from the employment
of Sami-speaking teachers and teachers of
Sami to the municipalities and education providers out of a separate
appropriation (Act
on the Financing of Educational and Cultural Provision
635/1998).
- In
practice, Sami education is available the most in the lower comprehensive level,
while less education in Sami is arranged in the
upper comprehensive. The upper
secondary schools do not provide education in Sami, because the school-leaving
examination is taken
in Finnish or Swedish. The mother tongue test of the
school-leaving examination can be taken in Sami or Sami can be taken as an
optional language. The other subjects of the school-leaving examination cannot
be taken in Sami.
- Support
for culture. The cultural needs of minorities have been taken into account
in the policy on transfers of the Ministry of Education. The general
forms of
support for culture are available to the minorities on the basis of equality,
but the Ministry of Education also grants
discretionary government transfers, on
an annual basis, to projects that are designed to promote the protection and
development of
minority cultures. Support has been given, for example, to the
cultural pursuits of immigrants and the Roma. In 1998-2002, projects
targeted
at children have been addressed by supporting, inter alia, fairy tales,
animation films and educational materials in native minority languages.
- In
addition to the above, the Government has reserved a separate transfer in the
budget for the promotion of Sami culture and Sami
organizations. Based on the
cultural selfgovernment of the Sami, the Sami Parliament takes responsibility
for the distribution of
the transfer to different ends. The Board for Culture
of the Sami Parliament has suggested that the year 2004 be named the year
of
children and young people, with a special emphasis on support for child and
youth culture. The theme year would help increase
activities that stimulate the
interest of young people, including workshops based on the Sami culture, and
organization of such events
for children and young people as would build up the
Sami cultural identity. During the theme year, child and youth culture measures
would be in focus. The Sami Parliament has also emphasized that Sami parents
need both information and support to help promote their
children’s
linguistic and cultural identity.
- Basic
services in the Sami Homeland. The materialization of the rights of Sami
children and young people is linked to the economic, cultural and linguistic
position
of the families in the Sami Homeland, on the one hand, and to the
services targeted at the children and young on the other. The
financial
difficulties of the municipalities of the Sami Homeland and the high rate of
unemployment in the region, for example, have
deteriorated the level of
municipal services. The Sami Parliament has noted with concern that the low
income gained from the traditional
Sami occupation of reindeer husbandry
aggravates the financial straits and other problems of Sami families with
children. On account
of the insecure prospects of reindeer husbandry and the
poor economic position of those engaged in this occupation, Sami children
do not
dare to continue in that line of occupation, which leads to their linguistic and
cultural marginalization.
- The
Roma. There are about 10,000 Roma people in Finland. The figure is an
estimate because the Finnish Act on Data Protection prohibits
recording of such
sensitive personal data as are meant to refer to race or ethnic
origin.[73] In Sweden, there
are about 3,000 Finnish Roma. Roma people live in all parts of the country, but
the majority of them live in the
big cities of the south of Finland. The
Finnish Roma speak the Kàlo dialect of Romani. The older Roma speak
Romani the best
and the most. In their daily contacts, middle-aged and young
adults use mainly Finnish but they are passive speakers of Romani and
understand
the spoken language.
- Recommendation.
The Committee reiterated its concern about the high dropout rate of Roma
schoolchildren. The Committee also calls attention to
the measures taken by
Finland to develop special education and prevent social exclusion, such as
efforts to strengthen the status
of Romani in schoolteaching, to develop
educational material in Romani, and train teachers, and requests Finland to put
these measures
into action (recommendations Nos. 59 and 60).
- Statement
by the Constitutional Law Committee of Parliament. In its statement
No. 9/2002 on the Government Bill for a new Language Act and related
legislation, given in early 2003, the Constitutional
Law Committee of
Parliament noted that the school legislation makes it possible to teach Romani
and Roma culture, but in the school
year 2000/01
only 5.26 per cent of the children in the schools where there
were Roma children received education of Romani. Less
than 100 out of the total
of 900 children were taught Romani. In addition, Roma children are placed
in special classes or adjusted
teaching for linguistic or cultural reasons. The
Constitutional Law Committee of Parliament drew the attention of the Government
to this defect and was of the opinion that the Government should take
legislative measures to improve the position of Romani and
Roma culture.
