Torbjörn Pettersson elected new Chair of Solidarity Committee

“Afghanistan and the SC have been my greatest university, so it feels incredibly rewarding to be back working with an organisation and a country that I care so deeply about,” says Torbjörn Pettersson.

Torbjörn Pettersson has worked as a diplomat and development aid professional for several decades, including serving as Secretary General of the Solidarity Committee and as Sweden’s Ambassador to Afghanistan and Ethiopia. He also served as a department director at Sida for more than ten years. Before that, he was Party Secretary of the Liberal People’s Party (now the Liberals).

“I think of the SC as a bumblebee. Bumblebees fly even when it is raining and windy, and despite the fact that, theoretically, they should not be able to fly. Throughout all these years and through every setback, we have endured.”

Torbjörn Pettersson succeeds Margareta Wahlström, who served as chairperson of the SC for two years. Around 100 members participated in the annual meeting during the last weekend of May and made several decisions, including amendments to the organisation’s statutes.

One of those was a revision of the organisation’s purpose clause to better reflect developments in recent years. The new clause states that the Solidarity Committee shall work through advocacy, cooperation, and fundraising for an Afghanistan free from poverty and where everyone’s rights are respected. The Solidarity Committee shall also promote knowledge about Afghanistan in order to strengthen solidarity with its people.

The annual meeting adopted a statement calling for an end to the isolation of the Afghan people. Among other things, the statement urges the Swedish government to help break the deadlock in relations with Afghanistan through active diplomacy and to prioritise the needs of the Afghan people in its foreign and development assistance policies.