| Anton Abele | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 10, 1992 Stockholm, Sweden |
| Occupation | Politician, Social debater, Charity worker |
| Years active | 2007–present |
Anton Abele (born January 10, 1992) is an award-winning young activist, debater, politician and member of the Swedish Parliament who committed himself to working against street violence after the death of 16-year-old Riccardo Campogiani, who was beaten to death at a party in the centre of Stockholm in October 2007.[1] Abele created a Swedish Facebook group called "Bevara oss från gatuvåldet" (Save us from street violence). In one week, the group grew to having more than 100,000 members. In addition, on October 12, 2007, Anton Abele arranged the demonstration "Stop street violence" with more than 10,000 young people and adults participating in Stockholm.[2] Simultaneously with the massive demonstration in Stockholm, anti-violence demonstrations were also held in other major cities in the Nordic region.
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The initiative of Anton Abele has been rewarded several times. Among other things, he received the MTV peace award "Free Your Mind" at the European Music Awards gala in Munich in November 2007. The rapper Snoop Dogg handed him the prestigious prize, which has also been given to Mikhail Gorbachev, Bono, Bob Geldof, Amnesty International and Greenpeace.[3] In January 2008, two major Swedish newspapers independently awarded Abele the "2007 Stockholmer of the Year" prize. The Swedish King H.M. Carl XVI Gustaf paid tribute to Abele's initiatives in his televised Christmas speech on December 25, 2007. In the same speech the King also said that "Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something". In May 2008, Abele and his Swedish campaign "Stop Street Violence" received the "2008 Most Important Communication Effort" award.
Anton Abele has held a number of speeches and presentations. The Council of Europe invited Anton Abele to participate in the conference "Building a Europe For and With Children-Towards a Strategy for 2009-2011" in Stockholm, and to hold the speech "Children Changing Societies" on September 8, 2008. On April 30, 2008, Abele held the traditional Spring Speech at Skansen, Stockholm. The theme for the speech was "Change". At the demonstration against street violence in October 2007, Abele gave a speech to over 10,000 people, who had gathered in Stockholm to show their disgust against violence. Anton Abele is frequently invited to speak at various events. These events most often have the escalating violence and actions against it as the topic.
As a result of this initiative, triggered mainly by young people to young people, the topic of escalating violence and insecurity among young people has been lifted to governmental level. More people than ever are now engaged in this matter and actions on all levels to stop violence, are initiated.
Abele founded a non-profit organisation called Stoppa Gatuvåldet (Stop Street Violence), which now operates several projects against violence. The main focus of the group, is to increase the understanding of the medical and legal consequences of violence mainly among young people. The group also works with ethical issues and works toward changing attitudes. The group, which is politically and religiously independent, has both young people and adults as members. On February 10, 2008, the group organised a conference "Stop Street Violence" bringing together over 1,000 young people and adults in the Stockholm City Hall.[4] The group has a website www.stoppagatuvaldet.nu and an international forum on Facebook called "Save Us From Street Violence".
On October 14, 2010 Abele became the youngest Member of Parliament in Swedish history, as he was chosen to fill the spot from Abele's Moderate party colleague Anna König Jerlmyr who was named as the new Stockholm deputy mayor a few days earlier.[5]