WoM participated in writing a report on what Finland could do better for supporting human rights internationally. The idea of the report was to research how the current operational environment for the international human rights system had changed since the Government of Finland human rights report in 2014.
The scope of the study included the United Nations and its human rights council and the European Union.
Four global trends, power shifts and movements
The project focused particularly on four global trends (environmental change, migration, new technologies and the changing security paradigm). The project also assessed political power shifts and movements influencing the international human rights system and its actors.
Since the operational context for the ruling world order has changed because of global trends and political power shifts, it is necessary to critically evaluate the potential of the international human rights system to adapt to this change. The current political climate emphasises state sovereignty over multilateralism, and the growing multipolarity and multivocality make it more difficult to reach agreements on international forums.
Civil society actors are facing a reduction of operating space, and the role of business actors is on the rise. The strong anti-gender movements and the opposition to gender equality are causing distress in international forums. New ways to communicate the importance of human rights are being searched by various actors.
Download the report and recommendations
The report formulates eight goals Finland should strive for when shaping its human rights policies in the future. Each goal includes recommendations on how to advance them both internationally and domestically.
The report can be downloaded from here: http://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/handle/10024/161754
Research team
The research group included researchers from Oxford Research (D.Soc.Sci Anna Björk, B.Soc.Sci Juho-Matti Paavola, L.Sc (econ.) Arttu Vainio), Opinio Juris (LL.D.Merja Pentikäinen expert on international law and human rights), Radboud Uni-versity Nijmegen (PhD Docent Tineke Strik), and WoM World of Management (MBA, MSSc Inkeri Tanhua). Oxford Research was responsible for the coordination of the project, organisation of the final report and the writing process.
The research was part of the Finnish Government’s analysis, assessment and research activities. The Prime minister’s office funded the project, while the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland was responsible for its coordination.