Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja said he wanted to enhance...

Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja said he wanted to enhance the role of human rights in the Finnish foreign policy on presenting a new report on the government's human rights policy to the Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee. The report included examples on means to promote human rights in various countries such as Turkey, Iraq and the United States. Tuomioja said Finland works actively to abolish capital punishment and racism in the world, and as president of the EU in 1999, succeeded in increasing transparency and coherence in the Union's human rights policy. The EU's activities to abolish capital punishment were visible also vis-à-vis the United States, he said.