UN special rapporteur: Swedish climate activists are being treated as “criminals”

The United Nations special rapporteur on environmental defenders, Michel Forst, has expressed his concern that climate activists in Sweden are being treated as “criminals” by the government and authorities.

“It’s difficult to understand why those peaceful people are treated as criminals,” Forst said following a two-day visit to the country that has long been widely viewed as an environmental champion.

“We are in Sweden to discuss with the government… because we are (still) concerned about at least two cases… and we wanted to raise the case again with the government,” Forst told AFP. “I don’t see any coherence in Sweden between the external action that Sweden is taking, which is very good, and the lack of attention given to defenders inside Sweden.”

One of those two cases that Frost is referring to involve “Marie” who was forced from her government agency job for being a climate activist, which I’ve written about before. The other case involve “Clara” who had her request for Swedish citizenship denied by the Swedish Migration Agency after she had participated in a climate protest organised by Scientist Rebellion in 2023 against the use of private jets at Stockholm’s Bromma airport.