In 2023, the Swedish Police Authority launched an Internet Referral Unit to increase police capacity to combat terrorism and hate crimes online. The Police Authority also held a national conference on investigating hate crimes and other crimes against democracy. The Police Authority have also co-operated with the National Crime Victim Agency to produce informational materials on Islamophobic hate crime.
The Swedish Crime Victim Authority developed informational materials on Islamophobic hate crimes and the rights of victims, and also funded a project to provide information for victims of gender-based hate crime.
The Public Health Agency of Sweden (Folkhälsomyndigheten) has launched research projects related to intersectional discrimination and hate crimes targeting persons infected with HIV, bisexual people, members of the indigenous populations and national minorities.
The Living History Forum – a public agency established under the Ministry of Culture – organized educational and training events on countering racism for nearly 8,000 people.
The National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) devoted its financial support to organizations that provide support to LGBTI people who have experienced intimate partner violence and undertake awareness-raising activities.
The Swedish Agency for Support for Faith Communities conducted capacity-building training with faith communities at the regional level regarding the security situation of faith communities in the country, particularly in response to Quran burnings and counter-protests that saw the destruction of property and attacks on police.
In 2023, the Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society launched projects to counter homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia among young people, as well as educational materials on gender-related violence, racism and xenophobia.
The Swedish Agency of Education introduced a training initiative to counter anti-Semitism and racism in schools.
The Stockholm County Administrative Board facilitated the training of municipal and regional authority representatives on discrimination against vulnerable groups.
The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief published relevant recommendations in its "Visit to Sweden: Report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Nazila Ghanea".
The UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence published relevant recommendations in its "Visit to Finland and Sweden. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, Fabián Salvioli".
ODIHR recognizes Sweden's efforts to report hate crime information to ODIHR. However, based on the available information, it observes that Sweden has not reported data on hate crimes recorded by the judiciary to ODIHR. Otherwise, ODIHR observes that Sweden has met most of its OSCE commitments on hate crime.
ODIHR recalls that in Ministerial Council Decision 9/09, OSCE participating States committed to collecting reliable data and statistics in sufficient detail on hate crimes, and to reporting such data periodically to ODIHR. ODIHR stands ready to support Sweden in meeting the relevant commitments through the provision of its comprehensive resources and tailored assistance.
🛈 Please note that the total number of incidents may be lower than the sum of incidents presented in the breakdown chart above, as some incidents involve multiple bias motivations.
🛈 ODIHR no longer presents descriptions of property attacks in the incident tables below. Data on property attacks are presented in the breakdown charts above. One property attack may target multiple properties or involve multiple types of attack.