Finland, Parliamentary Ombudsman

Finland, Parliamentary Ombudsman

The 80th Anniversary of the Finnish Parliamentary Ombudsman

The Finnish Parliamentary Ombudsman celebrated its 80th anniversary on 7 February 2000, as the second oldest institution of its kind in the world. On this occasion, the Finnish Ombudsman hosted an International Symposium "Ombudsmen in the Service of Human Rights" in Helsinki. The symposium focused on the various roles of the Ombudsmen, in particular with regard to the protection of human rights and the rule of law. National Ombudsmen from the Nordic Countries and the Baltic Sea Region were invited as participants. The papers of the symposium will be published later on this year.

The Finnish Constitution Updated

On 1 March 2000, a new Constitution entered into force in Finland. The earlier constitutional enactments, mostly dating back to 1919, were revised and consolidated into a single coherent Constitution Act. The essence of the provisions concerning the Parliamentary Ombudsman remained the same, with the exception that now even the lawfulness of the official acts of the President of the Republic were subjected to the oversight of the Parliamentary Ombudsman. On the other hand, Parliament may now, "for extremely weighty reasons," dismiss the Ombudsman before the end of his term by a decision supported by at least two thirds of the votes cast. Earlier it was only the High Court of Impeachment that could dismiss the Ombudsman before the end of his term.

At the same time, Parliament enacted a new Statute for the Ombudsman, replacing the earlier one dating back to 1919. It had been amended on a number of occasions.

The workload of the year 1999: Social affairs the biggest group of cases dealt with

In 1999, the Parliamentary Ombudsman started investigating 2.708 new cases: of these, 2.644 were complaints received directly from citizens, and 41 cases which the Ombudsman himself took up on his own initiative. Both these figures show a clear increase when compared to those of the previous year. In 1999, there were 2.844 resolved cases. Of these, the number of complaints was 2.788 and that of the own initiatives was 39. These numbers were higher than ever before in the history of the Finnish Ombudsman. In addition, the Ombudsman gave advisory opinions to various authorities in 23 cases.

The cases investigated by the Ombudsman dealt mainly with social affairs (16%), courts of law (15%) and police (13%). When compared to the previous year, the percentage of cases concerning social affairs showed a slight increase, whereas the share of the courts of law had declined.

Out of all the cases resolved in 1999, action was taken by the Ombudsman in about 12% of all the decisions. In 1998 the corresponding figure was 9.8%. Only in 28 cases, the investigation of the Ombudsman clearly revealed unlawfulness or negligence and led to a reprimand. In other cases, the Ombudsman satisfied himself to express a critical view or only give guidance for further reference.

In addition to dealing with complaints, the Ombudsman conducts on-site inspections in military units, prisons and psychiatric hospitals. In 1999, such inspections were conducted in 63 institutions.

On-site inspection of the Finnish KFOR troops

Parliamentary Ombudsman, Mr Lauri LEHTIMAJA, carried out an on-site inspection of the Finnish Contingent of the Kosovo Force (KFOR) in Kosovo and the National Support Element (NSE) in Skopje, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), on 4 - 8 April 2000.

INTERNATIONAL CONTACTS

Mr Oleg MIRONOV, Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, paid an official visit to the Finnish Parliamentary Ombudsman on 6 - 10 February 2000.
On 9 February, a Parliamentary delegation from Burkina Faso paid a visit to the Finnish Parliamentary Ombudsman.
On 21 March, Mr Lehtimaja met Mr Xanara GUSMO, President of the CNRT (National Council of Timorese Resistence) National Political Commission on his visit to Finland.
On 10 April 2000, Mr Lehtimaja paid a visit to Mr Branko NAUMOVSKI, National Ombudsman (Public Attorney) of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, as well as Mr Boris TRAJKOVSKI, the President of the Republic, Mr Dzevdet NASUFI, Minister of Justice, and Members of Parliament. He also took part in a press conference and gave a public lecture in Skopje (FYROM).
On 19 May, the participants of the International Human Rights Course of the Wallenberg Institute, University of Lund, Sweden, paid a visit to the Parliamentary Ombudsman of Finland.
On 26 May, Mr Lehtimaja met His Majesty, Emperor of Japan, on his official visit to Finland.
On 29 May, Mr Seyed Sadegh KHARAZI, Deputy Foreign Minister, and a group of human rights experts from the Islamic Republic of Iran paid a visit to the Parliamentary Ombudsman of Finland.

Newsletter No. 21