Michael de Laine

By Michael de Laine, Copenhagen, 22 February 2009

Sweden must soon decide how to continue implementing human rights when its second national action plan expires. The experiences gained through systematic work on human rights in other countries are of great value, and several ideas, approaches and methods presented at an international conference on human rights implementation are being studied by the country’s Ministry of Integration and Gender Equality. The conference report has just been released.

The Swedish government’s long-term objective for human rights work at national level is to ensure full respect for human rights. This means that human rights, as expressed in Sweden’s international obligations, must not be violated. The legal system must comply with the international human rights conventions that Sweden has acceded to, and these must also be complied with at central and local government levels.

The Swedish government has adopted two national human rights action plans, the first for 2002–2004, and the second for 2006–2009.

While the experience gained from working on these projects has been largely positive, it has shown that in working systematically on human rights implementation many issues need to be solved along the way.

This year, 2009, is the last year of the second Swedish national action plan, and the implementation of 135 measures based on a baseline study of the human rights situation in Sweden in 2005.

Decisions on how to move forward when the second national action plan has expired will soon need to be taken. The experiences gained through systematic work on human rights in other countries, whether through national action plans or other methods, are therefore of great value for the Swedish government.

Several ideas, approaches and methods presented at Rights Work! - the International Conference on Systematic Work for Human Rights Implementation held in Stockholm on 6–7 November 2008 - are now being studied and discussed by the Ministry of Integration and Gender Equality, which is responsible for coordinating systematic work for human rights at national level in Sweden.

At a later stage, this discussion will be extended to the government offices and beyond, in the follow-up of the second Swedish national action plan.

Some of the ideas brought forward at the conference that are now being discussed, and that perhaps may be further developed within the continuing process of systematic work in Sweden, are outlined in the report from the conference.

Click here to download the conference report Rights Work! Make them real.