Date: Sun, 10 Sep 1995 19:34:22 +0200
From: rhiltune@levi.urova.fi (Hiltunen Rainer Aarno)

The anti-discrimination legislation in the Finnish Penal Code and The
Constitution was changed in 1995 to include discrimination based on
sexual orientation.

The Penal Code explicitly mentions "sexual orientation" as a
prohibited reason for discrimination in offering public or commercial
services or giving access to public meetings. The law also prohibits
agitation against national, racial, ethnic, religious or other such
group of people. In this way also sexual minorities are protected.
The third relevant paragraph explicitly mentions "sexual orientation"
as a prohibited reason for discrimination in relation to hiring of a
employee or the working conditions of employees. The sentences for
the above crimes vary from fine to max. 2 years of prison.

The Finnish Constitution nowadays prohibits discrimination on the
basis of sex, age, origin, language, opinion, health, disability or
other reason characteristic of an individual. The sexual orientation
is mentioned in the Governments bills preparatory works as an example
of an other reason characteristic of an individual.

Rainer Hiltunen
vice-chairman of the National Gay and Lesbian Organisation - SETA
e-mail:rainer@seta.fi



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