In a report published, the Council of Europe Anti-racism Commission (ECRI) calls on the Swedish authorities to address hate speech, risks of racial profiling and reinvigorate the role of education as a tool to better live together in intercultural societies.
ECRI welcomes the progress made and good practice examples in a number of fields since the previous monitoring report in 2017, such as the establishment of the Swedish Holocaust Museum and the Living History Forum, a nationwide centre for promoting democracy, tolerance and human rights, using lessons learnt from the Holocaust and crimes against humanity committed in history.
Other positive developments include the criminalisation of Holocaust denial and making legal gender recognition administratively easier to obtain. In addition, new guidelines were issued by the Prosecutor General, with a view to ensuring the proper investigation and prioritisation of crimes motivated by hate.
Efforts have also been made to increase the proportion of children with a migration background in pre-schools, thus enabling a better development of their Swedish language skills. However, despite the progress achieved, ECRI expresses concern about several shortcomings and addresses 12 recommendations to the authorities.
