Policy|Board negotiations
According to the criminal justice unit of the Ministry of Justice, there is no room for maneuver.
Government negotiators have asked experts from the Ministry of Justice to find out if there is “room for maneuver” in the sections of the Criminal Code regarding incitement against a national group.
The matter will be confirmed to HS from the Ministry of Justice.
The request has been submitted orally from the Legal Policy and Equality sub-group, which is headed by a Member of Parliament Leena Meri (p.s.).
On his part, he leads the main negotiating group – Safe and crisis-resistant rule of law Antti Häkkänen (cook).
Criminal law is guilty of incitement against a national group if he makes or keeps available to the public or spreads any information, opinion or message that threatens, insults or slanders the group.
The act must be based on race, skin color, descent, national or ethnic origin, religion or belief, sexual orientation, disability or similar.
The crime is punishable by a fine or imprisonment for a maximum of two years. A serious crime can be sentenced to imprisonment for a minimum of four months and a maximum of four years.
Basic Finns has repeatedly proposed reforms to these sections of the Criminal Code.
In the fall of 2019, several MPs from the party signed a legislative initiative on the matter. The party’s line was also published last fall in his criminal policy programthat the provision should be reformed in its entirety.
According to the view of basic Finns, the law in its current form restricts freedom of speech.
“Fundamental Finns supports broad freedom of speech and therefore proposes to reform the provision of incitement so that in the future only statements that threaten to commit a crime against a group of people or incite others to commit a crime against such a group would meet the hallmarks of the crime,” the program states.
Ministry of Justice In its response to the government negotiations, the criminal justice unit estimates that there is no room for maneuver in practice.
The ministry points out that current legislation is based on, among other things, the international convention on the elimination of racial discrimination and the framework decision of the Council of Europe from 2008.
According to the ministry, Finland has already made various deviations related to freedom of speech in its own legislation “as far as possible”.
“Finland has made all possible reservations regarding criminalization in the additional protocol to the greatest extent possible. There is therefore no room for maneuver anymore”, the answer reads.
Ministry also reminds that the European Commission has started infringement proceedings against Finland in 2021 regarding the implementation of the framework decision.
The Commission has considered that Finnish legislation has not fully or precisely implemented the EU rules on combating racism and xenophobia through criminal legal means.
“Regarding the framework decision, the regulations give some national discretion. However, in practice, the violation procedure initiated by the Commission limits the possibilities of at least narrowing the field of criminalization [pykälien] regarding, but on the contrary, that it had to be expanded somewhat”, the ministry estimated.
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