Sweden
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Sweden (Sverige) is a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy. The 349-seat unicameral parliament is named the Riksdag,
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Nordic view of non-therapeutic circumcision of boys.
Sweden is a Nordic nation in Northern Europe. Like other Nordic nations, the people abhor child non-therapeutic circumcision.
In 2013, children's ombudsmen from Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland, along with the Chair of the Danish Children's Council and the children's spokesperson for Greenland, passed a resolution that emphasized the decision to be circumcised should belong to the individual, who should be able to give informed consent.[1]
The Nordic Association of Clinical Sexologists (2013) supports the position of the Nordic Association of Ombudsmen who reason that circumcision violates the individual's human rights by denying the male child his ability to make the decision for himself.[2]
Human rights
Council of Europe
Sweden became a founder member of the Council of Europe on 5 May 1949.[3] As a member of the Council of Europe, Sweden is subject to the European Convention on Human Rights[4] and is pledged to advance the enumerated rights in its territory. It may be sued in the European Court of Human Rights for violations of its duty.
The Right to Security of Person is provided by Article Five of the ECHR.
Resolution no. 1952 (2013) 'Children's right to physical integrity'[5] of the Parliament Assembly of the Council of Europe, which includes the issue of physical integrity of intersex children for the first time, was adopted on October 1, 2013 following an initiative of the German SPD politician Marlene Rupprecht.[6]
The resolution includes other topics such as the female genital mutilation, the male circumcision for religious reasons, and the submission or coercion of a child to piercings, tattoos or cosmetic surgery.
The resolution calls on all member States to "examine the prevalence of different categories of non-medically justified operations and interventions impacting on the physical integrity of children in their respective countries, as well as the specific practices related to them, and to carefully consider them in light of the best interests of the child in order to define specific lines of action for each of them; initiate focused awareness-raising measures for each of these categories of violation of the physical integrity of children, to be carried out in the specific contexts where information may best be conveyed to families, such as the medical sector (hospitals and individual practitioners), schools, religious communities or service providers; [...]."
This first resolution of its kind by a European institution is not legally binding, but an important signal for further debate and action. It shifts the approach of the point of view of the topic from the current medical domain towards a human rights approach and identifies the right to bodily integrity, autonomy and self-determination. It calls the for the end of non-therapeutic cosmetic medical and surgical interventions.
Sweden has not yet acted to protect the rights of boys to security of person that is guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights (1950).
ICCPR
Sweden ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1972.
Article two
Article 2(1) of that covenant provides:
1. Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to respect and to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its Jurisdiction the rights recognized in the present Covenant, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
Some rights recognized by the Covenant relevant to the non-therapeutic circumcision of male children are:
Article seven
Degrading treatment
Article nine
Security of person
Article twenty-four
Every child shall have, without any discrimination as to race, colour, sex, language, religion, national or social origin, property or birth, the right to such measures of protection as are required by his status as a minor, on the part of his family, society and the State.
Sweden has covenanted to provide protection of these rights.[7]
Sweden has not complied with its pledge with regard to protection of the rights of boys which are violated by non-therapeutic child circumcision.
See also
References
- ↑
Nordic Association of Children's Ombudsmen (30 September 2013). Let the boys decide for themselves
. Retrieved 5 October 2020.[] Tuesday, 1 October 2013 - ↑
Statement on Non-Therapeutic Circumcision of Boys 
, Nordic Association of Clinical Sexologists. (3 October 2013). Retrieved 5 October 2020.
- ↑
Sweden // 47 States, one Europe
. Retrieved 4 October 2020. - ↑ European Convention on Human Rights , Council of Europe. (1950). Retrieved 4 October 2020.
- ↑ Children's right to physical integrity , Parliamentary Assembly. (1 October 2013). Retrieved 12 March 2021.
- ↑
Aktor, Mikael (2016): 24
, in: Whose Rights? The Danish Debate on Ritual Infant Male Circumcision as a Human Rights Issue. Work: Contemporary Views on Comparative Religion: In Celebration of Tim Jensen's 65th Birthday. Peter Antes, Armin W. Geertz, Mikael Rothstein (ed.). Sheffield: Equinox Publishing. Pp. 311-24. ISBN 9781781791394. Retrieved 12 March 2021. - ↑ International Covenant on Civil and Political Right , United Nations. (1967). Retrieved 5 October 2020.
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