Compulsory Care, But Not Without Rights

Compulsory Care, But Not Without Rights is a three-year-long project financed by the Swedish Inheritance Fund, which enables Civil Rights Defenders to develop our work within locked institutions. The project’s overarching aim is to raise awareness about the human rights of individuals and to highlight human rights abuses in Sweden’s compulsory care facilities.

Civil Rights Defenders will work in close cooperation with NSPH, RSMH, Attention, Shedo and the Autism and Asperger Association to develop a variety of different methods that will result in approaches to support organisations and stakeholders such as support persons, contact persons, personal representatives, as well as certain legal professionals.

The target group for the project include all boys, girls, women and men who have ended up in one of Sweden’s compulsory care facilities due to severe mental illness or other causes.

Through focus groups and interviews, the project examines individual experiences and views on the kind of support that is provided during confinement in a compulsory care facility. The development of digital tools that aim to strengthen actors’ existing activities is a core aspect of the project and will facilitate individuals’ access to support in relation to human rights abuses, even after the project’s end.

In a cooperative effort with the Swedish Bar Association, a digital platform will be established on which disability organisations can outline the implications of different disabilities and the types of professional or personal support that lawyers can provide in order to better assist their clients. The project will also include a Swedish version of the already established Defenders’ Database, which is currently used by human rights defenders in Cuba and other countries. The database serves as a tool to collect and analyse information about human rights abuses. This tool will provide statistics and graphs which enable organisations and stakeholders to monitor and confront human rights abuse within compulsory care. With monitorable data regarding the human rights situation within Swedish compulsory care, we strengthen both the role of supporting actors as well as contribute to better support for individuals.