Hate crime provisions in the Criminal Code have been amended to include transgender identity among the protected characteristics.
The Swedish Police Authority and Victim Support Sweden have worked to enhance the skills of police officers and victim support volunteers to identify hate crimes, with the aim of increasing public confidence in the criminal justice system and reducing the number of unreported hate crimes.
The Police have organized training events and conferences to improve the ability of reception police officers, regional command centre staff, Police Academy students and local police officers to recognize hate crimes, in order to ensure more accurate statistics on reported hate crimes. During the training events, the Police collaborated closely with civil society working on LGBTI issues, women's rights and anti-Semitism, and with various state authorities. Furthermore, the Police continued to refine and optimize investigation work, including in collaboration with the prosecution.
The Police Advisory Board met four times in 2019, including with Roma groups/organizations, the Swedish Federation for LGBTQI Rights, Full Personality Expression Sweden and representatives of the Muslim and Jewish communities. A key objective of the Board is to increase confidence among groups targeted by hate crime.
In June 2019, the Swedish Prosecution Service organized national hate crime conferences, aimed at improving practitioners' awareness and ability to respond to hate crimes. Through a collaborative project with Victim Support Sweden, the prosecution service addressed the issue of hate crime victim support and increasing the number of reported hate crimes.
The Swedish Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority continued to sponsor several civil society organizations and provided support to victims of hate crime through its Crime Victim Fund.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported an attack against a Somali family, involving physical violence and damage to property. ILGA-Europe and the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL) reported a physical assault against a woman and a man who came to her assistance. The woman suffered a broken arm.
The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL) and ILGA-Europe reported seven physical assaults, including one in which a gay man was stabbed with a knife and threatened with a gun, a series of at least two physical assaults and harassment against LGBT people living in refugee camps, and five incidents of threats and harassment, three of which were against gay couples.
The Kantor Center reported two physical assaults against a rabbi, both occurring on the same day, and one also targeting another man, four incidents of damage to property and one incident of graffiti on a school.
ODIHR observes that Sweden has not reported information on sentenced hate crime cases to ODIHR.
The government issued a directive making the National Council for Crime Prevention (BRÅ) responsible for the production of hate crime statistics and tasked it with continuing to improving these statistics.
A special investigator has been appointed by the Swedish National Police Board (Rikspolisstyrelsen) to enhance co-operation between the criminal justice system, civil society and academic researchers. The police, together with the Swedish Prosecution Authority and BRÅ, have agreed on a common definition of the term "hate crime" to be used across the criminal justice system. Furthermore, a number of recommendations pertaining to combating hate crime have been formulated.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority (Åklagarmyndigheten) implemented a project aimed at improving the identification and prosecution of hate crimes. A seminar on victimization and experiences of hate crimes for approximately 25 specially-appointed hate crime prosecutors was held.
The Swedish Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority, in co-operation with the Jönköping Victim Support Services and the Ängelholm Victim Support Services, organized hate crime training events for employees of local victim support services, as well as representatives of the police. It also provided funding for a research project and a conference that dealt with hate crime issues. Furthermore, in co-operation with the Ombudsman for Children in Sweden, it created a website aimed at children between 14 and 17 that contains information regarding hate crimes, including information on how to report it.
The Swedish Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority provided funding for the hate crime victim support services run by the Swedish Federation for LGBT Rights [7] (RFSL).
Two two-day seminars, one in Gothenburg and one in Malmö, were arranged by the Swedish Committee against Anti-Semitism in co-operation with the cities of Gothenburg and Malmö, and with support from the Ministry of Employment. During the seminar, new research, including trends in, and consequences of, hate crimes targeting Jewish, Roma and African-Swedish minorities was presented. The seminar also covered hate on the Internet.
Civil rights defenders worked with the police to improve their capacity to combat hate crime within the project "Every Human's Right – Sweden’s Responsibility." Among the goals of the project was increasing law-enforcement officers' knowledge about hate crimes targeting vulnerable groups (primarily Muslims, Roma and people of African origins). The project also aimed at raising awareness of people in positions of authority within the police and government about the need to prioritize the fight against hate crimes, including financing the police and the justice system.
The National Point of Contact on Hate Crimes (NPC) has reported that 2014 has seen the highest numbers of hate crimes committed since the beginning of monitoring. All targeted groups were affected by this peak in hate crimes. The NPC also observed quite broad public response – rejecting the hate violence - following some of the cases covered by the media.
Official figures record 2,768 racist and xenophobic crimes, of which 621 were physical assaults, 390 cases of vandalism/damage to property and 1,757 cases of threats.
Figures reported to ODIHR include an estimated 4,029 hate crime reports with xenophobic/racist motives. The number presented here excludes cases of defamation, hate speech and unlawful discrimination that do not fall within the OSCE definition of hate crime.
Official figures recorded 130 crimes motivated by bias against Roma and Sinti, including 40 physical assaults and 90 cases of threats.
Figures reported to ODIHR include an estimated 286 hate crime reports. The number presented here excludes cases of defamation, hate speech and unlawful discrimination that do not fall within the OSCE definition of hate crime.
Official figures recorded 146 anti-Semitic crimes, including twelve assaults, 54 cases of vandalism/damage to property and 80 cases of threats.
Figures reported to ODIHR include an estimated 264 hate crime reports. The number presented here excludes cases of defamation and hate speech that do not fall within the OSCE definition of hate crime.
Official figures recorded 281 crimes motivated by anti-Muslim bias, consisting of 60 assaults, 24 cases of vandalism/damage to property and 197 cases of threats.
Figures reported to ODIHR include an estimated 492 hate crime reports. The number presented here excludes cases of defamation, hate speech and unlawful discrimination that do not fall within the OSCE definition of hate crime.
Official figures recorded 440 anti-religious hate crimes, of which 308 were motivated by bias against Christians.
Figures reported to ODIHR include an estimated 486 hate crime reports, of which 334 were against Christians. The number presented here excludes cases of defamation and hate speech that do not fall within the OSCE definition of hate crime.
Official figures recorded 493 crimes motivated by bias based on sexual orientation.
Crimes on the basis of gender identity are also monitored but none were reported by “type of crime” category.
Figures reported to ODIHR include an estimated 708 hate crime reports on crimes motivated by bias against sexual orientation and transgender identity. The number presented here excludes cases of defamation and hate speech that do not fall within the OSCE definition of hate crime.
Links
[1] https://hatecrime.osce.org/node/435/csv
[2] https://hatecrime.osce.org/ngo/swedish-federation-lgbt-rights-rfsl-0
[3] https://hatecrime.osce.org/what-hate-crime/racism-and-xenophobia
[4] https://hatecrime.osce.org/what-hate-crime/bias-against-other-groups-sexual-orientation-or-gender-identity
[5] https://hatecrime.osce.org/ngo/kantor-center
[6] https://hatecrime.osce.org/what-hate-crime/anti-semitism
[7] http://www.rfsl.se/
[8] https://hatecrime.osce.org/what-hate-crime/bias-against-roma-and-sinti
[9] https://hatecrime.osce.org/what-hate-crime/bias-against-muslims
[10] https://hatecrime.osce.org/what-hate-crime/bias-against-christians-and-members-other-religions