Speech on the occasion of the seminar in memory of justice Matti Pellonpää, The European Human Rights System – Past, Present and Future

Dear Irja, highly esteemed speakers, honourable invited guests, dear colleagues, and friends,

it is my privilege and a great personal pleasure to wish you welcome to this seminar dedicated to Matti Pellonpää, to pay tribute Justice Pellonpää´s outstanding work. It is now almost exactly one year since Matti deceased, far too early. The theme of today is human rights – past, present, and future.

When commemorating Matti Pellonpää´s professional career, most of us probably characterize him as a human rights judge. He started his extensive career as a scholar of international law. Pellonpää was a Doctor of Laws. His dissertation “Expulsion in international law: a study in international aliens law and human rights with special reference to Finland” was published in 1984. We notice that the subtitle was already closely linked to human rights and to one crucial part of his work at the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland, too. In addition, it is worth mentioning that he held a Master of Laws degree from the University of Toronto.

Pellonpää’s work as Senior Advisor for Legislative Affairs at the Ministry of Justice laid the groundwork for Finland’s accession to the European Convention on Human Rights in 1990. He is best remembered both nationally and internationally for his meritorious work at the European human rights institutions, first at the Commission, and later as a judge (1998-2006) at the reformed European Court of Human Rights. In Finnish human rights law, Pellonpää was a legend. His contact with the Human Rights Court remained lively, as he served as a member in the Advisory Panel of Experts on Candidates for Election as Judge to the European Court of Human Rights in 2010-2017.

During his lengthy career, Pellonpää had time to work as a professor of international law, in which field he also authored a number of books and articles. His book on the European Convention of Human Rights has been published in several editions, the latest with three co-authors. I would also like to acknowledge his article, published posthumously in Lakimies 2021 about constitutional control in four European countries and Finland. A profound text based on careful comparative work, as could be expected. In addition, he had numerous assignments in international mediation bodies. Pellonpää remained visiting professor at the Wirtschaftsuniversität of Vienna even after his retirement.

After the term in Strasbourg, Pellonpää worked as a justice at the Supreme Administrative Court for a decade. At the time of retirement in 2017, he was chairperson of the chamber responsible for matters concerning aliens.

The international dimension was not only visible in Pellonpää’s work, but also in his love of languages. Matti was a polyglot. His extensive linguistic skills led him abroad. His working languages included, in addition to Finland’s national languages Finnish and Swedish, also English, French, and German. Due to his knowledge of Spanish, his participation in the judge exchange programme at the Supreme Court of Spain was fruitful. His fluent French made a judge exchange in Burkina Faso possible. After his visit we as colleagues got to hear a colourful report, full of respect for the host country and its developed French-based legal and justice system. Once retired, he had time to pursue his dreams of studying Arabic and Russian. However, his uniqueness was not in the quantity of languages mastered but in the depth of his competence. Whenever Matti spoke a foreign language, it was as if he practically dove into that other culture and way of thinking.

Matti Pellonpää was born in Kankaanpää Western Finland on 4 April 1950. From his childhood we have learnt for instance that he was such a loyal customer of the local library that the librarians had to remind him that also someone else might be interested in borrowing books, especially concerning sports. And he really had a general interest in sports also as an adult. After having practiced several types of sport himself, such as middle-distance running in his youth, running, cycling, and swimming were important ways of exercise. His favourite spectator sport was attending football games at the local stadium.

Due to his significant contributions, Justice Pellonpää was awarded the decorations of Commander First Class of the Order of the Lion of Finland and Commander of the Order of the White Rose of Finland.

Pellonpää was an outstanding, analytical jurist, whose measured words were carefully noted. He was a valued colleague and a warm person, and it was a privilege to work with him. Matti was cultured, had always impeccable manners and respected his interlocutors. Each and everyone felt that they were valued by him. Pellonpää was unpretentious of his accomplishments. His spouse and son where his most important fixed points in life. Matti never forgot to thank his wife Irja, who on her part enabled his significant international career.

I would like to thank the prominent speakers and panelists for accepting our invitation and making this seminar look like Matti: international, analytical, and full of expertise! I am proud of the accomplishments of the working group which has been responsible for organizing this event: Eija Siitari, Petri Helander, Monica Gullans, Juha Lavapuro, Emil Waris, and Jenny Rebold. Thank you for making this event come true! I would also like to acknowledge the role of our communication team and my skillful assistant Ms Elina Tukiainen.

I wish all of us a wonderful day amongst human rights, commemorating Matti Pellonpää!