- Education
in Romani. Roma children belong to the sphere of statutory education.
However, their school attendance involves difficulties that are not
even today
addressed adequately. One of the main problems is their high dropout rate in
basic education, which, for its part, limits
their chances of access to further
studies. The dropout rate is high for a variety of reasons, such as cultural
differences, teachers’
poor knowledge of the Roma culture, defective
support from schools, and insufficient cooperation between the school and the
home
of the child. Defects have also been identified in the children’s
poor command of both Romani and Finnish/Swedish, which has
made school difficult
from the start.
- It
is estimated that some 1,700 of the about 10,000 Roma children of statutory
school age are in comprehensive school. Official information
about the number
of Roma children in school is not available because Finnish citizens are not
registered by ethnic origin. Of the
estimated 1,700 Roma children, about 250
are taught Romani in 10 locations in different parts of the country. In the
metropolitan
areas of Finland, arrangements for the teaching of Romani are
effective and appropriate. Elsewhere in the country, the number of
pupils is
small and one study group is formed from pupils from different schools, which is
why the teaching does not necessarily
take place in the school that is the
nearest to the child. Furthermore, in most cases the classes are held outside
the school hours.
- Relatively
few Roma children go to day care and attend pre-school education. However,
preschool education, in particular, significantly
helps the child develop the
skills needed in school. The very start of school may turn out to be difficult
if the Roma child has
not attended pre-school and if the parents do not possess
enough education to be able to support the child. Day-care centres and
pre-schools should recruit staff with a Roma background who could take the Roma
culture and Romani into account.
- The
Ministry of Education shares the Committee’s concern for the relatively
high dropout rate of Roma schoolchildren, and has
taken measures in order to
offer Roma children better opportunities for education. The dropout rate varies
between 10-20 per cent.
The most common obstacle to the provision of teaching
is the fact that the Roma live in different parts of the country and it is
therefore difficult to form study groups. Secondly, there is a lack of teachers
who know the language of the Roma. Persons who
are competent in Romani,
however, often have a poor basic education and poor language skills. This is
largely due to the fact that
Roma people, who used to lead a nomadic way of life
in the past, have not had possibilities for school education. The cultural
differences
between the Roma and the majority population have also led to
marginalization from the working life.
- Production
of studying material. The National Board of Education has produced studying
materials to meet the needs of the Roma population for years already. The
majority of the materials prepared today are for teaching of Romani as the
mother tongue or as the second language. The publication
programme is based on
the new curricular guidelines for the teaching of Romani. The long-term
objective is to prepare a series of
studying materials for both children who
attend comprehensive school and upper secondary students who study Romani as the
mother
tongue or as the second language. The main problem has been the fact
that there is only a limited number of persons who could be
assigned to do the
task, because very few teachers are competent enough in the Romani language.
The textbook authors are also met
by exceptionally great demands because of the
non-established character of the language and the incompleteness of the
vocabulary.
The pedagogical problems also differ, partly to a marked extent,
from the problems encountered in connection with other language
studies.
- Since
1999, there have been three new textbook projects, which form the foundation of
a new series of studying material. A total
of €29,461 has been reserved
for the purpose. The National Board of Education would be able to invest even
more to the project
but is prevented from doing so because of a lack of authors
of Romani textbooks. Thanks to an initiative made by Finland, the Council
of
Europe is starting cooperation with a view to coordinating the work of
publishers of Romani textbooks in various countries.
- Teacher
training. The Ministry of Education has paid attention to the teacher
training of Romani students. In the context of a preliminary survey
of
teachers’ basic and continuing education in the future, the situation of
Romani education and the needs of Romani teachers
in Finland were also examined.
