The Ministry of Justice The Ministry of Justice maintains and develops legal order and legal protection, reinforces the structures of democracy, and safeguards citizens’ fundamental rights. The Ministry is responsible for drafting the key legislat...

Ministry of Justice in social media The Ministry of Justice uses social media to share information, such as news and information about current events, and to encourage discussion. Private matters cannot be instituted on our social media sites. If ...

The organisation of the Ministry of Justice The Ministry of Justice is headed by the Minister of Justice. The Permanent Secretary directs the Ministry's activities together with the Minister of Justice. There are four departments at the Ministry: ...

Ministry of Justice Minister of Justice Leena Meri The Finns Party Minister of Justice Leena Meri heads the Ministry of Justice. Minister Meri is responsible for all other matters covered by the Ministry of Justice except for those related to the ...

Processing of personal data in the services of the Ministry of Justice The Ministry of Justice processes personal data in order to comply with a legal obligation or, in certain situations, to perform a task carried out in the public interest or ba...

Justice affairs in the EU EU affairs at the Ministry of Justice The Ministry of Justice is responsible for EU projects within its mandate and seeks to influence EU legislation proactively. The objective is to ensure that Finland’s interests are se...

Sign up for press releases and news by the Ministry of Justice You can subscribe to receive press releases of the Ministry of Justice by email. Please select the materials and topics you wish to subscribe to from the list below. To activate your s...

Policy of the Ministry of Justice for International and EU Activities The main responsibility of the Ministry of Justice is to ensure the operation of the rule of law. The Ministry’s international and EU activities support the achievement of its i...

Accessibility statement for the website of the Ministry of Justice, oikeusministerio.fi The Act on the Provision of Digital Services applies to the website of the Ministry of Justice. Under the Act, public online services must be accessible, which...

Department for Private Law and Administration of Justice The Department for Private Law and Administration of Justice is responsible for law drafting in the fields of private law, insolvency law, and judicial procedure in civil and petitionary mat...

Contacting the Ministry in different matters Submission of documents to the Ministry of Justice If you would like the Ministry of Justice to consider a matter, please send your document to the registry of the Ministry by post, e-mail or fax. Howev...

Registry and document services Email: registry.om(at)gov.fi Telephone: + 358 2951 50320 Fax: +358 9 1606 7730 Postal address: Ministry of Justice, P.O.Box 25, FI-00023 Government Document delivery address: Documents addressed to the Ministry of Ju...

Right of initiative The Constitution lays down provisions on the right of individuals to participate in and influence the development of society and their living conditions. Pursuant to the Constitution, the public authorities shall promote the op...

We work for a strong rule of law The updated strategy of the Ministry of Justice strengthens the role of the Ministry of Justice as the ministry responsible for the rule of law and democracy. The six impact objectives of the strategy form the key ...

For media This page contains selected information on current contents as well as operations and contact persons in the Ministry of Justice. The Media and Communications Unit provides help with finding information and contacting the experts on a ce...

Influencing the preparation of decisions and legislation Under Finnish legislation, authorities must act in an open and transparent manner. Citizens must be provided with opportunities to protect their rights and interests, receive information abo...

On 20.3.2025, the Government adopted a resolution on a national programme to promote democracy and participation. The task of the cross-administrative working group appointed by the Ministry of Justice is to coordinate the implementation of the programme in the Government in 2025-2027.

Transfer of Sentenced Persons General The purpose of transferring sentenced persons to their home countries is advancing their rehabilitation into society. Accordingly, a sentenced person is offered a possibility to continue serving his sentence i...

Service of Documents In connection with judicial proceedings, courts sometimes need to serve documents, such as summonses and invitations to appear in court, on persons residing or companies located in another country. When the service of document...

Taking of evidence Taking of evidence through international legal assistance is required when a witness to be heard or a document to be used as evidence in judicial proceedings is located abroad. As a rule, courts have three options if they wish t...

