Swedish Doctors for Human Rights

Swedish Doctors for Human Rights (SWEDHR) is a Sweden-based Non-governmental organization that researches and publishes opinion pieces on international affairs with the aim to contribute to the international Human rights movement. The organization claims to shed light on "health issues of war crimes & Human Rights abuses worldwide",^[1] although the views presented on its website often directly contradict those of Human Rights Watch and other mainstream organizations. The organization is viewed by some as a Russian propaganda site,^[2][3][4] because some of the views presented by it are in line with those of the Russian government, and are often cited by Russian pro-government media.^[5][6] SWEDHR consistently claim to have their own views and independent line.

Swedish Doctors for Human Rights

Founded	2015
Founder	Marcello Ferrada de Noli
Location	Sweden
Key people	Marcello Ferrada de Noli (Chairman) Anders Romelsjö (Vice chairman) Marita Troye-Blomberg Alberto Gutierrez Leif Elinder Ove B. Johansson Lena Oske Armando Popa
Website	SWEDHR

Swedish Doctors for Human Rights was founded in 2015 by Marcello Ferrada de Noli, a retired Swedish-Chilean professor, who was involved with the MIR in his youth in Chile.^[7] In spite of its name, not all of its members are medical doctors, one professor, an international award-winner in the field of malaria research, and a founding member of SWEDHR is a doctor of philosophy in a medical-related research discipline, ^[8] Several members of SWEDHR support Médecins Sans Frontières and are also members of Amnesty International. One of its founding members, Dr. Leif Elinder, had previously attracted controversy for his personal attacks against the eminent child psychiatrist Christopher Gillberg^[9] and his later dismissal from his position at the Swedish Social Insurance Agency for his insistence on taking a hard line against applications for sick leave^[10].

The members of the organization also operate an online magazine called The Indicter,^[11] that holds similar viewpoints.

SWEDHR's chairman, a qualified nominator ^[12] for the Nobel Peace Prize Committee in Oslo, formally presented the candidacy of whistleblower Edward Snowden to the Nobel Peace Prize 2014.^[13]

During 2015, SWEDHR has advocated against the alleged human rights abuses carried out against Swedish cardiologist and surgeon Fikru Maru, who was held in custody for 23 months in Ethiopia before legal procedures were initiated.^[14] The organization has also denounced the aerial attacks against hospitals run by Médecins Sans Frontières in Afghanistan.^[15]

In a letter to the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, SWEDHR attacked Swedish Minister of Defense Peter Hultqvist's stance on the issue of Sweden's neutrality and non-alignment.^[16] The minister had argued that Swedish membership in NATO was desirable due to Russia's recent military buildup, the illegal annexation of Crimea, the armed conflict in the Ukraine, and the potential threat to the Baltic countries. In their letter, the organization argued that the minister had not shown that a deepening of the Sweden-USA military cooperation would be preferable to a deepening of Swedish neutrality. A few weeks later, three members of the SWEDHR board responded in the same newspaper to a similar article on the possible participation of Sweden in NATO by Professor Wilhelm Agrell.^[17] However the views expressed in the response were not approved by the board of directors, and led to the the resignation of Leif Elinder as a board member.

Regarding the Syria conflict, articles in The Indicter, which claimed to analyze videos jointly released by the White Helmets and an al-Nusra linked local group, have argued dead children from an alleged government chlorine gas attack in 2015 were likely killed by a poison other than chlorine, and given improper and perhaps fatal medical care.^[18]

As of April 2017, the organization is unknown to Amnesty International, the Swedish Medical Association, the Swedish Society of Medicine, and the Swedish affiliate of Human Rights Watch^[2].

The causes taken up by the organization have a strong pro-Russian bias. Aside from their opposition to cooperation between Sweden and NATO, they have compared the violent clashes in Odessa that led to the deaths of 46 pro-Russian activists to the Reichstag fire^[19]. They also came to the defense of pianist Valentina Lisista, whose online remarks disparaging the Ukrainian government led to the cancellation of a planned concert at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra^[20]. Their sister publication The Indicter has previously claimed that Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down by the Ukrainian army, and not by pro-Russian rebels.

Dr. Ferrada de Noli was interviewed by Russian media^[3] about his view that the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack of April 4, 2017 was prossibly caused by the opposition groups and not the Syrian government.^[2] This was also referenced by Maria Zakharova, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at a press conference where she criticized the awarding of the Oscar for Best Documentaryto The White Helmets^[5]. An examination of the video cited in the article as evidence revealed that it was actually a video of a chemical attack in Sarmin from March 2015. A group of medical specialists in the US and UK examined the video and stated that it was impossible to conclude that the video had been staged^[4].

• Official website