SWEDEN: State discrimination against Jehovah’s Witnesses denounced at the OSCE by HRWF
Human Rights Without Frontiers recommends that the Swedish State puts an end to its relentless discrimination of Jehovah’s Witnesses (*)
HRWF (13.10.2025) – On 1 January 2000, Sweden adopted the Support for Religious Communities Act offering state funding to dozens of faith-based organizations, except Jehovah’s Witnesses. Since then, the Swedish State has continuously and purposefully attempted, in all sorts of biased ways, to bar them to such funds.
The latest episode is a declaration of Isak Reichel, Head of the Agency SST admitting in a radio podcast on 2 October 2025:
“The government was very clear that they did not believe that Jehovah’s Witnesses should receive state subsidies. When the regulations were changed, it was perhaps to some extent that they thought that the regulations did not work.”
This acknowledgment that regulatory changes have been introduced to the crtieria in an attempt to stigmatize a religious community is on par with a recent public comment of former Secretary of State for the Ministry of Culture, Nina Andersson, during a program of the Swedish Television when she declared:
“The current legislation [on state grants] has obviously not worked [since Jehovah’s Witnesses are eligible to receive state grants]. Therefore, we will also turn to the parliament with new legislation in this area to correct this.”
This was a public admission that the political authorities of Sweden have persistently and purposefully tried for 20 years to discriminate against Jehovah’s Witnesses on this issue.
Indeed, after over 12 years of legal battles and four decisions by the Supreme Court in favour of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Sweden was finally forced to abide by these successive court decisions. It had hereby, to admit that Jehovah’s Witnesses “fullfilled all requirements” for state grants, as did about 40 other religious communities. That was in 2019.
You will find more details about the legal battle on the discrimination case against Jehovah’s Witnesses on the website of the OSCE.
(*) Warsaw Human Dimension Conference
Monday 13 October – Plenary Session VI: Tolerance and Non-Discrimination I:
Racism, Xenophobia and Discrimination, Anti-Semitism and Intolerance, and Discrimination against Christians, Muslims and Members of Other Religions
