Saying or doing human rights? A study of victim support Sweden

Abstract

This article analyses human rights discourses and practices in Sweden’s largest victim support and advocacy organisation– Victim Support Sweden. The study is based on the organisation’s national archive and interviews with key representatives. The article shows that Victim Support Sweden has been consistent in what they say and do in relation to human rights. From start it has argued in line with the principles in Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), that all human beings are equal and it have not polarised victims and offenders. Later the organisation developed amore nuanced understanding of victimisation and focused on so-called “vulnerable victims;”one of the categories mentioned in Article 2 of UDHR. The results of this article contradict the assumption that victim support organisations are part of a conservative political agenda. This highlights the need to counter balance the domination of Anglophone literature in the field of victim support.