ECCAR European Coalition of Cities against Racism

Helsingborg is a city with 140 000 inhabitants which makes Helsingborg the 8th largest municipality out of Sweden’s 290 municipalities. The city is situated along the coast in southern part of the country and is Sweden’s closest point to Denmark with the Danish city Helsingor visible on the other side of the sea. The population of Helsingborg is growing fast and is very multicultural, approximately 30 000 people are born outside Sweden and over 160 different nationalities are represented in the city.

Helsingborg is now enhancing the work to become a more open and inclusive city. This is one of the city’s eight overarching goals that all departments of the city have to implement. The city has adopted a Quality of life-program for the next eight years which presents the political will in environmental and public health issues. The program includes areas such as gender equality, antidiscrimination, children’s rights and integration.

The city has also adopted an action plan called Plan for equal opportunities that will include activities to prevent discrimination and to promote equal opportunities. It will embrace all seven grounds of discrimination in Sweden; sex, age, ethnicity, religion or other belief, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. The ambitions of ECCAR’s 10-point plan of action will be included in the Plan for equal opportunities.