The primary objective of the training of Romani-speaking teachers is to support
Roma children and
young Roma to attend school by strengthening their cultural
identity. Roma children are also encouraged to continue their studies
in the
upper secondary school. Encouraging reports have been received from many
municipalities that have employed
- Roma
people to serve in duties related to the Roma language and culture, assistance
of Roma children with learning difficulties (special-needs
assistants), and
cooperation between Roma families and schools.
- The
Romani Education Unit of the National Board of Education has, in cooperation
with different parties, organized additional training
for teachers. A course
package for nativespeaking teachers of the first language of different
linguistic and cultural minorities
has been carried out. In addition to this,
speakers of Romani have been offered short- and long-term training with an
emphasis on
studies of the language and culture. Training of special-needs
assistants has been arranged as a form of labour market training,
and the
Savonlinna Teacher Education Department has been involved in arrangements
enabling first-year university studies of education
(approbatur).
- The
Ministry of Education is examining various alternatives to start Romani teacher
training, paying particular attention to the constraints
arising from the
potential students’ basic education. One option is to arrange a 15 to
35-credit module of Romani and Roma
culture, which would lead to a separate
grade or form a part of a degree or a vocational qualification. The first 15
credits of
the module would be studies of Romani and Roma culture for all
students, and the remaining 20 credits would comprise studies of Romani,
basic
information about international Romani, language study methodologies, pedagogics
or studies focusing on the subjects taught
at school. The module would be
targeted at persons who are well versed in Romani, and the training
could be considered to be part
of the student’s minor subject
studies.
- New
methods have been sought to prevent the social exclusion and discrimination of
Roma children in school communities by means of
development project. The
Ministry of Labour is coordinating a project, sponsored by an EU Community
Action Programme to combat discrimination.
The project is carried out in
cooperation with Germany and Ireland, and Roma organizations (Rom und Cinti
Union and Romano Missio).
Persons representing the organizations have been
hired by the project to do fieldwork against discrimination and social
exclusion.[74]
- Ombudsman
for Minorities. The Act on the Ombudsman for Minorities (660/2001) took
effect on 1 September 2001, and as of the same date the office of the Ombudsman
for Aliens was discontinued. The mission of the Ombudsman for
Minorities[75] is to promote
good ethnic relations in society, to follow and improve the position and rights
of foreigners and ethnic minorities,
to report on the materialization of
equality in respect of the different ethnic groups and on the circumstances and
position of various
ethnic groups in society, to take initiative to help remove
any manifestations of discrimination and social evils, to disseminate
information about legislation related to ethnic origin and the position of
ethnic minorities and foreigners and about the application
of this legislation.
The Ombudsman for Minorities, together with other authorities, also takes
responsibility for monitoring that
people are treated equitably regardless of
ethnic origin.
- Whenever
the Ombudsman for Minorities detects discrimination, he seeks by means of
instructions and advice to stop the manifestation
of discrimination or its
recurrence. The Ombudsman for Minorities can make initiatives and give
recommendations and advice to improve
good ethnic relations and to promote the
position of ethnic minorities.
- Anyone
can initiate an issue related to ethnic discrimination through the Ombudsman for
Minorities. Provided that the Ombudsman has
the consent of the initiator, he is
entitled to forward or notify the question related to ethnic discrimination for
treatment by
the competent authorities. The Ombudsman can append his own
statement about the issue for information to the competent authorities.
The
latter must inform the Ombudsman about the measures that they have taken in the
matter. The Ombudsman for Minorities can assist
or assign an official to assist
a person who has become an object of ethnic discrimination to safeguard the
rights of this person.
As required, the Ombudsman or the official can seek and
provide legal assistance to help the discriminated person, if he considers
that
the issue is of major significance from the point of view of ethnic
discrimination.
