- Parliament endorses the motion to review whether and how equality data could be introduced and announces this to the government.
- The Parliament supports what is stated in the motion for a resolution on mandates to the SCB and announces this to the government.
Sweden is now a country characterised by an already and increasingly heterogeneous population. With regard to demographic diversity, Sweden can now only compete with countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands from a Western perspective. Due to a long tradition of keeping population registers of different kinds, statistics, data and figures on the inhabitants of the country have come to play a crucial role in creating the democratic welfare society that Sweden is today. Statistics on different population groups are simply a fundamental tool in Swedish social construction and politics and have been for a long time. On the basis of statistics, politicians, legislators and authorities can make the necessary considerations and assessments to be able to take decisions and take action in the various areas of society.
Sweden is simply a country that is permeated by statistics thanks to its world-wide public accounts register. The whole public sector, from the state to the municipalities and a host of other institutions and authorities collect and compile statistics on the population on a regular basis, based, for example, on age, region, The fact that Sweden is one of the most equal countries in the world has been achieved, for example, through the fact that we have a legal statute stating that all forms of public statistics should be gender-based, which has been crucial for equality policy.
However, gender-based statistics are no longer sufficient to obtain a proper analysis of the situation in Sweden today with regard to different population groups and on the basis of the grounds of discrimination on which we lack data and figures. The Swedish form of government stipulates that the public should combat discrimination against people on grounds of sex, colour, national or ethnic origin, linguistic or religious affiliation, disability, sexual orientation; the age or other circumstances of the individual on which the person and the law on discrimination are based on seven grounds of discrimination: sex, cross-gender identity or expression, ethnicity, national origin or colour, religion or other belief, disability and accessibility; sexual orientation and age. Today, however, there are only official statistics on gender and age, and there are also no figures on the five national minorities, with the exception of the perpetrators. At the same time, we regularly map both gender and age in order to identify and tackle discrimination in the labour market, for example, but we simply lack figures and data on the other grounds of discrimination.
Voluntary, anonymous and self-identification
due to the near total lack of statistics on gender identity or expression, ethnic origin, national origin or colour, religion or other belief; disability and accessibility and sexual orientation Sweden has long received regular criticism from both the EU and the UN and is routinely called upon to start asking about these categories, background and identification i n the same way as i t is already customary to ask about gender and age in different types of studies based on: Whereas, unlike data on sex and age, which can be generated via the population register and which are therefore purely data on registers, data on transgender identity or expression, ethnic origin, national origin or colour, religion or any other belief need to be provided; disability and accessibility and sexual orientation are collected through a system and a method known in the EU context as equality data. Equality data is a way of creating statistics based on the principles of the survey method in the form of volunteering, anonymity, informed consent and self-identification and self-categorisation, i.e. it is not in any way a question of registering an individual and identifiable person.
Equality data in many other countries
The regular public and political debate on equality data likes to draw parallels with totalitarian regimes and there is often talk of the risk of misuse of statistics; However, the form of equality data advocated by the EU is not about data on registers that can be linked to an individual, but about data generated through self-response forms, based on both volunteering and anonymity. This is done with the aim of systematically collecting knowledge of the access of different groups of citizens to their legal rights and in order both to identify and combat discrimination, thereby creating the conditions for a more equal and inclusive society. Most countries on the planet, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Finland and Canada, have long used equality data in one form or another, and the inhabitants of these countries are regularly asked, for example, about ethnicity, language, religion and sexual orientation. The UN and the EU have repeatedly criticised Sweden for failing to collect relevant knowledge and statistics on the situation of different minorities. We share the view that Sweden lacks facts. We often hear stories of discrimination, but we lack comprehensive information about people's access to their rights.
In addition to the fact that the UN and the EU criticise Sweden for lack of methods and tools to monitor whether anti-discrimination measures and equality policy have any effect at all, a number of conventions and directives advocate the implementation of equality data such as the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the EU Racial Directive, the EU Working Life Directive establishing a general framework for equal treatment, the European Charter of National or Minority Languages and the Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities. The equality issue was investigated by DO year 2012 on the mandate of the then government after Sweden had once again received criticism from the UN and it was concluded that equality data can and should be introduced in Sweden as well, since both Swedish and European legislation allows the use of equality data as long as it i s done with the aim of: promote equality and combat discrimination.
Sweden is now the world leader i n all public statistics on age, gender, region and also socio-economic background, and data and figures are in practice the basis of the entire Swedish public governance system. the absence of statistics on the five grounds of discrimination, cross-gender identity or expression, ethnicity, national origin or colour, religion or belief; However, disability and sexual orientation, as well as the five national minorities, blind the general policy of equality and welfare. Sweden should therefore begin to practise equality data by mandating the SCB to start asking about the grounds of discrimination on which statistics are currently lacking.
Leila Ali-Elmi (MP)
Annika Hirvonen Falk (MP)
Leila Ali-Elmi (MP)
Annika Hirvonen Falk (MP)