Ethnic agitationAny person who makes public statements or other communication that threaten, insult or defame a national, racial, ethnic or religious group is guilty of a crime. Ethnic agitation is a punishable offence under the Penal Code.
Its criminalisation is based on the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the International Covenant on Civil Rights and Political Rights. These provide protection against such acts that offend the equality of people and the basic rights close to it. For example, strongly misleading and generalising statements concerning an ethnic group are prohibited.These include statements according to which a certain ethnic group is or has been guilty of crimes. Individuals can commit crimes but this cannot be generalised to include an entire ethnic group. The spread of prohibited statements can take place by means of publication on the Internet, for example. The mere publication of such material is punishable under the law. The deliberateness of the action is evident from the statement itself and the liability to punishment is not removed even if only a few people read the material, nor does the fact that the person presenting the information considers the statements to be true offset the deliberateness of the act. A request for investigation into ethnic agitation can be made to the police in the domicile of the offender. If the identity or domicile of the offender is not known, the request for investigation can be made to the Helsinki Police Department.  Back  Print this page |
