In the picture, upper row from the left: Member of the Human Rights Committee of the Council of Finnish Academies & Docent Emilia Palonen, Board Member of Historians without Borders in Finland & Docent Oula Silvennoinen, Chair of Historians without Borders in Finland Erkki Tuomioja, Board member of Historians without Borders in Finland & Senior Research Fellow Mila Oiva, Board Member of Historians without Borders in Finland & Doctoral Researcher Bradley Reynolds. Lower row, from the left: Chair of the Human Rights Committee of the Council of Finnish Academies & Professor Liisa Laakso, Board member of Historians without Borders in Finland & Professor Emerita Sirkka Ahonen, Vice-chair of Historians without Borders in Finland & Associate Professor Rinna Kullaa, Artist Sirkku Rosi.
The Risto Pelkonen Human Rights Award of The Council of Finnish Academies was awarded to Historians without Borders in Finland on May 20, 2024. The purpose of the award is to increase the visibility of human rights issues in the scientific world and to highlight actions in favour of scientific freedom.
The 2024 Risto Pelkonen Human Rights Award of The Council of Finnish Academies has been awarded to Historians without Borders in Finland for its work in promoting awareness of history, international dialogue among historians and the use of historical knowledge in conflict resolution.
The award was presented to the association at the event Muuttuva menneisyys ja tieteen vapaus (“Changing past and scientific freedom”) held in the University of Helsinki’s Think Corner on Monday 20 May 2024. The winning work is the watercolour “Sharp Thought” (Terävä ajatus) by artist Sirkku Rosi.
The Chairman of the association, Erkki Tuomioja, accepted the award.
“On behalf of Historians without Borders in Finland, I would like to thank the The Council of Finnish Academies for the Risto Pelkonen Human Rights Award for promoting human rights and scientific freedom for scientists. We gratefully accept the award as an incentive to continue our work.“, Erkki Tuomioja said in his acceptance speech.
“We trust that the vast majority of historians do not accept the misuse of history and we want them to play an active role in conflict prevention and resolution. The key method we see as central to this work is to bring together historians from different backgrounds involved in conflicts and begin to build consensus through dialogue, first listening to each other’s very different narratives before declaring only their own ‘truth’. In conflicts, it is also important to safeguard the freedom of expression, science and research, which is easily threatened, and the opportunities for cross-border cooperation“, Tuomioja continued.
The Risto Pelkonen Human Rights Award was established by the The Council of Finnish Academies in 2021 to increase the visibility of human rights issues in the scientific world and to highlight actions in favour of scientific freedom. The award can be awarded to a person, community or organisation for their active work in promoting human rights in academic communities. The scientific community may submit nominations for the award.
The award, named after the archiatrist Risto Pelkonen, was awarded for the third time. Risto Pelkonen is one of the founding members of the Human Rights Committee of The Council of Finnish Academies.
The first award in 2022 was granted to the Scholars at Risk network of Finnish universities for its work in support of persecuted researchers, and in 2023 to the Finnish National Theatre for the premiere of the play Dosentit.
The event also featured a panel discussion on the theme of the changing past and scientific freedom. The panel was chaired by Programme Director Emilia Palonen (University of Helsinki) and the panellists were members of the Board of Historians without Borders in Finland: Professor Emerita Sirkka Ahonen (University of Helsinki), Associate Professor Rinna Kullaa (University of Tampere), Senior Researcher Mila Oiva (University of Tallinn) and Associate Professor Oula Silvennoinen (University of Helsinki).
