Human Rights

May 29
The 11th European Union - NGO Forum on Human Rights will be held in Sweden this year as part of the Swedish presidency of the European Union. The Forum will be dedicated to child rights with a special focus on violence against children.
> Read more on the Swedish human rights website

May 15
Sweden's compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) has been reviewed by the UN Human Rights Committee
On 25 March, 2009, a Swedish delegation led by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs' head of legal affairs took part in a hearing of the United Nations Human Rights Committee in New York. The Committee submitted its observations on April 2.
> Read more on the Swedish human rights website

March 23
Human rights in Swedish foreign policy
Under Realted files, you can now download a fact sheet about human rights in Swedish foreign policy.

4 March, 2009
Human Rights important during the Swedish chairmanship
The UN Human Rights Council is holding its tenth regular session from 2 to 27 March in Geneva. State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Frank Belfrage delivered Sweden's main address.

The session will deal with a number of important issues, such as torture, freedom of religion and arbitrary deprivation of liberty. A full-day seminar is scheduled on the rights of the child. The Council will also discuss the mandates of the Special Rapporteurs on human rights in Somalia, Burma and North Korea. For Sweden, the session is particularly important as part of the preparations for the Swedish Presidency of the EU in autumn 2009.

Under related files you can download Sweden's main address to the UN Human Rights Council.

> Read more on the UN human rights website

18 February 2009
Final report from Rights Work!
Rights Work! - the international conference on systematic work for human rights implementation was the first of its kind. It was organised by Sweden in cooperation with the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg, in November 2008.

The aim was to stimulate other countries and actors to work on human rights in a systematic way. Rights Work! was also an opportunity for Sweden to learn from others. Sweden's intentions at this stage have been fulfilled, and we will now continue to follow up on some of the ideas and recommendations that emerged from Rights Work! In a final conference report conclusions and recommendations for the continued work to implement human rights are presented.

> Download the final report from Rights Work!