CAT/C/FIN/CO/5-6
(a)
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially
Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational
Organized Crime (Palermo Protocol);
(b)
Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air,
supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.
5.
The Committee welcomes the State party’s ongoing efforts to revise its legislation in
order to give effect to the Committee’s recommendations and to enhance the
implementation of the Convention, including:
(a)
Amendment of the Criminal Code which entered into force on 1 January
2010 that criminalizes torture and establishes the absolute prohibition of torture in all
circumstances, in compliance with the recommendations of the Committee to bring the
code into accordance with articles 1 and 4 of the Convention;
(b)
Amendment, adopted on 20 May 2011, to the Parliamentary Ombudsman Act
(197/2002), which will enter into force on 1 January 2012, establishing the Centre for
Human Rights as the national human rights institution, in accordance with the principles
relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human
rights (Paris Principles);
(c)
Adoption of the Pre-Trial Investigation Act, the Coercive Measures Act and
of the Police Act in 2011;
(d)
Adoption by Parliament in March 2011 of a legal reform whereby persons
identified in the Child Welfare Act are required to report suspicions of sexual abuse to the
police;
(e)
Amendments to the Finnish Aliens Act (301/2004) which came into force on
1 April 2011;
(f)
Entry into force of the New Act on Imprisonment (767/2005), the Act on
Remand Imprisonment (768/2005) and of the Act on the treatment of persons held in police
custody (841/2006);
(g)
Amendments to the Act on the Ombudsman for Minorities and the
Discrimination Board which entered into force on 1 January 2009, under which the
Ombudsman for Minorities acts as the National Rapporteur for Trafficking in Human
Beings;
(h)
Amendments to the Criminal Code making petty assaults on minors, persons
close to the perpetrator, including marital spouse or registered civil partners, the subject of
public prosecution since the beginning of 2011; and
(i)
Reduction in the number of prisoners since the introduction in 2006 of the
possibility of probationary liberty under supervision under the Act on Imprisonment.
6.
The Committee also welcomes the efforts being made by the State party to amend its
policies, programmes and administrative measures in order to ensure greater protection of
human rights and give effect to the Convention, including:
(a)
The unification at the beginning of 2010 of the Criminal Sanctions Agency,
the Prison Service and the Probation Service in a single organization called the Criminal
Sanctions Agency, which is preparing a pilot survey for the end of 2012 of inmates and
prison personnel;
(b)
The revision of the National Plan of Action against Trafficking in Human
Beings and the adoption on 11 June 2010 of the Programme on the Prevention of Violence
Against Women comprising 60 measures;
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