Although Sweden is widely viewed as an environmental champion, UN special rapporteur Michel Forst said: "It's difficult to understand why those peaceful people are treated as criminals."

"We are in Sweden to discuss with the government... because we are (still) concerned about at least two cases... and we wanted to raise the case again with the government," Forst told AFP on Tuesday.

"I don't see any coherence in Sweden between the external action that Sweden is taking, which is very good, and the lack of attention given to defenders inside Sweden," he added.

UN experts are independent figures mandated by the Human Rights Council. They do not, therefore, speak for the United Nations itself.

The two Swedish cases Forst referred to arose in 2023 and 2024.

The first concerns a woman named Marie, who has not disclosed her surname publicly, and who was hired by the Swedish Energy Agency in 2023 as a national gas coordinator.

Her brief was to study the country's gas supply and draw up proposals to reduce Sweden's dependence on fossil fuel imports and develop domestic biogas production, which required her to obtain security clearance.

Outside work, she demonstrated against politicians' lack of action to address climate change, as part of Mothers' Rebellion, an informal subsection of Extinction Rebellion.

She informed her employer of her activism, but was fired on the spot when Swedish media revealed her involvement in the spring of 2024.

Swedish Civil Defence Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin declined to comment on the case when contacted by AFP.

"We have the right to demonstrate during our free time, whether or not we have a job that requires security clearance," Marie told AFP, adding that she had sued the state and hoped to obtain at least an apology.

The second case involves a researcher in her 40s, identified as Clara in the media, who came to Sweden from another EU country to live with her husband.

She participated in a climate protest organised by Scientist Rebellion on September 17, 2023 against the use of private jets at Stockholm's Bromma airport.

Two of the activists threw red paint on the terminal building.

While Clara was not one of the activists who threw paint, she is nonetheless suspected of vandalism and risks two years in prison.

Her request for Swedish citizenship, which she submitted in 2021, was denied in August 2024, with the Swedish Migration Agency saying she did not qualify since she was suspected of a crime.