Discrimination and Harassment

This page is divided into two parts, the first is about discrimination, what it means and a few examples of what it can look like, and the second part is about harassment. If you, or anyone you know, have been subjected to discrimination or harassment, we ask that you report the incident through the form under "Reporting and questions". Remember that reported incidents must include a name (someone responsible for the report) in order to start an investigation, which in turn can result consequences for those involved in the incident. It is also possible to report incidents anonymously, however anonymous reports can only lead to preventative measures in the future and cannot result in any consequences for the person(s) involved.

Discrimination

Discrimination is a term that can be difficult to define. The definition also differs in terms of the general definition and the strictly legal one.

A general way to define discrimination is that a person is treated worse or unfairly in a way that is connected to the grounds of discrimination (see below).

But in order for a situation to count as discrimination legally, it also needs to meet certain requirements and be of a specific type defined in the law. Anyone who wants to know more about this definition can turn to Diskrimineringsombudsmannens webpage.

Hereafter, the general definition will be referred to rather than the legal one, but remember that not all such situations may be discrimination in the legal sense and therefore not criminal.

The Grounds of Discrimination

1. Sex
2. Gender identity or expression
3. Ethnicity
4. Religion or other belief
5. Disability
6. Sexual orientation
7. Age

What do the different Grounds of Discrimination mean?

Sex is the biological gender you were assigned at birth. An example of a situation where discrimination can occur based on sex is excluding people of a certain gender from an event.

Gender identity or expression is something that can emerge later in life, and can be binary (male/female) or non-binary and conform to the gender assigned at birth (cis) or something else (trans). Gender identity is often closely connected with the pronoun one uses, and using the wrong pronoun for someone is therefore a type of discrimination.

Ethnicity and Religion are rather self-explanatory.

Disability is an impairment (variation) of a physical, mental or intellectual ability. A disability can arise as a result of illness or another condition or as a result of a congenital or acquired injury. Such diseases, conditions or injuries may be of a permanent or temporary nature. Similar terms that exist in Swedish are functional variation (funktionsvariation), which describes differences in personal characteristics across the population, and functional hindrance (funktionshinder), which describes a situation where it becomes difficult for people to do things as a result of the environment not being accessible. Examples of discrimination are organising events where certain people are excluded due to a disability, directly through an explicit no, or indirectly through organising the event in a place where it may not be possible to get to with a wheelchair. It is important to remember that not all diabilities are visible from the outside and that not all are physical.

Sexual orientation comes in as many variations as there are gender identities, if not more. It can be roughly described as the gender/gender identities to which you may or may not feel sexually attracted.

Age is also rather self-explanatory, but an example of such discrimination could be setting age limits for events (both upper and lower ones). It should however be mentioned that a lower age limit of 18 years for alcohol events counts as an exception.

Harassment

Harassment is behavior that offends a person and is in some way connected to the grounds of discrimination (see above). This behavior is prohibited by law in Sweden. Harassment can include the use of ridicule or degrading generalizations. It can also be a question of ignoring or withholding information that is related to one of the grounds for discrimination.

What different types of harassment have in common is that they makes a person feel insulted, threatened, offended or mistreated.

An important thing to address regarding harassment and abuse is that it is the person who is subjected who decides what is offensive. It therefore does not matter what the intentions of the person who performed the act were. This means that the person who performed the act may not even be aware that they have done something offensive. Therefore, it is important for those who have been subjected to harassment to speak up and for those who are told off for their behavior to listen.

Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment is a special kind of harassment that in some way alludes to the body or sex. What these kinds of harassment have in common is that they make the recipient feel uncomfortable in some way. Here, too, the rule applies that it is the victim who decides what is offensive and unpleasant.