Racism|Some minorities have been forgotten and anti-Semitism is overemphasized, say the organizations and institutions that gave statements to the government’s anti-racism program.
The summary is made by artificial intelligence and checked by a human.
The government’s anti-racism action program received criticism in the statement round for ignoring some minorities.
Among other things, according to THL, combating anti-Semitism is overemphasized in the program of measures.
Several commenters criticized the lack of clear goals and monitoring metrics.
The government does not use the criminal law to combat racism sufficiently, the Human Rights Association criticizes, among others.
The government draft action program for combating racism and promoting equality gathered a lot of criticism in the statement round that ended in June.
Although the direction of the program is correct, some minorities have been completely forgotten, say many organizations and institutions that have issued statements.
For example, according to the Finnish Muslim Forum, the program does not mention Islamophobia as a form of racism or present measures to address it.
“This shows that the government does not recognize Islamophobia as a social problem and/or does not want to admit its existence,” the organization writes.
The program also does not mention antigypsyism, i.e. anti-Gypsyism, the Finnish Romani Association points out.
About antisemitism instead, the program can be found in its own entirety, says the Finnish Red Cross in its statement.
Fighting anti-Semitism is considered important in the statements, but the Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare THL, among others, considers the recording of anti-Semitism to be asymmetrical in relation to the consideration of other minorities.
“In the three-year action program, 1.2 million euros, or a fifth of the entire budget, has been allocated to one minority group,” THL writes.
The government justifies its decisions by the fact that the EU Commission has recommended that its member states draw up a separate action program against anti-Semitism.
In order to promote the security of Jewish congregations, 400,000 euros are to be granted annually.
Several statements also criticize the fact that the measure program’s 6 million euro budget has not yet been earmarked for anything else.
Equality Commissioner according to the office, the program does little to address structural discrimination.
Structural discrimination refers to latent discrimination that affects, for example, job hunting.
The majority of the measures in the draft are related to the organization of various events, training sessions, evaluations and reports, as well as supporting existing actors, such as the Sámi and sign language truth and reconciliation commissions.
The impact of campaigns and training can be proved to be minimal, and there is already a lot of research data on racism, the city of Oulu writes in its statement.
“If resources are scarce, should they be used not only for mapping the current situation but also for eradicating racism,” the city writes.
According to many statements, the action program lacks clear goals and monitoring metrics.
The government presented a communication on anti-racism measures in August 2023. In the photo, Finance Minister Riikka Purra (left), Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, Education Minister Anna-Maja Henriksson and Agriculture and Forestry Minister Sari Essayah.
The government the planned criminal law reforms, such as the ban on the Holocaust and the criminalization of using the symbols of Nazism and Communism, also do not convince all the commentators.
The action program does not include measures to eradicate hate speech, criticizes, for example, the Human Rights Association.
EU Commission started infringement proceedings against Finland two years agobecause the commission especially considers the criminal law’s provision criminalizing incitement against a national group to be too narrow.
Minister of Justice Leena Meri (ps) abolished the racism crime working group that prepared the implementation of EU obligations in April.
“In the face of these actions, it is obvious that the government lacks the political will to combat racism by means of criminal legislation,” the Human Rights Association writes in its statement.
Racism almost a hundred opinions were given in the opinion round about the draft action program against
Some of the commenters also consider the program good and profitable.
“The draft program of measures contains comprehensive measures for different areas of life to combat racism and promote equality”, writes for example the Finnish Confederation of Business and Industry EK in its statement.
Program of action the statements received by the draft are currently being processed at official level.
The finished program is to be approved at the Government Council session in the summer and published in August. At that time, the more detailed content of the budget will also become clear.
The action program is part of the government’s efforts to combat racism in Finland. The discussion on the fight against racism started last summer after the former Minister of Economy’s Vilhelm Junnilan (ps), the current Minister of Economy by Wille Rydman (ps) and the Minister of Finance Riikka Purran (ps) old racists actions, writings and Private messages.
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