After losing a seven-year legal battle in Finland’s Supreme Court, a Christian MP is appealing her conviction for gay hate speech to the European Court of Human Rights.
Päivi Räsänen, a medical doctor, grandmother of 12, and a minister for the interior from 2011 to 2015, was found guilty of hate speech. The verdict was based on a pamphlet Räsänen published in 2004 entitled “Male and Female He Created Them: Homosexual Relationships Challenge the Christian Concept of Humanity.”
She was found guilty of making “available to the public and kept available to the public opinions that insult homosexuals as a group on the basis of their sexual orientation” under a section of the Finnish criminal code criminalising “War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity.”
Recently her Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to travel to the UK was cancelled because of her conviction.
Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola and the Luther Foundation Finland were also convicted over publishing the booklet. The Supreme Court also ruled that the impugned statements within the booklet must be “removed from public access and destroyed”.
“Appealing my conviction is about much more than a fine or a decades-old church booklet,” said Räsänen. “My case stands to determine whether the fundamental rights of religious freedom and free speech are still protected in Finland and across Europe, and whether these societies are still willing to stand up for the rights of all – even those they disagree with.”
“‘Hate speech’ laws that criminalise peaceful expression are incompatible with a truly democratic society. As a member of parliament and a Christian who has faced censorship and years of criminal investigation, I am profoundly aware of the devastating consequences of curtailing basic liberties. The European Court of Human Rights must decisively uphold these freedoms and promote the common good across Europe.”
Räsänen’s appeal comes amid growing international concern over freedom of speech in Europe, as Finland and other states employ “hate speech” legislation that criminalises and discourages the peaceful expression of dissenting views, including some Christian beliefs.
Commenting on the travel ban, Räsänen said: “I have been invited to give the keynote speech at a religious freedom conference in Belfast in August, where I intended to discuss the importance of free speech. I find it shocking and deeply ironic that in a democratic country like the UK, I am being prevented from speaking at a conference about fundamental freedoms due to my conviction for ‘hate speech’.”
According to the Alliance Defending Freedom, an American-based legal advocacy group, Räsänen was convicted under a law that was introduced years after the booklet was published, even though the court admitted that the booklet “did not contain incitement to violence or comparable threat-like fomenting of hatred”.
