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DISCRIMINATION

Female students awarded discrimination damages

Lund University in southern Sweden has agreed to pay compensation to 24 women denied admission to the university's psychology programme because of their gender.

Female students awarded discrimination damages
Elin Sahlin

The parties settled out of court after the women sued the university for gender discrimination when three men with equivalent qualifications were selected to the programme in autumn 2008 ahead of the women. The university justified its policy at the time by arguing that it wished to create a more equal gender balance in a programme otherwise dominated by women.

Legal representative Clarence Crafoord with the Stockholm-based Centre for Justice (Centrum för rättvisa) welcomed the university’s decision to pay 35,000 kronor ($5,000) each in damages to his client Elin Sahlin and the other women who joined her in taking up the case.

“This is gratifying, since Elin Sahlin and the other women pushing the case have now been given redress. It is also logical considering the fact that several courts in other cases have reached the conclusion that precisely this kind of admissions process is a form of illegal discrimination,” said Crafoord in a statement.

The university said it would continue to work towards achieving greater gender equity on its courses.

In 2009 the university changed its admissions procedure. Since then, in cases where male and female applicants have the same basic qualifications a decision is taken based in the first instance on results achieved in the Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test (Högskoleprovet) and, secondly, on an interview. If neither of these measures succeed in separating the applicants, those from the underrepresented gender will be selected to the course.

“Nobody should have to feel that it’s impossible to gain admission to a course because of their gender; we have full respect for the course of action taken by Elin Sahlin and we’re glad an agreement has been reached,” said Per Eriksson, Vice-Chancellor of Lund University, in a statement.

In a similar case, the Svea Court of Appeal ruled in December that it was illegal for the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala to prioritize men for its veterinary education programme.

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DISCRIMINATION

‘Sweden should apologise to Tornedalian minority’: Truth commission releases report

The Swedish state should issue a public apology to the country's Tornedalian minority, urges a truth commission set up to investigate historic wrongdoings.

'Sweden should apologise to Tornedalian minority': Truth commission releases report

Stockholm’s policy of assimilation in the 19th and 20th centuries “harmed the minority and continues to hinder the defence of its language, culture and traditional livelihoods,” the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Tornedalians, Kvens and Lantalaiset said in an article published in Sweden’s main daily Dagens Nyheter.

“Amends must be made in order to move forward,” it said, adding that “acknowledging the historic wrongdoings” should be a first step.

The commission, which began work in June 2020, was to submit a final report to the government on Wednesday.

Tornedalen is a geographical area in northeastern Sweden and northwestern Finland. The Tornedalian, Kven and Lantalaiset minority groups are often grouped under the name Tornedalians, who number around 50,000 in Sweden.

The commission noted that from the late 1800s, Tornedalian children were prohibited from using their mother tongue, meänkieli, in school and forced to use Swedish, a ban that remained in place until the 1960s.

From the early 1900s, some 5,500 Tornedalian children were sent away to Lutheran Church boarding schools “in a nationalistic spirit”, where their language and traditional dress were prohibited.

Punishments, violence and fagging were frequent at the schools, and the Tornedalian children were stigmatised in the villages, the commission said.

“Their language and culture was made out to be something shameful … (and) their self-esteem and desire to pass on the language to the next generation was negatively affected.”

The minority has historically made a living from farming, hunting, fishing and reindeer herding, though their reindeer herding rights have been limited over the years due to complexities with the indigenous Sami people’s herding rights.

“The minority feels that they have been made invisible, that their rights over their traditional livelihoods have been taken away and they now have no power of influence,” the commission wrote.

It recommended that the meänkieli language be promoted in schools and public service broadcasting, and the state “should immediately begin the process of a public apology”.

The Scandinavian country also has a separate Truth Commission probing discriminatory policies toward the Sami people.

That report is due to be published in 2025.

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