Liisa Pakosta says that the offices of the Gender Equality Commissioner and the Chancellor of Justice could be merged. She explained that both offices deal with people's issues, but in different ways.
Pakosta explained that the Gender Equality Commissioner deals with issues arising from EU directives. The Chancellor of Justice deals with constitutional issues. She said that any concern a person brings to the Gender Equality Commissioner could also be brought to the Chancellor of Justice.
However, not all issues handled by the Chancellor of Justice can be brought to the Gender Equality Commissioner. Therefore, people sometimes had to be redirected from one office to another. Pakosta said this confusion should be eliminated.
She believes the offices could be merged. Then people would have one place to turn to with their concerns. This would make things simpler and clearer.
Pakosta added that the plan to merge the Gender Equality Act and the Equal Treatment Act is not yet ready. The government has not yet made a decision on this.
She gave the example that in Latvia, the offices of the Gender Equality Commissioner and the Chancellor of Justice are already merged. In Finland, however, there are many separate ombudsmen dealing with different issues.