Study trip to Stockholm

The University of Gothenburg arranged for us students a study trip to Stockholm from December 4 to 5, 2014. The trip was aimed at introducing us to the government system in Sweden and how it relates to human rights. Our stay was arranged at Crustal Plaza Hotel which was situated in the central area of this wonderful city. We took a train from Goteborg Central Station to Stockholm and reached there around 9:30 at night. The hotel was not very far from the train station so we all walked to the hotel and after checking in our rooms which we were to share with another classmate we headed to the city for dinner. It was a delight to go around the city as it was full of lights and illuminations in preparation for the Christmas.

It was my second trip to Stockholm as I had to visit earlier for submitting my visa application at one of express centres for the UK as London was where our next semester was. During that trip I was alone and met a Pakistani student who I knew through Facebook. This time I was travelling with all my buddies and also two university teachers which made it much more delightful. 

 We had meetings with the Swedish Foreign Ministry, the Swedish Agency for Participation, the Swedish International Development Corporation and the Swedish Ministry for Employment. During these two days we were given useful information about Swedish government's policy and action plans for human rights issues and how they were coordinated. We were told the Swedish government works through interministerial working groups on human rights and have adopted two national actions plans for human rights. The first action plan 2002-04 focused on prioritized areas such as protection against torture, discrimination and racism, whereas the second plan 2006-09 dealt with a wide range of issues including discrimination, racism, rights of the child and minorities. An interesting session we attended was at the Swedish Agency for Participation where a graduate of EMHRPP program was serving a position and gave us a briefing on disability related issues in Swedish system of employment.

On the night of Dec 3rd we had a sumptuous dinner at a Vegetarian restaurant called Hermans, which was located at Fjällgatan 23B and the nearest subway station was called “Slussen”. The restaurant was on walking distance from our hotel (about 4 km) and the walk took us through “Gamla Stan”, the old town of Stockholm, which was worth the walk in itself. 

 

The vegetarian savories.