The Equality Ombudsman (, DO; formerly , JämO) is a government agency in Sweden tasked with supervising the laws relating to discrimination on the basis of someone's sex,

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

identity or expression,

ethnicity An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they Collective consciousness, collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, ...

religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...

or other belief,

disability Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be Cognitive disability, cognitive, Developmental disability, d ...

sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring personal pattern of romantic attraction or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. Patterns ar ...

or age. It was formed on 1 January 2009 from the four previously separate ombudsmen tasked with different aspects of discrimination.

History

The term

ombudsman An ombudsman ( , also ) is a government employee who investigates and tries to resolve complaints, usually through recommendations (binding or not) or mediation. They are usually appointed by the government or by parliament (often with a sign ...

refers to the office with staff, as well as being the title of its government-appointed acting head. Its main task was to monitor the function and adherence to four laws that regulated gender equality: the Equality Act, the Equal Treatment of University Students Act, the law prohibiting discrimination and other degrading treatment of children and pupils, and as of 1 July 2005, also the law prohibiting gender discrimination. JämO also worked to increase awareness of the four laws through information and advocacy, and to promote equality in workplaces, colleges, schools, employment training, training institutions, as well as several other areas of society. In 2006 the government's budget for the authority was 27.9 million SEK. The JämO between 2000 and 2007 was Claes Borgström, who left in order to start a law firm with former

Minister for Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

Thomas Bodström. Prosecutor Anne-Marie Bergström was appointed on 16 August 2007 to succeed Borgström. She kept the post until the four discrimination ombudsmen were merged into one agency on 1 January 2009. Former Ombudsman against Ethnic Discrimination Katri Linna was the first head of the new authority. Following strong criticism from several quarters, the Government decided on 1 February 2011 to transfer Katri Linna to a post within the Government Office. On 23 June 2011, the government appointed Agneta Broberg as DO.

JämOs/DOs since founding

Prior to the agency merger

* Inga-Britt Törnell, 1980–1987 * Gun Neuman, 1987–1994 * Lena Svenaeus, 1994–2000 * Claes Borgström, 2000–2007 * Anne-Marie Bergström, 2007–2009

Following the agency merger

* Katri Linna, 2009–2011 * Agneta Broberg, 2011–2020 * Lars Arrhenius, 2020–

References

External links

Official website
(in English) {{authority control

Equality Ombudsman The Equality Ombudsman (, DO; formerly , JämO) is a government agency in Sweden tasked with supervising the laws relating to discrimination on the basis of someone's sex, transgender identity or expression, ethnicity, religion Religion is ...