A delegation of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) visited Finland from 10 to 14 September 2018 as the first step in the preparation of a monitoring report. During its visit, ECRI´s delegation gathered information on legislation, hate speech, violence, integration policies and LGBT issues.

The delegation held meetings in Helsinki with representatives of the government, local authorities, bodies specialised in combating racism and discrimination and civil society.

Following this visit, ECRI will adopt a report to be published in 2019 in which it will make a fresh set of recommendations on measures to be taken by the authorities to address racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, antisemitism, and intolerance in the country. Among these, two will be revisited in two years’ time as part of an interim follow-up procedure.

In its 2013 report, ECRI highlighted, among others, the following concerns: discrimination experienced in the employment sector by groups of concern to ECRI; and coordination between the National Discrimination Tribunal and the Ombudsman for Minorities, in particular, by empowering the former to award compensation and by allocating sufficient human and financial resources to the latter.

ECRI is a human rights monitoring body which specialises in questions relating to the fight against racism, discrimination (on grounds of “race”, ethnic/national origin, colour, citizenship, religion, language, sexual orientation and gender identity), xenophobia, antisemitism and intolerance.

For more information on ECRI: www.coe.int/ecri

More about the 2013 report on Finland