Tarja Halonen
President of the Republic of Finland

Tarja Halonen is the 11th President of the Republic of Finland and Finland’s first female head of state. She began her first six-year term on 1 March 2001, and was re-elected in January 2006. President Halonen started her professional career as a lawyer in the Central Organization of Finnish Trade Unions in 1970. In 1971, she joined the Social Democratic Party and in 1974 was first appointed parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister. She was elected to the Parliament for the first time in 1979 and re-elected four times until she assumed the office of the President of Finland. During her parliamentary career, she served as Chair of the Social Affairs Committee, Deputy-Chair of the Legal Affairs Committee and Chair of the Grand Committee. She has served in three cabinets as Minister of Social Affairs and Health (1987-90), Minister of Justice (1990-91), and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1995-2000). She has also played an active role at the Council of Europe, first as Deputy-Chair of the Finnish Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly and later in the Ministerial Committee. During her presidency, she also served as co-chair of the ILO World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation. Issues concerning human rights, democracy, civil society and the promotion of equality and social justice have been central themes throughout President Halonen’s political career.