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SWEDEN
The Swedish Constitution protects religious freedom. Although the Lutheran Church is the state religion, both the Church and the government have agreed that this relationship will end in the year 2000.
Minority religions are usually treated equally to the established ones in Sweden. The Constitution forbids selective legislation or discrimination against non-traditional religions.
In the 1970s the Church of Scientology brought two cases against Sweden before the European Commission of Human Rights, which expressly ruled that the Scientology Church is a religious community entitled to the protections which flow to such communities under the Convention. These cases also established for the first time the rights of a Church to bring a legal action to defend the fundamental religious rights of its parishioners.
Article 2 of the Swedish Constitution states that “opportunities should be promoted for ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities to preserve and develop a cultural and social life of their own.”
Article 1 of Chapter 2 of the Constitution, called Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, also states that:
“(1) All citizens shall be guaranteed the following in their religions with the public administration...:
“(6) Freedom of worship: the freedom to practise one’s own religion either alone or in company with others.”
Penal law in Sweden states that one who “threatens or expresses disrespect against a folkgroup or any other such group of persons because of their race, skin colour, national or ethnic origin or faith, is sentenced for agitation against a folkgroup.”
Continued...
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