Respective responsibilities of joint controllers When the Ministry of Justice processes personal data in the Government's shared information systems, the Ministry of Justice and the Prime Minister's Office are joint controllers. The Ministry of Ju...

Rights of the Sámi people Ministry of Justice safeguards the rights of the Sámi people The Ministry of Justice supports the development of Sámi cultural autonomy and coordinates the handling of Sámi rights across the ministries. The Ministry of Ju...

Democracy policy The goal of the Government's democracy policy is to address topical democracy-related challenges and ensure that citizens are provided with opportunities for participating and exerting influence in society. Promoting democracy is ...

Rights of the Sámi people Ministry of Justice safeguards the rights of the Sámi people The Ministry of Justice supports the development of Sámi cultural autonomy and coordinates the handling of Sámi rights across the ministries. The Ministry of Ju...

We will develop the operating conditions of CSOs in cross-administrative cooperation. The implementation of the strategy includes legislative projects, studies and reports and other development measures. The aim is, for example, to extend the right to tax deductions on donations to CSOs, to reform government grant practices and to form a vision of civil society.

International Recovery Of Maintenance The EU legislation and several international treaties binding on Finland contain provisions on the international aspects of maintenance obligations and payments. Within the framework of these arrangements, it ...

Anti-corruption efforts As in many other countries, corruption is a problem present also in Finland. Studies show that instead of street-level corruption, Finland is characterised by larger-scale structural corruption that is more difficult to det...

Operation and finances Operational and financial planning in the administrative sector of the Ministry of Justice is based on the four-year appropriation framework and the performance agreements. The Ministry of Justice is responsible for creating...

History The Ministry of Justice was established in 1918 right after Finland had gained independence. It was preceded by the Judicial Department of the Senate Economic Division, established in 1892. In 1919 the Board of Press Matters was incorporat...

Management Permanent Secretary The Permanent Secretary assists the Minister in leading and developing the Ministry's activities and strategic planning as well as the performance management on the administrative branch of the Ministry and the perfo...

Feedback and additional information On this page, you can only give feedback on the contents and functioning of the website of the Ministry of Justice (www.oikeusministerio.fi). For all other matters or inquiries, please contact the Ministry's reg...

International cooperation The Ministry of Justice aims to promote a stable rule of law in Finland and especially in its neighbouring areas. International cooperation seeks to reinforce cross-border legal protection, and it also brings new angles t...

Website cookies Cookies are small text files that a web browser saves on the user’s device. Among their many functions, cookies enable maintaining a user’s preferences, such as their language settings, when the user moves from one page to another ...

Extradition General Extradition deals with handing over of suspects or sentenced persons to a foreign country for legal proceedings or service of sentence. Extradition from Finland is regulated in the Act on Extradition. The Act contains only a fe...

Fundamental rights » The Ministry of Justice prepares the fundamental provisions relating to the Constitution and the public administration. These include the laws regulating the competency of the President of the Republic, the Parliament and the ...

News Archive Text message reminders increased voter turnout in 2025 county and municipal elections Organization: Prime Minister's Office Organization: Ministry of Justice Type: Press release Publication date: 26.5.2026 Inclusion pilot incorporates...

The aim of the working group is to propose legislative amendments required for the independence of the judiciary, in particular by ensuring constitutional guarantees for the independence of the judiciary. The working group is set up by a working group appointed by the Ministry of Justice in 2023 to examine the development of the judicial system and operates in connection with it.

Contact information Postal address Ministry of Justice PO BOX 25, FI-00023 Government Visiting address Meritullinkatu 10, Helsinki Accessibility The building has an accessible main entrance. There is lift access to the conference room floor. There...

Project aims at strengthening work against hate crimes and harassment especially through developing the competence of professionals in various fields.

Monitoring documents The monitoring documents relating to performance guidance on the administrative branch of the Ministry of Justice comprise of annual accounts of government agencies the Ministry of Justice's statements on the annual accounts a...

