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Thomas Hammarberg (born 2 January 1942) is a
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...
and human rights defender. He held the post of
Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...
Commissioner for Human Rights in
Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...
from 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2012. He succeeded the first Commissioner,
Álvaro Gil-Robles Álvaro Gil-Robles y Gil-Delgado (born 9 September 1944 in Lisbon, Portugal) is a Spanish jurist and human rights activist. He was the 2nd Spanish Ombudsman between 1988 and 1993 and also served as Acting Ombudsman between December 1987 and March ...
.


Career

Hammarberg was born in
Örnsköldsvik Örnsköldsvik (, ) is a locality and the seat of Örnsköldsvik Municipality in Västernorrland County, Sweden, with 32,953 inhabitants in 2017. Its natural harbour and archipelago is in the Gulf of Bothnia and the northern boundaries of the Hig ...
. Prior to his appointment, he spent several decades working on the advancement of human rights in Europe and worldwide. He had been Secretary General of the Stockholm-based Olof Palme International Center (2002–05), Ambassador of the Swedish Government on Humanitarian Affairs (1994–2002), the Secretary General of the NGO "
Save the Children The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization established in the United Kingdom in 1919 to improve the lives of children through better education, health care, and economic ...
Sweden" (1986–92), and Secretary General of
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
(1980–86). He received on behalf of Amnesty International the
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
in 1977. Between 2001–03, Hammarberg acted as Regional Adviser for
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
,
Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
and the
Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...
for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. For several years, he was the Swedish Prime Minister's Personal Representative for the UN Special Session on Children, as well as the Convener of the Aspen Institute Roundtables on "Human Rights in Peace Missions". Between 1996 and 2000, he was the appointed representative of the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, for
human rights in Cambodia The human rights situation in Cambodia is facing growing criticisms both within the country and from an increasingly alarmed international community. After a series of flagrant violations against basic human rights a feeling of incertitude regardi ...
. He also participated in the work of the Refugee Working Group of the multilateral Middle East Peace Process. As Commissioner, Hammarberg regularly conducted visits to promote the respect of human rights in all Council of Europe member states, in accordance with his mandate. Upon stepping down as Commissioner, he joined the NGO
Mental Disability Advocacy Center The Mental Disability Advocacy Center (MDAC) is an international human rights organisation founded in Hungary in 2002. It is headquartered in Budapest. Description The Mental Disability Advocacy Center (MDAC) is an international human rights org ...
as its Honorary President.


Member of the Swedish Parliament, 2018–present

Since the
2018 Swedish general election General elections were held in Sweden on 9 September 2018 to elect the 349 members of the Riksdag. Regional and municipal elections were also held on the same day. The incumbent minority government, consisting of the Social Democrats and the Gre ...
, Hammerberg has been a member of the Swedish
Riksdag The Riksdag (, ; also sv, riksdagen or ''Sveriges riksdag'' ) is the legislature and the supreme decision-making body of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral legislature with 349 members (), elected proportionally and se ...
. In addition to his role in parliament, he has been serving as member of the Swedish delegation to the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Assembly is made up o ...
since 2019. As member of the Social Democratic Party, he is part of the Socialists, Democrats and Greens Group. He is currently a member of the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee) and the Sub-Committee on the Middle East and the Arab World. Alongside Nigel Evans of the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, he serves as the Assembly's co-rapporteur on
Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
.


Roma rights

Thomas Hammarberg is dedicated to strengthening Sinto and Roma rights in Europe, which he believes are “shamefully flawed”. In a number of speeches and statements, Hammarberg actively seeks to improve living conditions for the largest minority in Europe and criticises the alarming levels of
racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
directed at these people. Hammarberg paints a clear picture of the situation; for example, in his latest report on Italy he heavily criticises the Italian authorities over their treatment of Sinti and Roma people. In 2010, Hammarberg published a comprehensive position paper on the human rights situation of Sinti and Roma, in which he stressed the need for a unified and comprehensive programme aimed at improving the situation, warning that “today's rhetoric against the Roma is alarmingly similar to that used by the Nazis before the mass killings started”. On 27 February 2012, he published a comprehensive report on the situation of Roma and travellers in Europe, stressing that in many European countries they are still denied basic human rights and suffer blatant racism. In a published letter to the German Chancellor Angela Merkel dating back to 2009, Hammarberg calls for a halt on deportations to
Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
in particular, saying that those deported there are exposed to political persecution and are forced to live in camps. He repeated this “urgent recommendation” one year later in a letter to the then German Federal Minister of the Interior, Thomas de Mazière. A special committee organised by Hammarberg described a Roma camp in Kosovo as “a humanitarian catastrophe”. The Human Rights Commissioner also heavily criticised France’s mass deportation of Roma in 2010. For his resilience and passion in the question of Roma rights, Thomas Hammarberg has been honoured by the Documentation and Cultural Centre and the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma and the Manfred Lautenschlaeger Foundation with the
European Civil Rights Prize of the Sinti and Roma The European Civil Rights Prize of the Sinti and Roma was founded in November 2007 in Heidelberg by the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, the Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma and the Manfred Lautenschläger Founda ...
in Berlin on 3 April 2012.


Publications

Hammarberg has published widely on various human rights issues, and particularly on the
rights of the child Children's rights are a subset of human rights with particular attention to the rights of special protection and care afforded to minors.
, refugee policy, minority issues,
xenophobia Xenophobia () is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a ...
,
islamophobia Islamophobia is the fear of, hatred of, or prejudice against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general, especially when seen as a geopolitical force or a source of terrorism. The scope and precise definition of the term ''Islamophobia'' ...
,
Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...
rights, LGBT rights in Europe as well as
international affairs International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such as ...
and
security Security is protection from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other unwanted coercive change) caused by others, by restraining the freedom of others to act. Beneficiaries (technically referents) of security may be of persons and social ...
. He is also well known for his presentations and lectures on human rights at various intergovernmental and academic institutions. As Commissioner he has published a series of "Viewpoint" articles on human rights issues in Europe on the institution's website. He regularly publishes comments focusing on main human rights issues. During his mandate as Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Hammarberg has visited and published reports about almost all of the Council of Europe 47 member states.


Recognition

On March 9 2012, Hammarberg received the
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
Chair as a reward for his impressive track record in human rights. The Amnesty Chair is organised by Amnesty International Flanders and the University of Ghent, Belgium.


References


External links


Commissioner for Human Rights
Council of Europe
PalmeCenterEuropean Civil Rights Prize of the Sinti and Roma
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hammarberg, Thomas 1942 births Living people People from Örnsköldsvik Municipality Swedish diplomats Amnesty International people Council of Europe people