World Bulletin
Meet the Ambassador: Jarmo Viinanen of Finland
By Mirva Lempiainen
Jarmo Viinanen, Finnish ambassador to the UN.
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Jan. 20 -- Finland's permanent mission to the UN recently sponsored a fund-raiser at the Finland Center in New York to support the work of the Panzi Hospital in the South Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the UN has its largest peacekeeping mission. In interviews, Finland’s Ambassador Jarmo Viinanen talks about the situation in Congo, violence against women in general, gender equality issues in Finland and the country’s efforts in Haiti after the earthquake last week. Q.: Why did the Finnish mission to the UN help sponsor the Panzi Hospital fund-raiser? A.: Two reasons. The first is the seriousness of the situation in the DRC, and the fact that violence against women is something that happens all too often worldwide. In the DRC, violence against women is now used as a war weapon, as a means of terrorism. When women are raped, they are stigmatized and isolated from the society. The Panzi Hospital offers both physical and mental support for these women who are victims of rape and other types of violence. So it’s an easy cause to support. We also want to support the Finland Center Foundation’s valuable work. It’s not easy to raise money for such a sensitive cause. It takes a lot of effort. So from that perspective, it’s nice to be able to support Finland Center in this. Q.: The Dec. 16 event raised about $6,000.
A.: I think the event was a great success. It was a combination of Finnish modesty and the will to help people in their suffering. I don't have the details on how the money will be spent, though.
Q.: What is happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo?
A.: The situation in a nutshell is that after the genocide in Rwanda, many Hutus escaped to eastern Congo to get away from Rwandan officials and the Tutsis. They’ve been there for about 15 years now. [Tutsis also fled into the region.] While the Hutus occasionally strike into Rwanda, above all the problem is that they are making the situation very volatile in the DRC, a country the size of Western Europe. So this is a huge country with several tribes and groups and not much law and order. Internal conflicts and violence between the different groups are problems that are present more or less all the time. Amidst all of this it is the women who have become the victims of attacks.
Q.: Why are women attacked in Congo?
A.: Partly it might be a systematic thing: these people want to break down the whole society by targeting women. Violence against women causes tremendous physical and mental damage as it harms the whole society and its ability to survive. Another reason might be that people’s perceptions of right and wrong get weakened in war situations. People become more corrupt and are willing to do things that would be unheard of in an organized society. They become lone soldiers who will do whatever it takes to survive and to claim their place in society. People’s moral codes are clearly weakened during long periods of violence.
Q.: How much can small fund-raising events, like the one held by the Finland Center, make a difference in Congo?
A.: Everything helps, even smaller-scale events. The benefits of fund-raisers like this one are twofold: one is that we’ll directly support an institution that helps women who have become victims of violence. The second is that we’ll increase awareness of this issue. What we are talking about here is violence that is hard to describe, where the women are not only raped: their genitals are slashed and mutilated, their uteruses are ripped out, their rectums are slashed. This all causes such complications that they can never live normal lives again. That’s why the Panzi Hospital’s work is very important. These women need extensive surgeries to be able to lead any kinds of lives. Talking about issues like this is very difficult. Our own code of morals tells us that this is something that is clearly wrong, and we find it hard to even discuss these terrible things. It’s much easier to just be quiet. So increasing awareness is important. People need to know that this is going on and that we need to do something about it. By organizing fund-raisers like this we’ll hopefully be able to mobilize people and to get violence against women to decrease.
Q.: What is the UN doing to combat the situation in Congo?
A.: Several things. There is a big peacekeeping operation, with 20,000 peacekeepers altogether. The mission of this operation is specifically to protect the civilians. But this hasn’t worked out that well because it’s a huge country with millions of people and the troop size is still relatively small. In addition, the Congolese troops and, to some extent, even the peacekeepers, have ended up contributing to the violence either directly by raping women or indirectly by buying prostitutes’ services. It’s a very complicated thing.
Q.: How is it that peacekeepers violate the women they are there to protect?
