Economic and social rights
The government continued to impose austerity measures in the form of cuts to the social security and healthcare systems. These disproportionately affected people experiencing unemployment, those with limited capacity to work due to health problems, single-parent families, persons with disabilities, older people, and young adults. Significant cuts to social security risked the right to an adequate standard of living for those already on low incomes and increased the need for last resort social assistance. Cuts to healthcare decreased the accessibility and affordability of services for those who were dependent on public healthcare.
Refugees’ and migrants’ rights
Throughout the year, the government introduced several legislative amendments rolling back existing protections in migration and asylum policies. These included changes to make international protection temporary; prevent asylum seekers from applying for residence permits on grounds other than asylum, such as a work or a study based permit; expand the use of migration detention, and increase the requirements for family reunification and citizenship. The amendments were introduced hastily and there was no assessment of their combined impact on the rights of asylum seekers, refugees and migrants.
Claiming to act in response to an alleged attempt by Russia to “instrumentalize” asylum seekers and migrants, the government kept all crossing points at the Russian border closed. Construction continued of a barrier fence at the eastern border to prevent migrants crossing into Finland in situations of “instrumentalized migration”.
In July, parliament adopted an emergency law allowing the government to limit the reception of asylum applications at the border, grant border guards additional powers to prevent entry, including by force, and deny any genuine possibility of appeal.
Freedom of peaceful assembly
In June and September, in the capital, Helsinki, police broke up peaceful climate protests that disrupted traffic and arrested dozens of peaceful protesters after they failed to comply with a dispersal order. In June, police used unnecessary physical force against peaceful climate protesters while dispersing a roadblock in Helsinki.
A peaceful protest camp at Helsinki university campus expressing solidarity with Palestinians was dispersed by the police in June after the university administration decided to ban the camp.
Police did not always recognize the role of independent protest observers or acknowledge their responsibility to protect and facilitate independent monitoring.
Police were inconsistent in their interpretation of which obligations of the Assembly Act were considered to be incumbent on the organizers of a demonstration, with requirements varying from region to region.
Right to a healthy environment
In August, Amnesty International and five other NGOs filed an appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court regarding the government’s lack of adequate climate action, arguing this risked Finland’s target of net zero by 2035.1
The government significantly reduced its climate funding to lower income countries.
Discrimination
In March, 33 NGOs including Amnesty International criticized the government for taking numerous measures, including in its migration, social and health policies, which deepened structural racism and discrimination. The government’s action plan to combat racism and promote equality, published in September, did not include legislative measures to combat racism, hate speech and hate crimes.
LGBTI people’s rights
A national citizen’s initiative that proposed banning conversion practices remained pending in the Law Committee of the parliament.
Sexual and gender-based violence
In November, parliament adopted two bills to criminalize forced marriage and female genital mutilation of girls under 18.
In December, parliament adopted legislation to ban mediation in cases of intimate partner violence and sexual violence, aiming to ensure that cases of violence lead to appropriate criminal sanctions.
Indigenous Peoples’ rights
A bill to reform the Act on the Sámi Parliament to enhance protection of the rights of Sámi people was pending at the end of the year in the Constitutional Law Committee of the Parliament.
