Sweden ordered to apologize to Tornedalian minority community for historical abuses

Sweden ordered to apologize to Tornedalian minority community for historical abuses
Sweden ordered to apologize to Tornedalian minority community for historical abuses

We show you our most important and recent visitors news details Sweden ordered to apologize to Tornedalian minority community for historical abuses in the following article

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - STOCKHOLM — The Swedish State and the Church of Sweden should apologize for historic injustices committed against a minority group called Tornedalians, an independent commission has said.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Tornedalians found that Sweden's assimilation of their communities in the 19th and 20th centuries "harmed the minority and still (today) makes it difficult to protect their language, culture and traditional industries".

The Commission was tasked with examining the violations perpetrated against the Tornedalians and has been working on the report since June 2020. The final report was published on Wednesday and presented to the Swedish government.

"Reparation is necessary in order to move forward", the Commission said. A first step would be to "acknowledge the historical violations that have been revealed today".

Tornedalians come from the area of the Torne River valley in northern Sweden, near the border with Finland, and are descendents of Finns who settled there in the 1800s — before the river became a border between the two countries.

Tornedalians are Swedes who speak Meänkieli, a Finno-Ugric language very close to Finnish, and although their distinct language and culture was initially supported by the Swedish, by the 1880s a policy of 'Swedishization' and assimilation was put in place.

A ban on children speaking their mother tongue, or wearing traditional clothing, was strictly enforced in schools until early 1960s. Thousands of children were sent to boarding schools run by the Lutheran Church and forced to speak Swedish.

Historically, Tornedalians made a living from agriculture, hunting, fishing and reindeer herding, and today there are around 50,000 Tornedalians living in Sweden.

In 2000, the Swedish state officially recognised Tornedalians as a national minority, and Meänkieli as an official language with protection in the education and legal system, the media and cultural life.

The new report published by the Commission says that more can be done to strengthen the status of the language by including Meänkieli in public broadcasting and in schools, and that the State of Sweden should "immediately launch an official process" of public apology to the Tornedalians.

Another commission in Sweden is currently investigating the discriminatory policies inflicted on the indigenous Sámi people. This report will be made public in 2025. — Euronews


These were the details of the news Sweden ordered to apologize to Tornedalian minority community for historical abuses for this day. We hope that we have succeeded by giving you the full details and information. To follow all our news, you can subscribe to the alerts system or to one of our different systems to provide you with all that is new.

It is also worth noting that the original news has been published and is available at Saudi Gazette and the editorial team at AlKhaleej Today has confirmed it and it has been modified, and it may have been completely transferred or quoted from it and you can read and follow this news from its main source.

PREV Italy prosecutors accuse six over 2023 migrant shipwreck
NEXT US military raises alert level for Europe bases: reports

Author Information

I am Jeff King and I’m passionate about business and finance news with over 4 years in the industry starting as a writer working my way up into senior positions. I am the driving force behind Al-KhaleejToday.NET with a vision to broaden the company’s readership throughout 2016. I am an editor and reporter of “Financial” category. Address: 383 576 Gladwell Street Longview, TX 75604, USA Phone: (+1) 903-247-0907 Email: [email protected]