Address by President of the Republic Tarja Halonen to the European Women and Sport Conference at Finlandia Hall in Helsinki on 10 June 2000

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It is a great pleasure for me to be able to address a conference at which figures influential in women’s sports in many European countries gather together with their Finnish colleagues. I greatly appreciate the work that you are doing to promote opportunities for physical culture on a basis of equality. I know that physical exercise and sport are one of the spheres in which gender equality has not been implemented, even though all the prerequisites for doing so are naturally in place. Sport is still a male bastion, which active change could steer onto a new course towards the greater equality that the 21st century requires. This will be possible when girls and women take part, as equals, in activities and fill the roles of participants, decision makers, managers, coaches and other functionaries on every level of sport and physical exercise.

Physical culture for women of impaired mobility has been made one of the main themes of this conference. The theme of equality is certainly not confined to gender. Both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and several other agreements, such as the European Convention on Human Rights, make it clear that people have a legal entitlement to the same rights and freedoms without distinction of any kind on grounds such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

The United Nations has adopted a set of Standard Rules concerning equality of opportunity for handicapped persons. The intention is to promote values and norms which will help special groups in various parts of the world to carve out a life on a foundation of equality and tolerance. This applies also to physical exercise and sport. A point clearly emphasised in the UN rules is that handicapped persons must be able to take part in a comprehensive range of physical exercise and sports at facilities designed to cater for them. In addition to that, instruction and training must be of a high quality and decision making must take the perspective of the handicapped into account.

The ban on discrimination is an important element in international human rights conventions. It features centrally in the UN Covenants on Civil and Political Rights as well as in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Convention on the Rights of the Child includes provisions on the rights of handicapped children. Nevertheless handicapped persons continue to suffer discrimination and their human rights are by no means implemented on a basis of equality in all respects. A matter that I would especially like to raise is the right of participation. The right of the handicapped to make an input into all decision making with a bearing on their own status is important from the perspective of promoting human rights.

There are several specific references to gender in the set of rules, which are intended to ensure that handicapped girls and boys, women and men have the same rights and obligations as everyone else. This is important, because handicapped women can be discriminated against not only on the ground of gender, but also because of their handicap. Handicapped women can be victims of dual discrimination at the workplace, in their social relations, in leisure sports and physical culture as well as in elite sports.

Equality between people is more than just something to be wished for. It is essential. Human rights are the same for all individuals, but in practice they are not implemented equally. Groups like women, minorities and handicapped persons are still more likely than others to suffer discrimination. Therefore there is every reason to pay special attention to the implementation of these groups’ rights. Even when the rights of girls and women are enshrined in legislation, they are not always implemented as well as those of their male counterparts.

All over the world, women face a variety of obstacles which reduce their prospects of living their lives on a basis of equality with men. This is often due to such things as their inferior economic status, the difficulty of reconciling work with family life, and culture-related factors. The status of women and human rights have been deliberated during the past week at the UN conference Beijing +5 in New York. Five years have elapsed since the UN conference in Beijing and the New York gathering was convened to examine how the rights and status of women have developed in the interim.

Although promoting and safeguarding human rights is the responsibility of governments, a living human rights culture is unlikely to come into being without an effectively-functioning civil society. Women’s organisations and other NGOs have a crucial role in the promotion of the human rights of girls and women. Cooperation between women and networks are a key factor in the implementation of women’s rights. This matter is already everyday routine in many of the countries that you represent. Finnish physical exercise culture is no exception.

The activity that sport and physical exercise organisations have shown in issues of gender equality is something that I find very gratifying. The International Olympic Committee could, by setting the right example, play an important trailblazing role in the promotion of gender equality in every sub-sector of sports culture. European physical culture organisations have likewise taken gender equality onto their agenda. I am also convinced that EU enlargement will promote equality between the sexes. It is essential that the countries applying for membership of the EU fulfil the requirements relating to gender equality legislation and its implementation in accordance with the mainstreaming principle. Naturally, the existing member states must cherish what they have already achieved in this respect.

Legislation and the support of NGOs are driving the development of equality forward. But they will not be enough on their own. The political will to advance equality in practice is also needed. Comprehensive women’s cooperation networks, effective collaboration between the public sector and NGOs, "for real" equality programmes, availing of the potential of mentoring, education and women’s studies, publicity, rewards for success, listening to the grass-roots, work on the district level and faith that equality will come true will get us a long way. People form their image of self through their experiences as they live their lives in interaction with their surroundings. Opportunities to implement equality must be created in everyday life.

All of these things are needed as we work for greater equality in physical exercise and sport both in Europe generally and in our separate countries. These are the practical cornerstones on which the work that we are doing here in Finland rests. International contacts are likewise important to ensure that new views and ideas are translated into actions.

We Finns have had to travel a long road in working for equality. In 1906 Finnish women became the first in the world to obtain full political rights; in other words, both the vote and the right to stand for election. Since then, growing numbers of women have served as parliamentarians and in ministerial posts and other high offices. Finland’s first woman minister was appointed in 1926. Equality has also been promoted through legislation. Our 1986 Equality Act and the quota system that was added to it through a 1995 amendment have significantly helped to increase equality between men and women. Naturally, it gives me great satisfaction to be able to speak to you as Finland’s first woman president.

I believe that physical exercise and sport have the ability to make the world a place of greater equality. It is in sports halls and on playing pitches that girls and boys, women and men can, at their best, be very equal. There is still work to be done, but physical exercise and sport provide a meeting place in which equality and tolerance can flourish.

I wish you good fortune and success in your valuable work.

I am certain that the plans arising out of your work will gain the respect they deserve in the places where decisions are made.

As equality gains ground in the world of physical culture and sports it will become possible to build a democratic society as well. In the same way as in society generally, borders and obstacles that were once considered impossible to surmount are being overcome. Borders are meant to be crossed and obstacles to be removed.