BackOn 27 March 2020, Petri Jääskeläinen, the Parliamentary Ombudsman, nominated a new Human Rights Delegation to serve a term from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2024. The Delegation has 38 members; a total of 134 people applied to join the Human Rights Delegation.
The Human Rights Delegation is an organ of the Human Rights Centre, which began operating in administrative connection with the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman in 2012. According to the law, the Human Rights Delegation has 20–40 members, who include researchers into fundamental and human rights and representatives of other bodies engaged in promoting and protecting fundamental and human rights.
This is the third Human Rights Delegation to be nominated. Sirpa Rautio, the Director of the Human Rights Centre, chairs the Delegation.
Duties of the Human Rights Delegation
The Delegation deals with matters of far-reaching significance and principal importance in the field of fundamental and human rights and approves the Human Rights Centre’s plan of action and annual report each year. It also functions as a national cooperative body for actors in the sector of fundamental and human rights.
The Delegation may have working committees and divisions to organise its activities. Of these, the Division for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has been a permanent division since 2016 due to the obligations deriving from the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
The Human Rights Centre seeks to promote fundamental and human rights. Together, the Parliamentary Ombudsman, the Human Rights Centre and the Human Rights Delegation constitute a National Human Rights Institution in accordance with the Paris Principles.
Source: Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman, Finland
