Democracy and human rights

Sweden has been entrusted with holding the Presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) – an intergovernmental organisation to promote Holocaust education, research and remembrance – from 1 March 2022 until 28 February 2023. The decision was taken at the IHRA’s digital plenary meeting in Leipzig on 3 December 2020.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, dear colleagues, First of all, I want to direct myself to all our colleagues and friends in Vienna, after last night’s terrorist attacks. I hope you are all well and safely at home. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families. We must all stand united against attacks on our open society.

Minister for Higher Education and Research Matilda Ernkrans is attending a ministerial conference on the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) today, Thursday 19 November. The agenda includes discussions on higher education in Europe and the adoption of the Rome Ministerial Communiqué. Ms Ernkrans will also deliver a speech.

This month we commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Women, Peace and Security agenda. Within the global response to the covid-19 pandemic, Sweden has decided to contribute an additional 75 million Swedish kronor to sustaining peace efforts, within which women’s meaningful participation is a key component.

This material provides an overview of main areas of the Government policy on gender equality. It describes current political goals and strategies and gives a brief historical background to important reforms. It also identifies further remaining challenges and explains how the feminist Government is addressing these and what measures are taken in order to initiate change.

Today, foreign ministers and their representatives from Georgia, Liberia, Mongolia, Portugal, Sweden, Tunisia and Uruguay have come together in the margins of the UN General Assembly to mark the beginning of a new partnership, the Friends in Defence of Democracy.

“By learning about our history we can strengthen and defend our open and democratic Swedish society today and in the future”, says Minister for Education Anna Ekström.

The Living History Forum will receive SEK 10 million to start preparations connected to the establishment of a Swedish museum to preserve and perpetuate the memory of the Holocaust. One starting point is documenting the stories of Swedish Holocaust survivors.

Read about the initiatives contained in the Budget Bill for 2021 relating to the areas of responsibility of the Minister for Gender Equality, with responsibility for anti-discrimination and anti-segregation. The Government’s proposals are based on an agreement between the government parties, the Centre Party and the Liberal Party.

“Despite the fact that racism and Nazism should have been relegated to the scrapheap of history long, long ago, they are flourishing today. All members of society must be involved in stopping racism in all its forms and expressions", said Prime Minister Stefan Löfven in the Statement of Government Policy.