Nyamko Sabuni opened the Rights Work!
Ms Nyamko Sabuni, Swedish Minister for Integration and Gender Equality, opened the Rights Work! conference with a speech about the implementation of human rights.
Photo: Pawel Flato
Ms Nyamko Sabuni spoke about her own experience living in a country lacking respect for human rights. Nyamko Sabuni was born in exile in Burundi. Her parents were political refugees from Congo-Kinshasa and she came to Sweden in 1981, when she was just twelve years old.
"Human rights should never be taken for granted," Ms Sabuni said.
She also spoke about strengthening human rights promotion in the public sector by establishing national human rights action plans. In these plans, each state should identify how to improve the promotion and protection of human rights:
"It's when states are forced to sit down and study their conditions on human rights that things start to happen." Ms Sabuni added.
The Swedish Government has so far adopted two national human rights action plans.
Ms Sabuni said that merely the process of drafting and implementing these plans has been of immense value.
Text:
Lisa Sandegård, Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
