A/HRC/55/47/Add.2 Annex Report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Nazila Ghanea, on her visit to Sweden I. Introduction 1. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Nazila Ghanea, reflects findings from her official visit to Sweden. 1 She expresses her profound gratitude to the Government for having readily accepted her request to visit, and to the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs and Ministry for Foreign Affairs for their cooperation. 2. The Special Rapporteur appreciated the constructive meetings with interlocutors from government ministries and agencies at the central and municipal levels, and with parliamentarians, members of the Supreme Administrative Court, representatives from a broad range of civil society organizations, academics, members of various religious and belief communities, representatives from the Swedish Institute for Human Rights, and many others, giving her insight into their experience, assessments and visions. The discussions, conducted in Stockholm, Malmö and Lund, were open and frank. 3. This was the second visit to a Scandinavian country under the mandate.2 The Special Rapporteur was keen to understand how freedom of religion or belief is upheld – given the country’s strong secular tradition, its increasing pluralism in the context of religion and belief, and separation of church and state since 2000, and to understand how the interrelatedness of freedom of religion or belief with other human rights is understood, in particular in the context of recent instances of religious intolerance. 4. The visit was fascinating and eye-opening. Regrettably, the timing presented challenges owing to the conflict in the Middle East and the consequential increase in Islamophobia/anti-Muslim hatred and antisemitism, the instances of burning the Qur’an during the year, and the killing of two Swedish nationals in a reported Islamist terrorist attack in Brussels. II. Political and historical context 5. Christianity was brought to Sweden in the ninth century, and slowly replaced ancient Nordic religions, which were based on Norse mythology. Several centuries later, all Swedish monarchs were Christian, and Christianity became the official religion. Roman Catholicism was the State religion until 1527, when the Swedish State church was established as a Protestant church based on Lutheran principles, following the Protestant Reformation enacted by Martin Luther. Christianity was the declared religion of the vast majority of the Swedish population from the twelfth to the early twentieth century but demographics have changed since then. 6. From the latter half of the nineteenth century, Sweden became an increasingly secular country and the Swedish State took over many of the roles previously carried out by the Church, such as health care and education. 7. Sweden has become increasingly diverse in religion and belief, not least along with greater migration. It is estimated that in 2021, Christians comprised around 59.6 per cent of the population (of which 53.2 per cent belonged to the Church of Sweden), with 2.5 per cent belonging to other religions and 37.9 per cent not belonging to any religion. The Church of Sweden has experienced a downward trajectory in its registered membership (52.8 per cent in 2022). It has been suggested that the Church still retains high membership numbers owing to the now-discontinued practice of automatic registration. Other Christians in the country 1 2 2 The Special Rapporteur wishes to warmly thank Daniel Cloney and Theo Furniss for their background research. The first was a visit to Denmark in 2016 (A/HRC/34/50/Add.1). GE.24-04001