- In
accordance with the Aliens Act, the Ombudsman for Minorities
shall:
- – Be
reserved an opportunity to express his opinion in the course of the processing
of an application for asylum, unless it
is evidently unnecessary;
- – Be
always reserved an opportunity to express his opinion on an issue concerning the
deportation of an alien.
- The
Ombudsman for Minorities is an independent authority. The Office of the
Ombudsman for Minorities operates under the administration
of the Ministry of
Labour. The current Ombudsman since 1 January 2002 is Mikko Puumalainen.
- The
functions of the Ombudsman and his Office can be considered as falling into
three categories: counselling and assistance of clients;
good ethnic relations,
and general measures related to the position of aliens and ethnic minorities;
and tasks provided for in the
Aliens Act, especially statements to be issued on
asylum applications and on proposed cases of deportation of aliens.
- Children
and young people who belong to ethnic minorities have been on the agenda of the
Ombudsman for Minorities in a number of ways.
The Ombudsman has been an active
opinion leader, giving several interviews and keynote speeches, and taking part
in discussion forums
dealing with children and young people of an ethnic
minority origin. One of the main themes of these forums has been education and
school.
- In
2003, certain adjustments were made in the internal division of labour in the
Office of the Ombudsman for Minorities. Today one
of the officials is in charge
of monitoring the position of so-called vulnerable groups insofar as the issues
fall in the sphere
of administration of the Office. This effectively
means women, children, young people, the elderly and persons with disabilities
who belong to minorities.
Notes
List of annexes available in the files of the
secretariat
Legislation
Reports
- Human
Rights and Finland’s Foreign Policy. Report by Minister for Foreign
Affairs Erkki Tuomioja to the Foreign Affairs Committee
of Parliament on the
Human Rights Policy of the Finnish Government, 29 November 2000. Publications
of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs
2/2001, Helsinki, 2001.
- Children in
Finland. Leena Kartovaara and Hannele Sauli. Statistics Finland. Population
2001:9, Helsinki, 2001.
Plans of Action
- Towards
Ethnic Equality and Diversity - Government Action Plan to combat ethnic
discrimination and racism. Ministry of Labour. Publication
No. 286, Helsinki,
2001.
Instructions
- Guidelines
for Interviewing (Separated) Minors. Directorate of Immigration Finland, March
2002.
Brochures
- Children:
our future. The Rights of the Child in Development Cooperation. Ministry for
Foreign Affairs, 2002.
- International
Child Abduction. Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Justice and Ministry
of Social Affairs and Health, 2001.
- Data protection
in working life. Ministry of Labour, 2001.
- Child welfare.
The Central Union for Child Welfare with financial support from the Finnish Slot
Machine Association (RAY) and the
Ministry of Labour, 2000.
Other
- Ota
oikeus (“Take the Right”) - Playing Cards. The Mannerheim League
for Child Welfare, Plan International Finland and
the Finnish Children and Youth
Foundation with the support of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Helsingin
Sanomat.
-----
[*] For the second periodic report submitted
by Finland, see CRC/C/70/Add.3; for its consideration by the Committee on 19
September
2000, see CRC/C/SR.643 and 644 and CRC/C/15/Add.132.
The annexes to the report submitted by the Government can be consulted in
the files of the secretariat.
GE.05-40003 (E) 150405
[1] Committee report on
decision-making concerning the legal position of the child. Ministry of Social
Affairs and Health, 1995-12.
[2] See Decision by
Parliamentary Ombudsman Riitta-Leena Paunio on the materialization of
the fundamental rights of children placed
in community homes, dated 31
December 2002 (Register No. 3170/2/01). See also chapters VI, section
B, and VIII, section C.
[3] Leena Kartovaara and
Hannele Sauli, Children in Finland. Population 2001:7. Statistics Finland
2000.
[4] Leena Kartovaara and
Hannele Sauli, Children in Finland. Population 2001:9. Statistics Finland
2001.
