A/HRC/55/47/Add.2 permit applications and setting conditions for public gatherings under the Public Order Act (1993:1617). The inquiry will present its report by 1 July 2024.20 56. The Special Rapporteur was also informed that, in response to such provocations, the Government has prioritized dialogue with representatives of faith communities in Sweden, and has also reportedly taken steps towards dialogue and outreach at the international level. 57. During the visit of the Special Rapporteur, the first court case in relation to the Qur’an burnings was concluded, where Linköping District Court found a 27-year-old man, who had posted a video in which he burned a copy of the Qur’an, guilty of incitement to hatred against a population group. The judgment referred to the specific circumstances of the case, including the use of the same background music that was played during the terrorist attack on the mosque in Christchurch. Another case related to the burning of the Qur’an was the withdrawal of a permit to demonstrate by the police in Norrköping. The case was before the Supreme Administrative Court during the visit. The Court subsequently noted that the current provisions in the Public Order Act make a clear distinction between when a police authority can cancel and when it can stop a public meeting, and it thus found that the police authority’s decision to cancel the event lacked legal support.21 58. The authorities acknowledged that United Nations human rights standards and norms were rarely referenced in jurisprudence or considered during legislative debates in Sweden. The Special Rapporteur notes that, in addition to the relevance of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to the issues confronting Swedish society, many other international human rights standards and soft law are also highly pertinent, including the Rabat Plan of Action on the prohibition of advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence; resolutions such as Human Rights Council resolution 16/18 and the associated Istanbul Process for Combating Intolerance, Discrimination and Incitement to Hatred and/or Violence on the Basis of Religion or Belief.22 Sweden has strong engagement with protecting freedom of religion or belief internationally and robust engagement with the United Nations. International standards and the experience of engagement at the international level could be applied more effectively by Sweden at the national level. 59. The Special Rapporteur recognizes that attacks on holy books or religious symbols can constitute incitement, once it is ascertained that the specific case has reached the six-part threshold test of the Rabat Plan of Action, which is based on consideration of the context, speaker, intent, content, extent and likelihood of harm. Although all acts of hatred need serious attention, only those that constitute incitement can be criminalized under international law.23 She notes that the recent court case in Linköping did refer to the specific circumstances of the case. F. Challenges arising in the context of immigration and asylum seekers 60. The year 2015 marked the peak of large-scale recent migration to Sweden, and the country hosts the largest refugee population in Northern Europe. 24 During the visit, many interlocutors described the historical homogeneity of Swedish society, the secularity of the State and its preponderantly secular mindset. A secularist ideology has also emerged more recently, which has not been able to adequately appreciate communal religious practice in the public sphere. The default understanding of religion in the country is as something that is individual and private. That understanding, however, was culturally construed at a time when the recognition of diverse minorities in Sweden was poorly developed. The State church was only disestablished in 2000, yet actors from the Church of Sweden shared how they faced 20 21 22 23 24 GE.24-04001 See https://www.government.se/press-releases/2023/08/review-of-public-order-act-to-strengthenswedens-security/. Supreme Administrative Court, case No. 2182-23, 6 November 2023. See also A/HRC/55/47. Ibid. See Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, “Submission for the third cycle universal periodic review of Sweden” (2019), available at https://www.refworld.org/policy/upr/unhcr/2019/en/123098. 11