Press Releases, 9/16/2017 Ministry for Foreign Affairs

Press release 159/2017
16.9.2017

Former president of Finland Tarja Halonen has been appointed to membership of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory board on mediation. The panel is based on an initiative to intensify mediation, made by UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

The panel provides advice to the Secretary-General and makes assessments of ongoing conflicts and peace processes. The members of the panel are experienced experts in mediation and diplomacy. The role of mediation has become increasingly important among the tools available in mediation internationally and in the EU. The UN aims to increase its mediation capacity and to support regional and national mediation activities.

Finland will continue its determined contribution to international mediation activities and develop and strengthen its national mediation and dialogue capacity in accordance with the Government Report on Finnish Foreign and Security Policy. Foreign Minister Soini and his Turkish colleague are co-chairs of the UN Group of Friends of Mediation.

Inquiries: Erik af Hällström, Director, tel. +358 295 350 906 Unit for UN and General Global Affairs and Petra Yliportimo, First Secretary and Advisor to President Halonen, tel. +358 295 351 842

The Foreign Ministry’s email addresses are in the format firstname.lastname@formin.fi.