Election Pledge – No association with genocide!

In May 2024, the Student Union of the University of Helsinki approved a members’ initiative demanding support of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movements. Part of PACBI is the demand for an academic boycott of Israeli institutions.

However, the University of Helsinki’s leadership continues to refuse to commit to the boycott. HYY’s leadership has also not fully committed to the demands of the approved members’ initiative. The statements of public support of BDS and PACBI are still missing, nor have the lobbying efforts towards the university demanded in a resolution been sufficient. Additionally, when in March 2025 HYY’s Representative Council updated its Ownership Strategy regarding Ylva — the company HYY owns and that manages for example Unicafe — the current Council refused to add following the BDS criteria to the document, in effect contradicting the decision made last year and ignoring the will of its membership.

Therefore, sign the election pledge!

If I am elected to the Representative Council,

I will commit to promoting the goals of the PACBI and BDS movements regarding the severing of ties with Israel by:

  1. Ensuring that the HYY Board regularly and consistently lobbies the University of Helsinki’s leadership to join the academic boycott of Israeli universities.
  2. Ensuring that HYY includes information on academic boycott and the PACBI demands in the training materials and sessions for student representatives, and teaches them how to advocate for the boycott in university decision making bodies. 
  3. Ensuring that YLVA (the company HYY owns) commites to BDS movement’s boycott by not acquiring or selling products designated for boycott, as well as not using services / service platforms designated for boycott.*
    *Boycotting doesn’t mean throwing away existing devices, only not purchasing more of them or having ongoing contracts with boycotted companies.
Sign The Pledge

No association with genocide!

Signatories

Osakunnat

  • 83 – Eero Hakala

Sitoutumaton vasemmisto – Independent left

  • 98 – Kaisla Aarnio
  • 99 – Atte Ahokas
  • 100 – Ada Alapappila
  • 101 – Sakari Bister
  • 102 – Viivi Broms
  • 103 – T. Bäcker
  • 104 – Caro Carter
  • 105 – Finn Coughlan
  • 106 – Nikola Eerola
  • 107 – Vitaliy Gurov
  • 110 – Raune Heimo
  • 112 – Hanna Ikonen
  • 113 – Matias Jalkanen
  • 114 – Olli Jalonen
  • 115 – Ronja Jokihaara
  • 116 – Senni Kaavinen
  • 117 – Pietu Kiiskinen
  • 118 – Tiia-Roosa Kilpinen
  • 119 – Erika Korhonen
  • 121 – Minna Laitinen
  • 122 – Sasu Laivo
  • 123 – Venla Lehtinen
  • 124 – Ainotar Leinonmäki
  • 125 – Ina Lundell
  • 126 – Emmi Mikkonen
  • 127 – Heikki Mononen
  • 128 – Iiris Mäki
  • 129 – Malva Mäki
  • 130 – Janne Niemelä 
  • 131 – Alex Kristian Oksanen
  • 133 – Vilma Paaer
  • 134 – Clara Paasimäki
  • 136 – Viena Pentikäinen
  • 137 – Petja Pikander
  • 138 – Jarno Posti
  • 139 – Artturi Pura
  • 140 – Aino Pursula
  • 141 – Oskari Päätalo
  • 142 – Tomas Roisin
  • 144 – Riia Salovirta
  • 145 – Lassi Savolainen
  • 146 – Annika Schöfer
  • 148 – Ville Sikström
  • 149 – Tarmo Sorsa
  • 151 – Vilma Swahne
  • 152 – Elia Tallqvist 
  • 156 – Armas Weselius
  • 157 – Matti Ylhäisi
UH Greens

HYYn Vihreät – UH Greens

  • 159 – Emil Aarnio
  • 160 – Guillermo Arjona Gálvez
  • 163 – Helmi Flinkkilä
  • 167 – Hilla Honkanen
  • 168 – May Högdal
  • 171 – Otto Kapanen
  • 172 – Armin Kellomäki
  • 173 – Hilla Kontinen
  • 174 – Julius Koskinen
  • 175 – Tilda Lassila
  • 176 – Konsta Lindi
  • 178 – Dodo Lökström
  • 179 – Eveliina Nurminen
  • 180 – Aino Orava
  • 181 – Toivo Parkkari
  • 182 – Aada Partanen
  • 183 – Saga Peltola
  • 184 – Jenna Pienkuukka
  • 185 – Anja Presnukhina
  • 186 – Eetu Raunio
  • 187 – Michonne Dulcero Rowley
  • 188 – Alisa Sankala
  • 189 – Marta Serrano López
  • 190 – Oscar Smith
  • 191 – Salmi Soljua
  • 192 – Oliver Sulkanen
  • 194 – Samuel Tammekann
  • 195 – Anni Juulia Tuomainen
  • 197 – Johan van der Meer
  • 200 – Oliver Watson
Social Democratic Students in HYY

