Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

POLICE

Men sue Swedish police for sexual discrimination

The National Police Board (Rikspolistyrelsen) has been sued by a rights group for alleged discrimination, arguing that women have been favoured ahead of men in the recruitment process.

Published: 14 November 2011 11:30 CET
Updated: 18 November 2011 10:28 CET
Men sue Swedish police for sexual discrimination

The Centre for Justice (Centrum för rättvisa) has filed three writs against the board, alleging that male recruits have been denied places at the Swedish National Police Academy in favour of female recruits, despite the man having performed better in physical and language tests.

“If there has been violation of the law on admissions to the Police Academy, it is obviously very serious. Through this judicial process the questions will hopefully be answered,” said Clarence Crafoord, director of the Centre for Justice, in statement.

Crafoord argued that the issue is of extra importance “because the Equality Ombudsman has chosen to act extremely passively in the matter”.

The Local reported in July that around 80 complaints had been filed with the Equality Ombudsman (Diskrimineringsombudsmannen – DO) alleging they weren’t admitted to police training programmes because of their gender.

The Centre for Justice has now reported that this figure has risen to 130 cases of alleged discrimination.

DO announced a couple of weeks ago that it would open a dialogue with the police board, responsible for the academies in Solna, Umeå and Växjö.

The three cases set be tried concern two men from Malmö in western Sweden and one from Småland in south central Sweden.

“These men who applied for police training have been better than the women in both the language tests and physical tests, but despite this it is the women who have been admitted,” Clarence Crafoord said.

The men are each demanding 100,000 kronor ($15,000) in compensation.

Carolina Ekéus at the National Police Board press office told The Local on Monday that the board declined to comment on the case “as a judicial process has now begun”.

Ekéus furthermore declined to comment on the National Police Board’s recruitment policies.

Back in January 2009 the National Police Academy announced that, for the first time ever, women outnumbered the men among the new recruits in that year’s intake.

“We need people with different backgrounds and experience so that the police force is representative of the wider society,” said Monica Landergård at the police academy to The Local at the time.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

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.

Published: 15 November 2023 14:14 CET
'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.

SHOW COMMENTS