Foreign Minister Haavisto discusses the impacts of climate change on human rights with young African advocates and Finnish UN Youth Delegates

On Monday 17 May, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs will host a virtual dialogue on measures to avoid the adverse human rights effects of climate change.

The Foreign Minister of Finland, Pekka Haavisto, will discuss the topic with UN Youth Delegates of Finland and young advocates from Eastern Africa.

The structure of the event builds on the Finnish innovative concept, called Timeout. Timeout dialogue offers tools for facilitated discussion for people from different backgrounds. The aim is to foster a feeling of inclusion between the participants and to reach a better understanding of different views. The discussion will be moderated by Laura Arikka, Chief Executive Officer at Timeout Foundation.

Human rights impacts of climate change prioritised in Finland’s campaign to be elected to UN Human Rights Council

The event is a part of Finland’s campaign for membership of the UN Human Rights Council for the term 2022–2024. Finland’s foreign and security policy is human rights-based, which means that we assess the human rights impacts of all our policy actions. Finland takes into account the adverse impacts of climate change not only on the environment but also, for example, on resources, and people's livelihoods, living conditions and health. The other campaign themes are the rights of women and girls, new technologies and digitalisation, and education.  More information on the campaign is available on the Ministry’s website.

This interactive event is also a continuation of Finland’s new way to engage with Africa, as outlined in Finland’s Africa Strategy(Link to another website.), published in March 2021. The Strategy aims to diversify the relations and to develop the ambitions and coherence of Finland’s Africa policy. Special attention is paid to the expansion and deepening of Finland’s ties with African countries, institutions and people. One of the goals is to identify shared interests and to strengthen connections in different sectors between Finland and Africa.