HYYn Demariopiskelijat ja sitoutumattomat – Social Democratic students and independents at HYY

  • 205 – Aino Palm
  • 211 – Elina Rauhala
  • 216 – Benjamin Shemeikka

HELP

  • 249 – Petra Kannela
HYAL

HYAL

  • 279 – Antoine Guerin Heinrichs
  • 282 – Adam Kujala
  • 285 – Ilmari Moisio
  • 289 – Jeff Schymiczek
  • 290 – Helmiina Toivo
  • 303 – Nea Mikkelä
  • 305 – Venla Niskala
  • 307 – Vanessa Quednau
  • 313 – Eveliina Weidenbacher
Further information on HYY, student representatives, Ylva and the 2024 SfP members’ initiative

HYY is the Student Union of the University of Helsinki, of which all Bachelor and Master’s students at the University are automatically members, with it being optional for PhD students. HYY is the official representative of students towards the University, and is democratically run by and for students. The Representative Council is the student union’s highest decision-making body and is elected every two years, while the Board takes care of daily operations and advocacy work of the union, and is elected every year. 

One of the student union’s most important and also legally mandated tasks is the selection of student representatives, or hallopeds, to represent the students’ voice in the university’s decision-making bodies. Student representatives are elected for two year terms, and are an important part of university democracy. In 2025, student representatives for faculty councils and the university collegium are being selected, with the call being open till 9.10 (more information about that here). After the student representatives are selected, it is HYY’s task to train them for their task and make sure they can do their work effectively. HYY decides what is included in the training materials.

HYY owns a company called Ylva, which is managed by a separate Board of directors but is overseen by a Supervisory Board made up of Representative Council members and a Board member, and the operations of which are guided by an ownership strategy that is approved by the Representative Council.

In 2024, Students for Palestine launched a members’ initiative towards HYY, to get HYY to declare its support for the BDS and PACBI movements and bind HYY to lobbying work towards the University of Helsinki regarding this. A members’ initiative is comparable to a national-level citizens’ initiative towards parliament: members of HYY can collect signatures to address a matter, and if the minimum number of signatures is met the Board and the Representative Council have to respond. The members’ initiative collected the signatures of about 800 individuals (of which about 700 were verified) and 26 signatures from organisations operating under HYY. The initiative was approved by the Board unanimously and then by the Representative Council with a 35-6 vote in favour. Now it is up to Representative Council members to make sure the initiative actually gets implemented, as HYY’s leadership has not made sufficient progress with it in the more than a year since it was passed.

Further information on the University of Helsinki’s complicity in the oppression of the Palestinian people

The University of Helsinki has avoided its responsibility by invoking the value of academic freedom. However, we understand that academic freedom is precisely the foundation on which the university’s autonomy is based to act in favor of human rights, justice, and higher education free from genocide.*

The University of Helsinki coordinates or participates in 15 Horizon Europe research projects that have Israeli universities or research institutions as partners. The projects and Israeli partners are: 

  • Hebrew University of Jerusalem on MECANO and AgroServ
  • Tel Aviv University on PSY-PGx, FOCI, Micro4Nano and ACTNOW
  • The Israeli Institute of Technology (Technion) on eLTER PPP, eLTER PLUS, and INTRABRAIN
  • Weizmann Institute of Science on AgroServ and BETTER4U
  • Ben-Gurion University on NEUROCOV, eLTER PPP, eLTER PLUS and IRISCC, 
  • University of Haifa on HRJust
  • Reichman University on RESCUER
  • Hadassah Medical Organization on AHEAD.

These organizations have unreservedly supported the Israeli Occupation Forces invasion and violence in Gaza, given extra scholarships to students participating in the genocide, have direct ties to the Israeli army and arms companies and have expelled, intimidated and harassed Palestinian students and academics and failed to safeguard academic freedom on campuses.

*European University Association – Academic Freedom Principles
PRINCIPLE 5
Academic freedom is both a right and a responsibility held by individual academics and academic communities. One of its central roles is to empower higher education and research communities to further knowledge and education and to enable societal advancement and responsible civic engagement.
PRINCIPLE 6
Academic freedom must be framed by rigorous scientific, professional, ethical and quality standards. This includes ethical conduct, respect for the rights of others and awareness of the impact of research on humans and their environment, as well as employment obligations.

Furter information on how cooperation with Israeli academic institutions contributes to the oppression and genocide of the Palestinian people