Planning documents The planning documents relating to performance guidance on the administrative branch of the Ministry of Justice comprise of strategic long-term plans performance target documents for four-year periods yearly budget proposals Str...

The rule of law and legal protection Ministry of Justice’s main responsibility is to ensure the operation of the rule of law in Finland. The Ministry drafts also the provisions which aim to ensure fair trials and good governance. The Ministry also...

Crime victims The Ministry of Justice is responsible for drafting the legislation related to the legal status of crime victims and for improving the position of crime victims within its mandate. The efforts to improve the position of crime victims...

Linguistic rights The Ministry of Justice is responsible for promoting the realisation of linguistic rights by monitoring the implementation and application of the Language Act and by issuing recommendations. The Unit for Democracy, Language Affai...

International child abduction A case usually concerns international child abduction if the following criteria are met: A child is taken to or retained in a foreign country without the consent of the person who has custody of the child , the child ...

About the website The website of the Ministry of Justice, www.ministryofjustice.fi, provides information on, i.a., the Ministry, its work and duties and on ongoing legislation and development projects at the Ministry. Finnish and Swedish pages are...

In accordance with the Government Programme of Prime Minister Sanna Marin, an act on a transparency register will be enacted in Finland on the basis of parliamentary preparation and in consultation with civil society. The purpose of the act is to improve the transparency of decision-making and, by doing this, to prevent undue influence and reinforce public confidence.

Criminal law Criminal law is the body of law that regulates questions related to criminal liability. Crime and punishment are the basic concepts of criminal law. A crime is an act or a failure to act that has been criminalised under the law. By cr...

Criminal policy In its widest sense, criminal policy refers to all actions that have an effect on criminality. Criminal policy includes, for example, decision-making concerning which acts constitute punishable offences, what kind of punishments ar...

Publications The publications of the Ministry of Justice can be found in the Institutional Repository for the Government, called Valto. The Institutional Repository (Valto) includes the publication series of all Finnish ministries in pdf-format fr...

Invoicing Invoicing address of the Ministry of Justice for e-invoices is Invoicing address/party identification number: 003702459747017 E-invoicing operator: Posti Messaging Oy Operator code: FI28768767 Business ID: 0245974-7 VAT number: FI0245974...

The national Advisory Board for Ethnic Relations The national level Etno works under the auspices of the Ministry of Justice. Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice , Mr. Antti Leinonen chairs the Advisory Board. The Advisory Board has thr...

Finland – a state governed by the rule of law Finnish democracy is built on the rule of law. The rule of law and respect for fundamental rights are key principles enshrined in the Constitution of Finland. Finland is also committed to these princip...

The project aims to improve the effectiveness of addressing racism, discrimination and hate crimes through peer learning with the support of authorities and civil society actors.

The goal of the project is to facilitate the participation of children and young people in policy-making at the national level. The goal is to develop methods, gather best practices and produce training materials on child participation and to provide relevant training for public authorities. The project in Finland is part of the joint European CP4Europe project, which is coordinated by the Council of Europe.

Contact information the Advisory Board for Ethnic Relations (Etno) Ministry of Justice, Finland PO Box 25 FI-00023 Government Email: etno.om(at)gov.fi (replace (at) with @) Telephone: +358 2951 6001 (switchboard) Secretary General of the Advisory ...

International Legal Assistance In Criminal Matters International legal assistance in criminal matters encompasses cooperation between countries on account of crime. In a broad sense cooperation covers mutual legal assistance, extradition and trans...

Fundamental rights The Ministry of Justice prepares the fundamental provisions relating to the Constitution and the public administration. These include the laws regulating the competency of the President of the Republic, the Parliament and the Go...

Sign language The linguistic rights of sign language users are safeguarded under the Constitution of Finland. Pursuant to the Constitution, language groups have the right to maintain and develop their own language and culture, and the rights of pe...

Enforcement of Civil Judgments This page contains general information on the enforcement of judgments in civil matters (such as judgments establishing a payment liability) in Finland. There are international treaties, EU legislation and national l...