Measures against racism, similar forms of hostility and hate crime

Below are examples of measures:

Improved coordination and follow-up

The Living History Forum is responsible for coordination and follow-up of the work on the plan against racism, similar forms of hostility and hate crime and presents a comprehensive report to the Government annually.

The Swedish Agency for Public Management (Statskontoret) is tasked with following up and analyzing the national plan against racism, similar forms of hostility and hate crime.

The government has presented a larger effort and a concerted approach in the work against antisemitism and to strengthen Jewish life in Sweden. Among the measures is the creation of a high-level working group within the Government offices for cooperation and dialogue on these issues. It consists of several State Secretaries from different Ministries and will also include representatives from Jewish organizations and Government Agencies.

More knowledge, education and research

The Living History Forum carries out major education initiatives on different forms of racism throughout history and in the present day. It offers education and training for school staff and other public sector employees, with a focus on quality-assuring public sector services to the general public through work against racism.

The National Board of Health and Welfare is assigned to produce, develop and disseminate knowledge-enhancing support to combat the occurrence of racism and promote equal rights and opportunities for everyone in the healthcare system and contribute towards equal care.

The  Living History Forum will implement knowledge-enhancing initiatives against antisemitism. The remit includes ensuring that an initiative targeting higher education is implemented, aimed at improving knowledge of the history and development of antisemitism, contemporary antisemitism and its consequences.

The Equality Ombudsman will, in cooperation with the Child and School Student representative at the Swedish Schools Inspectorate, implement specific information initiatives on where children, school students and guardians can turn to when someone has been discriminated against or subjected to victimisation at school.

The Equality Ombudsman will, based on reports of discrimination, deepen knowledge concerning discrimination on multiple grounds and illuminate issues relating to intersectionality; that is, how different power structures and grounds for discrimination affect and sometimes aggravate each other.

The Living History Forum is assigned to develop and disseminate methodology materials on efforts to combat racism to quality-assure how the public sector treats the general public.

The Ombudsman for Children will implement awareness-raising initiatives on racism based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to bolster the ability of children and youths to exercise their own rights. The remit includes enhancing the Mina Rättigheter (My Rights) website.

The  Living History Forum will intensify its work on implementing knowledge-enhancing initiatives on different forms of racism, including producing supporting materials on racism against Sami and Islamophobia aimed at teachers.

The  Living History Forum will survey knowledge about and proposing measures to combat antigypsyism in primary and secondary schools.

The Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society will implement measures to help prevent and combat racism against Sami. The measures will improve the ability of municipalities and regions to prevent and combat racism against Sami through improved knowledge about the Sami people, their living conditions, culture and history and rights as indigenous people.

The Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society will implement measures to help prevent and combat antigypsyism. The work will include better enabling young Roma to implement measures themselves that could improve visibility and knowledge of young Roma and their subjection to antigypsyism.

The Swedish Agency for Work Environment Expertise will collect and compile insights concerning the relationship between the vulnerability of certain groups and work-related stress.

The Equality Ombudsman will improve knowledge of the prevalence of discrimination related to religion or other belief and how it interacts with discrimination linked to ethnicity.

The Living History Forum will improve knowledge about Sweden’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade and slavery.

The County Administrative Boards have been assigned to develop efforts to combat racism in the labour market. The Stockholm County Administrative Board is coordinating the work.

The Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society has been tasked with implementing measures for an open and inclusive environment in schools for young LGBTIQ people.

The Swedish Research Council, in consultation with the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (Forte), earmark funding for a national research programme on racism.

The Government allocates funds to support remembrance trips to  educational initiatives to Holocaust memorial sites. The memorial trips aim to increase knowledge of Nazi Germany's crimes against Jews, Roma and other groups, as well as to increase knowledge and understanding of antisemitism and racism historically and today.

Sweden has assumed the presidency of the IHRA for one year from March 1, 2022 to February 28, 2023. A priority during the presidency is to follow up on the commitments presented at the Malmö Forum in the autumn of 2021.

On  July 1, 2022, the Swedish Holocaust Museum was established to preserve and pass on remembrance of the Holocaust.

The National Agency for Education is, together with the Living History Forum, assigned to develop a tool for systematic work on initiatives to bolster democracy in the school system and beyond, to combat different forms of racism.

The Swedish Research Council is conducting a special research initiative with a number of calls, based on its previously reported assignment to map and present recommendations regarding research into the Holocaust and antisemitism, and the vulnerability of other groups in connection with the Holocaust, including Roma and antigypsyism, with the aim of strengthening the current research field in the long term

Based on the national plan against racism, similar forms of hostility and hate crime and dialogues with civil society, action programs combatting different forms of racism; Afrophobia, antisemitism, antigypsyism, Islamophobia, and racism against Sami have been adopted.

Strengthened preventive efforts online

The Swedish Defence Research Agency has been assigned to survey the prevalence of different forms of racism in digital environments connected to Sweden.

As of 2022, the Swedish Defence Research Agency will conduct a permanent survey and analysis of violent extremism and racism in digital environments.

The Swedish Media Council has been commissioned to compile methods for combating racism, similar forms of hostility and hate crime online among children and youths.

A more active judicial system

The Swedish Police Authority has a high level of ambition with respect to hate crime. A national contact point for hate crime issues is now in place, as are democracy and anti-hate crime groups in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö.

The Swedish Police Authority has also been tasked with reporting on the results of measures taken to combat hate crime and other crimes that threaten democracy. The Swedish Police Authority is to describe how cooperation with government agencies and organisations is conducted and how a functioning dialogue is ensured with regard to groups subjected to this type of crime.

The Swedish Prosecution Authority has taken measures to enhance the quality of its work to combat hate crime.

The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention has conducted in-depth studies of antisemitic, Islamophobic and Afrophobic hate crime in Sweden and has been tasked with conducting an in-depth study on hate crimes targeting Sami.

The Swedish Crime Victim Authority will produce information materials for victims of, or people at risk of falling victim to, hate crimes with Islamophobic motives.

The mandate of the Swedish Center for Preventing Violent Extremism at the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention includes giving needs-based support to local actors, serving as a knowledge hub and contributing to creating greater effectiveness and coordination in preventive measures against violent extremism.

A parliamentary committee has been appointed that will decide on whether specific criminal liability should be introduced for Holocaust denial.

Increased support to and deepened dialogue with civil society

The Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society distributes annual funding to activities combating racism and similar forms of intolerance.

The Swedish Agency for Support for Faith Communities has been tasked to continue to raise awareness on security for mosques and Muslim communities and on vulnerability to Islamophobia and hate crime at the local, regional and national level with respect to these activities.

The appropriations to security-enhancing measures for civil society were increased from 2018.