“Section 1 of the Act on the Institute for Human Rights provides that the SIHR shall promote the safeguarding of human rights in Sweden […].

Section 2 of the Act provides that in particular, the Institute shall 1. follow, investigate, and report on how human rights are respected and implemented in Sweden, 2. submit proposals to the Government on the measures needed to ensure human rights, 3. liaise with international organisations and otherwise engage in international cooperation, and 4. promote education, research, development of expertise, dissemination of information and awareness raising in the field of human rights.

The SIHR indicates that, according to the preparatory works, the formulation “to promote the safeguarding of human rights” should be understood as fully comparable to the formulation “to promote and protect human rights“.

The SIHR reports that, in practice, it engages in activities to both promote and protect human rights and has actively addressed key human rights concerns arising in Sweden.

The SCA is of the view that all NHRIs should be legislatively mandated with specific functions to both promote and protect human rights. Given the importance under the Paris Principles for NHRIs to be vested with the express competence to both promote and protect human rights, the SCA encourages the SIHR to advocate for the inclusion of an explicit mandate to both promote and protect human rights in its enabling law.’.

The SCA refers to Paris Principles A.1, A.2, and A.3 and to its General Observation 1.2 ‘Human rights mandate’.”