5.6.2023

HYY’s Equality Plan has been updated

NEWS

HYY’s Representative Council approved HYY’s Equality Plan for 2024–2026 in its meeting on 30 May 2023. 

 

The Equality Plan describes the ideal state of the Student Union that we aim to reach by 2026. The 14-page document features a total of 34 different objectives promoting equality along with measures that are already in use.

Examples of objectives promoting equality include advancing trilingualism, taking action against and preventing harassment situations, accessibility in HYY’s events and communication, increasing diversity among HYY’s personnel and supporting the equality work of organisations operating under HYY. During this round of updates, particular attention was paid to formulating the measures and indicators in as concrete terms as possible as well as the general readability of the document. At the same time, we wanted to decrease the number of different documents in HYY by combining all the different documents related to equality into one.

‘Having an equality plan is important for HYY, and for any organisation really, because it is a way for us to hold ourselves accountable for actually doing the work to promote equality instead of equality being just a lofty word in our documents that does not translate into any real action’, member of HYY’s Board in charge of equality, Eugenie Touma van der Meulen, describes the significance of the Equality Plan.

Updating the plan also provided HYY’s members, committees and organisations an opportunity to highlight and suggest equality acts that HYY should focus on during the next two years. An open comment round for members was organised in spring 2023, along with a separate preliminary discussion for HYY’s Representative Council.

‘We worked on the plan together with our specialist on equality, Tiia Niemi, and I think we made a good team! We also asked for a lot of input from various parties: our members, all sectors at the Central Office, the Board, and the Representative Council. There was a lot of communication back and forth to make it the best equality plan possible’, Eugenie describes the work on the plan.

The Equality Plan describes how we promote equality in the Student Union and the organisations operating under it. HYY’s Policy Paper defines the goals of our advocacy work related to equality and other themes in society in more detail.

 

Further information:

Tiia Niemi

Specialist in social policy

tiia.niemi@hyy.fi

 

Eugenie Touma van der Meulen

Member of the Board in charge of equality

eugenie.toumavandermeulen@hyy.fi