A.: I know that this seems inconceivable, and definitely hurts the credibility of the UN. This is a really serious matter. Unfortunately, as we have learned from thousands of years of history, whenever there’s a situation of war and there are a lot of soldiers, who are usually male, violence against women becomes a problem. So while it’s hard to understand that some peacekeepers would do this, one just needs to look at history. It’s hard to say whether the situation is worse now than before, but at least there’s more awareness now of what’s happening and that we need to stop it.
Q.: How much violence occurs against women in Finland?
A.: Nearly 20 women die each year in Finland as a result of domestic violence. That’s a major number in our statistics. According to studies, domestic violence is more common in Finland than in many other European countries. So that goes to show that Finland, too, has a culture of violence. Again, if we look at historical facts, the prevalence of violence of all types peaked in the country during the 10-15 years that followed war. For a long time the violence in the society reflected the fact that people had lived through war and violence themselves.
Q.: Finland is often considered a model of gender equality. Does it deserve that reputation?
A: When it comes to gender equality, Finland is doing really well in principle. And of course if we compare the country internationally, we can call the it the model country for equality. In terms of law, men and women are equal in Finland. We have a female president and more female ministers than male ministers in the Parliament. The percentage of women in the work force is very large and that is possible because of our good day-care system. It’s clear that when women are earning money, it makes them more equal in relation to their husbands. But this doesn’t mean that we wouldn’t have any issues to deal with, though not so much in terms of law but in putting it to practice. Many of these issues are deep-rooted in the society and don’t have clear reasons, like domestic violence. And while we have more female politicians these days, in the business world there are very few women on the top. This has to do with traditions and educational backgrounds of people. Business leaders have traditionally been engineers in Finland, and the bulk of engineering students are naturally male. And when you are choosing who to hire, you’re more likely to hire people you know, maybe people you studied with. So that’s one explanation, but just one.
Q.: What could be done to make the world a more equal place?
A.: The one thing to do would be to guarantee education possibilities for girls. This is one of the biggest equality problems worldwide. In situations where there’s no public school system and you have to pay for school, the families are almost guaranteed to educate the boy child. That’s the universal rule. When girls are given an equal opportunity to get educated, from elementary school to the university level, this promotes gender equality more than anything. Finland’s experiences in this are clear. We’ve had gender equality in education for a very long time, and access to education hasn’t been determined by your gender. Nowadays we have more women in universities than men. Countries like Finland can promote gender equality worldwide by designating funding for the education sectors of developing countries. That way we can train more teachers, so that we can educate more children.
Q.: How much have you worked with gender equality issues in your career?
A.: Previously in my career it wasn’t a very central focus, but it has been more so since I got appointed as the UN ambassador of Finland. If there’s one thing that defines Finland’s role in the UN, it is our focus on promoting gender equality. For example, Finland has paid money into a UNDP fund that covers the cost of a female representative from a developing country to travel to an environmental summit. If a delegation already has two men traveling to a conference, and they choose to bring an additional member and it’s a woman, we will pay for her trip. We think it’s important that women’s voices are heard in climate change discussions, because they are the first ones experiencing its effects. That’s why we want to hear women’s perspectives in all international summits. Also, the more women there are involved in peace processes and negotiations as peacemakers, the more their points of view come up: what peace means to them and what kinds of things we need to pay attention to. If it’s men waging wars and using guns, and then the same men do peace negotiations, we all understand it’s not a good system.
Q.: What else is important for Finland’s UN Mission?
A.: Finland has always striven to promote international peace and security. An example of that is that we have participated in the UN peacekeeping missions since 1956. We also try to promote peace with our foreign policy and by participating in mediation efforts in different parts of the world. Development questions are another priority for Finland. We have increased our development aid heavily, and the Finnish government has agreed to achieve the 0.7 percent GDP goal by 2015. Our development aid is increasingly being channeled through the UN system and other such channels. Human rights are also a central priority for Finland. In addition to gender equality issues, we pay special attention to the rights of minority groups.
Q.: What is Finland doing to help in Haiti after the earthquake?
A.: As an immediate response Finland has provided a field hospital and a search and rescue team for Haiti. We are also participating in the European efforts to provide long-term assistance for Haiti and contemplating our response to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ flash appeal.
Mirva Lempiainen is a freelance journalist based in New York.
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