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it is not limited to a government. You have to involve the citizens and the
society into the process. My first question will be for you. Benjamin Gregg
has a wonderful book “Human Rights as Social Construction” published
in 2012 by Cambridge University and Russell Muirhead is an associate
professor in Dartmouth University conducting a study in this area.
Muirhead says that the traditional issue with human rights is the following:
is universe the issue or local? This is mixed up because whatever is local
must be confirmed but something local must have universality. In essence,
the Human Rights Center may even write a thesis about it. You may even
give this topic as home-work. I would like to briefly hear your comments
about this; especially, in view of European and western moral rules, I mean,
human dignity, how do you see this? I deeply appreciate if you could humbly
elaborate on this because some people such statements wrong. What do you
say about the equilibrium between human rights and defense?

SIRPA RAUTIO (Director of Human Rights Center, Finland)

You only ask easy questions I think. It is extremely important. This is
something we have been reflecting especially of the last weeks and
months for the discussion in Finland I am sure as also in Europe is
very polarized at the moment. You have people who are fervently
defending what they think is the right discourse human rights and this
is very much around the migrant refugee discussion. And then you
have seems like a growing number who are posing and at least we
have been trying to think hard how to communicate this things and
how to get broader understanding for human rights and of course
there are no easy answers. But I think one think that we had to learn
hard is that you need to communicate in ways that people understand.
You cannot expect ordinary people or children or elderly people,
everybody to know every convention and know norms in detail so in
some ways, and I have also seen in my career when I’ve been working
in different situations sometimes very locally, sometimes at the
headquarters that different approaches in the human rights how you
work with them and I think in some ways it was down to values, you
mention dignity, you have respect and at the same time I think essential
principles participation you need to include people and finally I think
none discrimination equality is a cross cutting issue. So, in some ways I
think if you can also work with principles and values nut just norms you

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