PRESS RELEASE

Issued Tuesday 08 May 2007 at 1700 hours
Free for release immediately
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FINLAND, HOST OF THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 2007, DOES NOT RESPECT THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF ITS CITIZENS

Human Rights of Finland (HRF) is a non-political website founded by several civic organisations that monitor the human rights situation in Finland.

Hosting the Eurovision 2007 song contest gives Finland an opportunity to market itself to the rest of the world with empty phrases and images that cover the gloomy reality. By doing so Finland wants cover up such facts as the poor legal protection people in Finland have against the missuse of power by members of the judicial system and various authorities. These practices have the silent approval of those in power.

In Finland there are tens of thousands of disabled people without real human rights and legal protection. The true life of these people is best described in the novel "The Trial" by Franz Kafka. It is a fact that in Finland these unfortunate people are living literally in a nauseous society. A society that is leading the statistics (proportioned to the amount of inhabitants) on suicides, depression and violations of human rights in Europe.

The blurred practices that are predominant in Finland make it possible for insurance doctors that are "trained" by the insurance companies to dictate policies, where the borders of legality, ethics and humanity have in practice disappeared. To this "mob" like system it is peculiar the hiding of its actions and the systematic vitiation of statements given by those doctors that have treated the patients. They don´t have to give any grounds why their decisions are divergent of evidence presented to the court. Still their decisions are fully accepted in the Finnish judicial system and legality control.

In proportion per capita Finland is receiving very many convictions from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Finland is convicted nearly twice as many times as all countries on average. Compared to the other Scandinavian countries Finland is convicted nearly seven (7) times more often than the others and in comparison: Russia has 30 times more inhabitants than Finland but is convicted only 5 times more often than Finland at the ECHR.

The amount of complaints coming from Finland to the ECHR is even rising because the convictions that Finland is receiving from the ECHR does not have any effect on national workings. The arbitrary proceedings are continuing year after year with the acceptance of those in power and the weak ones in society are left in abandonment.

The reputation of Finland is not improved by the fact that according to a survey of Transparency International (2003) the confidence of Finnish people towards the judicial system being free of corruption is poor. The only area that scored weaker points was the political system. This survey was done in 44 countries, 30 487 people were interviewed. Only in Peru, Indonesia and Cameron the judicial system was less relied on than in Finland.

The things described above are expressions of how the grey administration in Finland functions. The nonchalant attitude of Finland towards human rights is a disgrace to the European Union. The actions of Finland are impossible to ethically approve by any civilized western country.

Human Rights of Finland (HRF) is urging international media, active people and communities working in the field of human rights to raise awareness on the gloomy human rights situation in Finland so that Finland would start to develop in a more humane direction due to pressure coming from the international community.

Finnish media is mostly silent - they take orders from the grey administration.

For further information visit our website: www.humanrights.fi

On behalf of Human Rights of Finland


Hannu Kukkonen