Over the past year, the Nordic countries have taken joint action to promote gender equality. Police officers as well as preschool teachers have been invited to share experiences and find solutions with their Nordic colleagues.

2021 is now over. The Finnish Presidency has rounded off a year in which there have been many opportunities to learn from each other in the area of gender equality and LGBTI issues in the Nordic region.

Hanna Onwen-Huma, Chair of the Nordic Committee of Senior Officials for Gender Equality and LGBTI (ÄK-JÄM), mention the two-day conference ‘Gender-based Hate, Threat and Harassment on the Internet’ in the summer as an example.

“Victimisation online is a problem we see across the Nordic region, and we can benefit from looking at each other’s work,” she says.

The key takeaways from the conference have been summarised by independent expert Elina Nikulainen. Hanna Onwen-Huma believes that the police in the Nordic countries can benefit greatly from working together to find solutions.

“We see that online harassment often falls through the cracks with the police. Their work is divided up in such a way that some work on cybercrime and others on sexual harassment, and they do not interact. This is a problem throughout the Nordic region,” she says.

Focus on early childhood education

Another issue that has been in focus during the Finnish Presidency is gender equality in early childhood education. The work in the Nordic region has been mapped in the report “Changing Stereotypes and Breaking Traditions”. Using the report as a starting point, a seminar was held in early September for preschool teachers on how they can improve the preschool’s gender equality efforts in relation to the children.

“This is an important question because we know that what we learn as children influences the life choices we see as possible, and this is also reflected later in life,” says Hanna Onwen-Huma.

Hate targeting LGBTI people

In the LGBTI area, the Nordic Council of Ministers has a particular focus on hate crime in 2021. A survey was carried out on what different countries are doing in this area, and a seminar was held at the end of November focusing on successful examples.

“It brought together different actors such as police officers and representatives of LGBTI organisations. I think it was very fruitful,” says Hanna Onwen-Huma.

One challenge in the work to prevent hate crime is that many victims do not report it to the police.  

“We need to change this, and we can see that the results are better when the police and LGBTI organisations work together,” says Hanna Onwen-Huma.

Online during the pandemic

Many of the activities during the year had to be carried out online due to the pandemic.

“In practical terms, this meant extra work as we had to reschedule several times at the last minute, but I don’t think the quality has suffered,” says Hanna Onwen-Huma.

The only event it was not possible to hold was the conference ‘Nordic Fathers on Paternity Leave’. It was due to be held in 2021 but has been postponed until March 2022.

Norway takes over the Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers for 2022.

“They have excellent plans for the area of gender equality next year,” says Hanna Onwen-Huma, and explains that these include looking more closely at the anti-gender debate from a global perspective.

“The Nordic countries will join forces to see how we can fight against this movement, which is attacking the work to strengthen the rights of girls, women and LGBTI people.”