A/HRC/41/44/Add.1 Annex Report of the Independent Expert on human rights and international solidarity on his visit to Sweden I. Introduction 1. The Independent Expert on human rights and international solidarity, Obiora Chinedu Okafor, visited Sweden from 23 to 27 April 2018, at the invitation of the Government. 2. During his five-day visit, the Independent Expert met with ambassadors-at-large for human rights, democracy and the rule of law; children and armed conflict; corporate social responsibility; and gender equality. He met with other government officials and representatives from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Employment, the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The Independent Expert also met with members of parliament from the governing and opposition parties, officials at the municipal and county levels in Stockholm and in Malmö, and representatives of Swedfund, the Swedish development finance institution. He also met with representatives of civil society organizations based in Sweden, as well as representatives of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He visited the Roma Information Knowledge Centre in Malmö and the youth centre, Fryshuset, in Stockholm. He thanks all those who took the time to meet and exchange views with him. 3. The main objective of the Independent Expert’s visit to Sweden was to learn and understand how the country incorporates human rights into its international solidarity strategy and action, and to collect good practices in that regard. He was also interested in learning more about the State’s efforts to promote a human rights-based approach to addressing many of the global challenges that the international community was currently facing, such as climate change, cross-border migration, refugee flows and peace and security. 4. At the heart of the governing strategy of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, in power for more than 40 continuous years until 1976, the concept of “solidarity” became an essential component of the country’s economic and social policies, alongside the ideas of equality, justice and freedom. The Swedish State model became one of the most praised and exemplary welfare systems in the world. It provides social security and protection to residents, and is distinct from other systems in that it is universal and tends to cover all persons living in Sweden regardless of their situation. In establishing an egalitarian, solidarity-centred and growth-inclusive social system, the State has contributed to the alleviation of poverty in Sweden and ensured the fulfilment of the human rights of the people on its territory. Those considerable efforts have allowed Sweden to grow over the decades into one of the countries with the highest gross national income in the world, currently ranking twelfth out of 189 countries.1 The relatively robust Swedish economy and social welfare system has helped to put Sweden in a good position to promote human rights-based international solidarity. 5. The Independent Expert conducted his visit a few months before the general elections on 9 September 2018. Throughout his visit, interlocutors informed the Independent Expert of the rise in support for nationalist populist ideologies, especially embracing anti-migrant and xenophobic sentiments, defended by some Swedish political parties. According to other special procedure mandate holders, nationalist populism is an ideology explicitly or implicitly advocating for a social cleavage between elites and “the 1 2 See World Bank, “Gross national income per capita 2017, Atlas method and PPP” (Atlas method ranking). Available at http://databank.worldbank.org/data/download/GNIPC.pdf.