HUMAN RIGHTS - Norway
by the Norwegian group at Saltdal upper secondary school October, 2002
Norway has along with many other countries obligated itself to following the international human rights conventions. The Norwegian Human Rights movement has pressured several governments into incorporating the Human Rights into Norwegian law. Basically, the governments have shown interest, but somewhere along the way the process has always come to a stop. Norway is no longer on Amnesty’s international list over countries that violate the Human Rights. Why not?
Article 9: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 11: (1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
In most countries the use of custody is more limited, usually not extending 48 hours. In Norway, however, the use of custody is more extensive receiving international criticism for keeping people in custody with prohibitions against visitation and recievement of letters. Moreover it is found unacceptable that people in custody are not allowed the simple act of washing themselves before a remand hearing. Psychiatrists claim that several people in custody have been damaged mentally on a permanent level as a result of long-term isolation.
Article 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20: (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Political minorities have been kept under surveillance. Examples of this are the communists who had their phones tapped after World War II and up to several decades afterwards. Their right to privacy was deprived. A more resent and more controversial incident is the surveillance of the neo-nazi organisations.
(We have an example of the surveillance of the communists here in Saltdal where a woman named Signe Ødegaard was put under surveillance.
Article 18: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
There is a Christian objects clause in the educational system in Norway. This leads to a subject in primary school that is to teach the children about Christianity. Earlier, this subject was to some extent taken voluntarily, the parents that wanted their children to take a different subject that debated several religions and humanistic values, could choose that. In 1997 a Minister gained the post of Prime Minister and within months of the election he changed the name of the subject from 'Christianity' to 'Philosophy (of religion)' and removed the alternative ethical subject. This lead to many protests from parents and children who were atheists or belonged to other religious beliefs. The subject still remains.
Article 21: Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
There is democracy in Norway. And everybody has the same right to give votes to their freely chosen representatives. In Norway the democracy is very widely interpreted, and even those who are imprisoned have the same democratic rights as other free persons and they can give their votes to whoever they want. However, there are some parties that are illegal even in Norway. These are parties that have racist ideas that conflict with the Declaration of Human Rights.
§2) Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country.
There has not been any noticeable problems in Norway regarding this article. Everybody has the same rights to dental care, health service and free basic education etc.
§3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
In Norway there are political elections every fourth year. Everyone can try to form their own party and collect as many votes as the party is able to get. There are also local government elections every forth year. Norwegian citizents have to be 18 years old to give votes in these elections.
Article 22: Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realisation, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organisation and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
It is very difficult, if not say impossible, to guarantee the safety of every member of a society. This has recently been proved in USA by the attack at the World Trade Center 11. September last year. It is probably the same in Norway. You can never be completely safe.
The sami-people, the Norwegian minority, have not always been treated right. Since the 1960s there has been a law that Norwegian should be the only allowed language in school. Not many of the sami-children either knew how to speak or write Norwegian and therefore their educational progression was poor. The sami`s chants were a very important part of their culture, but this was forbidden in Norwegian school. The Christians in Norway found it sinful and it was considered a symbol of the devil to sing these chants. The Norwegian politicians wanted to assimilate every sami to the Norwegian society and all the signs of sami-identity should be erased.
There have been gypsies in Norway for a long time and this is a group of people who has been discriminated a lot. In 1927 Gypsies should not be granted access to the country. This was national law and when it was broken the local police could sterilise any gypsy. And it would be legal! This law was still legal in 1977, but was abolished the same year.
But in recent years, things have become much better for the minorities in Norway. They have gained their interests and they now have higher educated people to lead their cases. They are also better known internationally because of all the trouble they have experienced during the last century in Norway. And on October 10, 1980, the “Sami rights commission” was appointed and the first Sami-parliament was officially opened in 1989.
Article 23: (§1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
Unemployed persons in Norway get social security if they have worked for a while and then get unemployed. If you go straight from school and into being an unemployed you will not get anything. You can get daily amounts but it is not enough to make a living. If you get hurt or in some other way cannot work without being the worker's fault, he can also get social security from the state. Anyone can choose their education and will get work afterwards if there is work to get.
(§2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(§3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4§) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
The minimum wage in Norway is 0 kr, which means that it is up to the worker and the employer to find a wage that both parts can agree about. The workers can get organised which means that they have more rights and fixed wages. There are more economically inactive women than men, woman have often part-time jobs and few women have superior positions. Women earn less than men and they are less active in politics.
Article 25: Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
By new year there were 4 500 000 persons living in Norway. The five richest persons in Norway have more than 45 billion NOK. Today there are 70,000 children living in poverty in Norway. In 1995, 2,9% of the Norwegian citizens often had economical problems. In the capital, Oslo, there are 330 homeless persons. Organisations like the the Salvation Army try to help the homeless people in Norway and many people find comfort in this organisation
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