Armed Forces and Naval Colleges
General
The Fleet Conscript School, part of the Swedish Naval Training Schools, provides the recruitment training for the majority of conscripts drafted into the Swedish Navy. This training phase includes a course in international law that previously covered the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Rules and war captivity.
Since spring 1998, a working group comprising officers and civilian employees has been engaged in issues relating to human rights. The group is known as 'the Ideology Group Human Rights', and its work has brought about an expansion of the internationallaw course, with the following subjects being added:
- Human rights
- The Holocaust
- Work in international confidencebuilding organisations, such as the LIN, the EU and the Organ for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Current Components of the Training
Subject Areas
- The Geneva Conventions and the Hague Rules
- War Captivity
The above components are implemented in the form of lectures:
- Crimes against international law, past and present
- Anti-Semitism
- Experience of the concentration camps, including Auschwitz and Mauthausen
The lecturers include survivors from the concentration camps, who relate their own experiences. Civilian school pupils and people in other occupational categories have also attended these lectures.
Film Screening followed by Discussion
This takes place one week after the previous lectures take place.
To improve the training further and meet future requirements, teaching material is being developed. This is to deal with ethics, morality and human rights, and with crimes against the same.
Structure of the Training Package
- Two ideologies: Nazism and communism
- Two regions where crimes against human rights have been committed: Africa and the Balkans
- Multimedia programme about Auschwitz
- Overhead projection of pictures from Auschwitz, with text
- Film about the Holocaust
The plan is for this material to be completed by 1 July 2000 and to be suitable for use by all the Armed Forces' teachers of international law. It will be designed for conscripts, officers and civilian employees. Its purpose is to convey knowledge of human rights and of crimes that have been committed against human rights.
Co-operation is under way with the Living History project in the Government Offices, and also with universities and colleges. Staff engaged in the task of devising the teaching package have been on study visits to Auschwitz to extend their knowledge of the subject.
The work of compiling the teaching material is supported with a grant from the Swedish Government.
Activities at the Fleet Conscript School are permeated by wholehearted commitment to the students at all levels of command. We welcome students from all over the country, with different educational, social and personal backgrounds. The message to conscripts is that they should do their utmost to help one another, both in their spare time and when on duty. They must also accept that everyone is not the same.
This approach has generated a fine spirit of comradeship and fellowship at the Fleet Conscript School.
For further information:
Christer Svensson
Tel. +46-455-867 64, Fax: +46-455-868 29
e-mail: christer.svensson@telia.com
Website: www.os.mil.se/sjo