National minorities in Finland: rising intolerance needs tackling

Finland has a long tradition of support for minority languages and cultures, through a well-developed legal framework that is generous towards persons belonging to minorities and affords extensive linguistic rights. However, as in other European countries, levels of intolerance and nationalism have risen in the past years. This has begun to put pressure on persons belonging to both traditional and “new” minorities as well as Swedish-speaking Finns. These are among the findings in the Council of Europe report on the implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) in Finland. More...