Jacob Söderman

Jacob Söderman
Jacob Söderman in Helsinki, Finland in March 2014
Position held	Parliamentary Ombudsman (1989–1995)

Jacob-Magnus (Jacob) Söderman (born 19 March 1938 in Helsinki, Finland) was a Finnish Member of Parliament in 1972–1982 and again in 2007–2011. Söderman is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Finland and served as Minister of Justice (In October 1971),^[1] Minister of Social Affairs and Health (1982), governor of Uusimaa Province (1982–89), Parliamentary Ombudsman of Finland (1989–95) and the first European Ombudsman (1995–2003).^[2] Söderman returned to the Parliament in Autumn 2007 when MP Tuula Haatainen resigned in order to become a deputy city manager of Helsinki.

Söderman was the President of the Council for Mass Media in Finland in 2003–2005, a Member of the Board of the University of Helsinki 2004–2006 and Member of the Group of Wise Persons 2005–2006.

Honours[]

• Grand Cross of Bernardo O'Higgins Decoration conferred by Chile 1993
• Grand Cross of the Lions Decoration of Finland 1995
• European Information Association Award for Achievement in European Information 1996
• Honorary Doctorate of Political Sciences, Åbo Academy, Finland 1998
• Honorary Doctorate in Law, University of Lapland 1999
• Special Award for the European Ombudsman's Contribution to Dissemination of Information by the Ministry of Education of Finland 2000
• Alexis de Tocqueville Prize, (EIPA) 2001
• Knight of the French Legion of Honour 2002
• Snellman Prize, Finnish Periodical Publishers Association 2002
• Expatriate of the Year Award 2003
• Consumer of the Year Award, The Finnish Consumers' Association 2005
• Codex medaljen 2006
• Chydenius Prize 2006
• Finnish Humanist Union Prize 2007
• Nordic Administrative Union/Finnish association Prize 2007

References[]