[5] Oppilaitostilastot
2002. OSF Education 2002:8. Statistics Finland.
[6]
Pääkkönen - Niemi. Time use changes in Finland through the
1990s. Statistics Finland. Culture and the Media 2002:2.
[7] Heiskanen - Aromaa -
Niemi - Sirén. Tapaturmat, väkivalta, rikollisuuden pelko.
The National Research Institute of
Legal Policy, Publication 171; OSF
Justice 2000:1. Statistics Finland.
[8] Oppilaitostilastot
2002. OSF Education 2002:8. Statistics Finland.
[9] Mikä lapsiamme
uhkaa? Stakes, 2001. Suomalaisten hyvinvointi 2002. Stakes 2002.
[10] Oikeustilastot, OSF
Justice, Statistics Finland.
[11] The most recent one
is “Ulkomaalaiset ja siirtolaisuus 2001” (Foreigners and migration
in 2001). Population 2002:8.
Statistics Finland.
[12] Statistics on
population structure, OSF Population. Statistics Finland. See also Kartovaara
and Sauli: Suomalainen lapsi, pp.
17-28. Population 2000:7. Statistics
Finland.
[13] Children: our
future - The Rights of the Child in Development Cooperation. Ministry for
Foreign Affairs, Department for Development
Cooperation 2002.
[14] Government Bill to
Parliament 309/1993.
[15]
http://www.mol.fi/migration/etnoraen.pdf.
[16] The Supreme
Administrative Court, 3 May 2000/805.
[17] Helsinki
Administrative Court, 10 October 2002; No. 02/1236/7.
[18] Decision by the
Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman, 13 October 2000, Nos. 779/2/98
and 189/4/98.
[19] Working Group
memorandum. Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, 2001:29.
[20] 31 December 2002,
Register No. 3170/2/01.
[21] Government Bill to
Parliament 309/1993, p. 24.
[22] Government
Decision-in-Principle, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health publication
2002:9.
[23]
http://www.valtikka.net.
[24] Sirpa Taskinen,
Lapsen etu erotilanteissa, Opas sosiaalitoimelle, Stakes 2001.
[25] The Status and
Rights of Social Welfare Clients. Helsinki 2001. Ministry of Social Affairs
and Health, 2001:11.
[26] Stakes and the
Finnish Federation for Social Welfare and Health, FinSoc Reports 1/2003.
[27] Decision 10 October
2001, Register No. 931/4/99.
[28] Decision 31 December
2001, Register No. 931/4/99.
[29] Government Bill to
Parliament 54/2002.
[30]
http://194.89.205.3/suom/osallisuus/eng/index.html.
[31] Committee Report
2001:1. Ministry of Education 2001.
[32] Government Bill to
Parliament 309/1993.
[33]
http://www.mol.fi/english/working/dataprotection.html.
[34] Statistics Finland.
http://www.tilastokeskus.fi.
[35]
http://www.kirjastot.fi - http://www.biblioteken.fi -
http://www.libraries.fi.
[36] Buttiako Liin 1.
Romanikielisen aapisen työkirja ensimmäiselle luokalle (“first
reader workbook”). Miranda
Vuolasranta, Armas Hagert, Päivi
Majaniemi ja Henna Huttu (former Murtomäki). Romanikielisen aapisen ja sen
työkirjan
opettajan aineisto (“teacher’s material”).
Päivi Majaniemi, Henna Huttu (former Murtomäki), Miranda Vuolasranta
ja Armas Hagert.
[37] 31 December 2002,
Register No. 3170/2/01.
[38] Government Bill to
Parliament 265/2002.
[39] Government Bill to
Parliament 28/2003.
[40] K. and T. v.
Finland (25702/94), European Court of Human Rights, Grand Chamber,
27 April 2000.
[41] K.A. v.
Finland (27751/95), European Court of Human Rights, 14 January 2003,
final 14 April 2003.
[42]
http://www.om.fi/9604.htm.
