At its Human Rights meeting on 10-12 June, the Committee ended its supervision of the execution of the Centrum för rättvisa v. Sweden judgment concerning several shortcomings of the Swedish system of bulk interception of communications which, as a consequence, did not meet the requirement of “end-to-end” safeguards against the risk of arbitrariness and abuse (violation of the applicant foundations’ right to respect for private life under Article 8 of the Convention).
The legislative reform of the relevant legal framework adopted by the Swedish authorities in 2024 introduced a clear rule on destroying intercepted material not containing personal data, a requirement to consider the privacy interests of individuals when deciding to transmit intelligence material to foreign partners, and an effective system of ex post facto independent review.
The Committee considered these amendments sufficient to fill the gaps highlighted by the European Court’s judgment and expressed its confidence and expectation that they will be applied in conformity with the standards of the Convention and the relevant case-law of the Court.
