DUSHANBE, October 25, 2012, Asia-Plus — Tajik President Emomali Rahmon held talks with Finnish Parliament Speaker Eero Heinaluoma in Helsinki Wednesday afternoon, the Tajik president’s official website reports.
The two considered issues related to development of parliamentary relations between Tajikistan and Finland and expansion of legal foundation for cooperation between the two countries.
Tajik president, in particular, noted that studying of rich experience of the parliament of Finland was useful for Tajikistan.
In this connection, the sides reportedly declared fro creation of parliamentary friendship groups.
Yesterday afternoon, President Rahmon also met with Dr. Petri Jaaskelainen, the Parliamentary Ombudsman of Finland.
In the course of the talks, Tajik leader reportedly briefed Dr. Petri Jaaskelainen on activities of Tajik Ombudsman’s Office.
Rahmon noted that more than 2,350 NGOs, some 4,000 religious organizations, including 74 non-Muslim groups, and 8 political parties now functioned in Tajikistan.
He also noted that 400 publications, including 250 private ones, were now published in Tajikistan and 44 TV and radio stations, with 28 of them being private, now functioned in the country.
Finland has had the institution of parliamentary ombudsman since 1920. The office of the ombudsman has one ombudsman and two assistant ombudsmen. The officials are elected for a term of four years. The other Finnish official charged with the supervision of public power is the Chancellor of Justice. The jurisdiction of the two offices overlaps, but the parliamentary ombudsman is the authority specially charged with the handling of complaints by military servicemen, conscripts, prisoners and other persons in closed institutions. He also regularly inspects prisons, garrisons and Finnish peacekeeping missions abroad. The other special duty of the parliamentary ombudsman is the supervision of
police
undercover and wiretapping activities.