[43]
http://formin.finland.fi/doc/fin/palvelut/konsuli/lapsikaappaus.html#kv.
[44] Lapsen elatus ja
huolto 2002 - Tilastotiedote 10/2002. Stakes. http://www.stakes.fi.
[45]
http://www.hel.fi/sosv/palvelut/adoptio/adop3.htm.
[46]
http://www.pela.fi/kansainvaliset-adoptiot.htm.
[47]
http://www.interpedia.fi/suomi/adoptiotoiminnasta.html.
[48]
http://www.adoptiokuraattori.fi.
[49] Markku Heiskanen and
Minna Piispa. Usko, toivo, hakkaus. Kyselytutkimus miesten naisille
tekemästä väkivallasta.
Statistics Finland and the Council for
Equality. 1998:12.
[50] Väkivallan
hinta - Naisiin kohdistuvan väkivallan kustannukset Suomessa. The Council
for Equality and Statistics Finland
2000.
[51] 14 May 2002,
Register No. 1846/4/00 and 12 December 2002, Register No. 1812/4/00.
[52] School health care
2002. Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and Stakes, 2002.
[53] 31 December 2002,
Register No. 3170/2/01.
[54] Committee Report
1997/8.
[55]
http://www.ktl.fi/sytty.
[56] Government report to
Parliament. Ministry of Social Affairs and Health 2002:12.
11 April 2002.
[57] Elsi Veijola:
School Experiment to Support Young People at Risk of Social Exclusion. Ministry
of Education.
http://www.minedu.fi/julkaisut/koulutus/index.html.
[58] 24 March 2003,
Register No. 3133/4/01.
[59] Judgment of the
Supreme Administrative Court of 3 May 2000 (KHO 2000:805):
“Section 38 (1) of the Aliens Act (537/1999) provides
that when
refusal of an alien’s entry is considered, all the relevant matters and
circumstances shall be taken into account
in their entirety. Furthermore, under
section 1c (1) of the same Act, special attention shall be paid to the interests
of the child
and to matters relating to his development and health. As concerns
the case under review and the four-year stay of the asylum-seeker
and his two
children in Finland, the school attendance of one of the two children, the
Finnish of the family members and their integration
into Finnish society, the
health of the other child, and the family members’ other ties in Finland,
such as the fact that the
asylum-seeker has a sister in the country, there was
no reason to deport the family and issue a prohibition of entry upon
them.”
[60]
SM-2003-124/Ka-23.
[61]
http://www.iom.fi/projects/indexrqa.htm.
[62]
http://www.mol.fi/migration/edustaen.pdf.
[63] VSN 5/2002.
http://www.mol.fi/migration/govrep.pdf.
[64]
http://www.mol.fi/migration/tasaeng.pdf.
[65] Committee Report,
2003:2, Ministry of Justice, http://www.om.fi/18410.htm.
[66]
http://www.kriminaalihuolto.fi/15137.htm.
[67] Committee Report,
2003:2, Ministry of Justice, http://www.om.fi/18410.htm.
[68]
http://www.kriminaalihuolto.fi/15136.htm.
[69]
http://www.rikosseuraamus.fi/17006.htm.
[70] Amendments to the
Enforcement of Sentences Act 128/1995.
[71] Tuija Sivonen ja
Sirpa Sulku. Toimiiko perhe, pyörivätkö palvelut? Yhdistys -
ja piirikysely 2002. Mannerheim
League for Child Welfare 2002.
[72] Sirpa Taskinen
(ed.). Special Advisers’ recommendations to social welfare and
health-care staff. Stakes 2003.
[73] Personal Data Act,
section 11 (523/1999). However, the prohibition is not absolute, because
sensitive information may be collected
to the personal data register subject to
the conditions laid down by law or decree. Separate provisions have been
enacted concerning
the publicity of sensitive personal data.
[74] Further information
at
http://www.join.fi.
[75]
http://www.mol.fi/vahemmistovaltuutettu/ombudsmaneng.html.
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