”Att försvara människors rätt och stå på de förtrycktas sida” En kvalitativ studie om implementering av mänskliga rättigheter i Svenska kyrkan

Abstract

In order for human rights to be fully realized, the responsibilities of the civil society are increasingly being discussed. There is, however, a lack of research on the implementation of human rights within civil society organizations in general, and on religious communities in particular. Hence, the object of this study is to examine how the Church of Sweden implements human rights as a perspective in its organization. By doing this the study looks at the questions of how the Church of Sweden manages the work with human rights and how human rights is implemented on a national level and on a local level in a few parishes in the city of Gothenburg. Further, the study examines the conditions and challenges that exists and affects the implementation of human rights within the Church of Sweden. The study is conducted on the basis of a qualitative interview study by representatives from both national and local levels within the Church. The empirical material is processed through a qualitative content analysis and is further analyzed by concepts from the implementation theory, rights-based approach, and related concepts. The study concludes that within the national level of the Church of Sweden new initiatives are underway to expand the work with human rights and with the aim to implement a rights-based approach. At the parish level, the work with human rights is not as pronounced, even though the perception is that much is done in practice through the diaconal work given the similar values in the Christian faith. However, due to the decentralized structure within the Church of Sweden the national level has little mandate to steer the implementation of human rights to the local levels of the Church. Instead the work implementation of human rights is put on an individual level by the employees of the Church. To successfully implement human rights to a greater degree within the Church of Sweden, the study therefore concludes that the conditions and challenges of implementation thus are affected by a number of factors, including priorities, knowledge, resources, support from management and an understanding of the relationship between human rights and a Christian set of values throughout the Church of Sweden.