A complaint has been lodged with Committee of Social Rights of the Council of Europe over Sweden’s failure to respect freedom of conscience.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) passed a resolution in favour of conscientious objection in 2010 which has been sharply criticized by Sweden.

Conscience rights for nurses and doctors are severely circumscribed in Sweden.

The Assembly resolution, entitled ‘The right to conscientious objection in lawful medical care’ sought to prevent health care workers being forced to perform or assist in abortions.

The complaint against Sweden was lodged by FAFCE, the European Federation of Catholic Family Associations.

In a statement, FAFCE said the complaint against Sweden was filed “on the grounds of lack of respect for articles 11 (right to protection of health) and E (Non-Discrimination) of the European Social Charter”.  

In May 2011, the Foreign Affairs Committee Report of the Swedish Parliament recommended that the Parliament should advise the Government to be “critical of the content of Resolution 1763” and consider “that the delegation should work to bring about a change in the nature of this resolution.”

The Swedish Parliament voted in favour of this recommendation seeking to have the PACE resolution changed.

In their statement, FAFCE said: “By not respecting this fundamental right for any citizen across Europe, Sweden actually breaches the very principles that are the foundation of the Council of Europe: Human Rights, Rule of Law and Democracy.”

FAFCE President Antoine Renard said: “The right to conscientious objection is a safeguard for all of us, it provides a possibility for medical staff to enlighten their work by their conscience in relation to each one of their patients.  

“The importance of conscience in the medical field grows every day as technology moves forward and medical staff is faced with ever more complicated decisions to make. Practising medicine is a human and moral activity, not just a technical one, as Hippocrates pointed this out centuries before our time.”  

In its statement, FAFCE pointed out that “freedom of conscience is a fundamental right laid down by the European Convention on Human Rights and by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU”.

The restriction of this freedom was “contrary to both these legal instruments and to the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights”.  

FAFCE said it was “very concerned with Sweden’s lack of respect for the principles set forth by the resolution, which have still not been implemented there”.

Mr Renard said: “We hope that our collective complaint against Sweden will raise international awareness of this lack of respect for the democratic procedure and for the fundamental right to freedom of conscience, there is no reason that Swedish medical staff should be deprived of a right laid down by several European human rights instruments”.