Duties of President Tarja Halonen after 1 March 2012

Office of the President of the Republic
Press Release 17 February 2012

The term of office of President of the Republic Tarja Halonen will end on 1 March 2012. Thereafter President Halonen will be occupied in international positions of trust in accordance with her earlier commitments, among other things:

President Halonen has undertaken to contribute to UN reporting on sustainable development and to participate in the Rio+20 Conference in June. Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, appointed a High-level Panel on Global Sustainability to help prepare for the Rio+20 Conference. The Panel, co-chaired by President Halonen and Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa, published its report in January 2012. The report “Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing” can be found on the web www.un.org/gsp.

President Halonen will also continue to co-chair the Panel of Eminent Persons of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). She will be participating in the UNCTAD conference in Doha in April.

Additionally, President Halonen will continue to chair the Council of Women World Leaders (CWWL), a position to which she was elected in 2009.

Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), has requested President Halonen to chair a high-level working group on population and development. President Halonen will decide in near future whether she will accept this appointment.

In addition to her duties in international organisations, President Halonen will continue to participate in social debate in Finland and to represent Finland abroad.

An office has been set up for President Halonen in Hakaniemi in Helsinki for managing her future duties. The mailing address of the office is Paasivuorenkatu 5 C, FI-00530 Helsinki, Finland; the e-mail address is info@presidenthalonen.fi.

The office website www.presidenthalonen.fi will go online in March 2012. The website will contain a link to the archived website of the President of the Republic from the period 2000 to 2012, containing speeches given by President Halonen while in office, information on her presidential trips and visits, and images from her term in office.