“We must never accept any form of racism. It’s a question of human dignity. Racism divides people and contributes to dangerous polarisation. That’s why we’re raising the level of ambition to emphasise everyone’s equal value,” says Minister for Culture Jeanette Gustafsdotter. 

These action programmes will help draw attention to and counter various forms of racism. They supplement the national plan to combat racism, similar forms of hostility and hate crime.  The action programmes were developed based on dialogues with representatives of civil society, reports on the occurrence of racism and hate crime in Sweden and recommendations from regional and international human rights bodies.

“Racism, discrimination and hate crime are harmful not only to the victims, but society as a whole. For this reason, efforts to combat racism and discrimination are also important for breaking segregation,” says Johan Danielsson, Minister for Housing and Deputy Minister for Employment with responsibility for efforts to combat discrimination.

Within the framework of the action programmes, the Government has tasked several Government Agencies to counter racism within health and medical care, to increase knowledge about the relationship between the vulnerability of certain groups and work-related stress, and to enhance knowledge about hate crime against the Sami people. Children and young people’s vulnerability to racism is given special attention through remits aimed at the schools.