Sweden

1.The State Duty to protect 

The State’s role in protecting human rights [page 9] 

The Government’s goal is to ensure full respect for human rights in Sweden. This means that human rights, as expressed through Sweden’s international commitments, must not be violated. The Swedish legal system must be in conformity with the international conventions on human rights that Sweden has acceded to, and the convention commitments must be taken into account when applying Swedish law throughout the public administration, in central government, municipalities and county councils.

Sweden has a long tradition of local self-governance, meaning that municipalities and county councils are free to make their own decisions within the frameworks established by the Riksdag and the Government. Municipalities and county councils are responsible for areas including health and medical care, social welfare issues, compulsory and upper secondary school, pre-school and elderly care. Consequently, alongside central government, municipalities and county councils play an important role in protecting and promoting human rights in Sweden. (…)

Sweden has acceded to several of the international organisations’ conventions on human rights, including UN, Council of Europe and International Labour Organisation conventions. Sweden is therefore obliged to report, at regular intervals, on its implementation of the provisions of the conventions. Sweden has been reviewed by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review mechanism on two occasions (2010 and 2015).”

Annex: Measures planned [page 27]

• The Government has launched an inquiry to examine whether the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child should be incorporated into Swedish law.
• The Government will conduct a baseline study of how Swedish legislation compares with the Guiding Principles to determine whether there are any immediate or obvious gaps that need to be addressed.