The purpose of the new Equality and Non-discrimination Advisory Board is to act as a forum for cooperation and influencing, promoting the realisation of equality and non-discrimination in the City’s operations and enabling organisations to actively participate and exert influence. The role of the Advisory Board is to influence the planning, preparation and monitoring of the City’s operations, particularly in matters related to the promotion of equality and non-discrimination in the City’s services and operations.
The Advisory Board consists of seven members from different organisations and seven elected officials. The Board’s meetings will also be attended by the City’s equality and non-discrimination work specialists. The organisations of the Equality and Non-discrimination Advisory Board represent minority groups in Helsinki from different perspectives.
Vini Venetvaara (Greens) was appointed as the new chair of the Equality and Non-discrimination Advisory Board and Salla Viitanen (Left Alliance) as its second vice chair.
“The Equality and Non-discrimination Advisory Board is a great new structure that has a lot of potential to create a round table at which we can tackle challenging issues and situations and take positions together with representatives of organisations and other members,” comments Venetvaara.
Venetvaara is looking forward to the four-year term with enthusiasm.
“I am impressed by and excited about the level of expertise of the group that has been assembled around this subject. I expect that in the coming years, we will be able to build a good basis for a culture of negotiation regarding equality and non-discrimination matters. It’s great to be involved in creating a Helsinki that we can be proud of.”
The Equality and Non-discrimination Advisory Board will meet for the first time on Thursday 25 September to elect its first vice chair from among its organisation members. The minutes of the Advisory Board will be available on its website (to be launched in autumn 2025).
Previously, Helsinki had a Gender Equality and Non-discrimination Commission. As a change from the previous system, the new Advisory Board includes representatives of organisations in addition to political elected officials. Specialists from the City’s different divisions will also be involved.
The Gender Equality and Non-discrimination Commission focused on matters such as the progress of the City’s equality and non-discrimination plan for services, the results of the staff equality and non-discrimination survey, measures to prevent domestic violence, and the implementation of digital support and immigrant information services. The new Advisory Board will continue the work on these themes.
