5th of November 2026

8:45-11:00 Little Parliament, Visitor Centre (Kansalaisinfo) Arkadiankatu 3, Helsinki

The MUST and Relief Strategic Research Council projects, with the support of Member of Parliament, Vice Chairperson of the Committee of the Future Timo Harakka (Social Democratic Party) cordially invite researchers and sustainability actors from across Finland to participate in a forum with members of the Futures Committee of the Finnish Parliament. Attendance is strictly limited to registered participants only: Please register for the Forum by the 5 September 2026.

The Forum is limited to the first 50 registered participants. Participation will be confirmed by 22nd of September 2026.

The Futures Committee of the Finnish Parliament recently sought guidance from experts on how to strengthen intergenerational justice using legislative and policy measures. While the Finnish constitution allows for the protection of future human and multispecies generations implicitly, how to integrate aspects of more-than-human agency and legal personhood in the current legal and policy context remains a major challenge.

In this Forum, we seek to tackle how both humans and other species can be considered through a wider lens of ‘intergenerational responsibility’ in legislative and policy measures in Finland. This includes issues of fairness between current age groups (children, young people, adults, the elderly), fairness between living and unborn generations, and more widely fairness between multiple generations of humans and other species.

PROGRAMME

8:45-9:00 Networking over morning coffee

9:00-9:15

Opening statement: Krista Mikkonen (Member of the Finnish Parliament, Member of the Futures Committee)

Setting the scene: Christopher Raymond (Professor, University of Helsinki) and Niko Soininen (Professor, University of Eastern Finland)

9:15-10:15 Inspirational keynotes:

Timo Harakka (Member of the Finnish Parliament): Rights of Future Generations and the Futures Act

Visa Kurki (Professor, University of Helsinki): Protecting the Future Using the Tools of the Past? On Legal Personhood and Future Generations Questions and Discussion

10:15-11:00 Panel discussion and audience Q&A facilitated by Niko Soininen and Christopher Raymond

Panel speakers: Visa Kurki (Professor, University of Helsinki), Timo Harakka (Member of the Finnish Parliament), Pauliina Rautio (Professor, University of Oulu), Valtteri Aaltonen (Postdoctoral researcher, University of Helsinki), Anu Lähteenmäki-Uutela (Research professor, Finnish Environment Institute) and Anton Riihelä (Youth nature delegate, Youth delegates of Finland)

Welcome!

Image: Susanne Jutzeler/Pixabay