The Council of Europe’s European Commission against racism and intolerance (ECRI) has called on the Norwegian authorities to further combat hate speech and hate crime, with a focus on equal treatment and inclusion in education and healthcare. Of the 12 recommendations addressed to Norway in its newly published report, two should be implemented within 18 months as a matter of priority. The report is also available in Norwegian.
Living together and inclusion in healthcare paramount
The first priority recommendation concerns the promotion of a culture of living together among pupils, including sensitive societal issues, such as antisemitism, anti-Muslim racism and intolerance towards LGBTI persons. In its second priority recommendation ECRI calls on the authorities to develop and adopt a national strategy for equality and inclusion in healthcare, aimed at identifying and addressing structural barriers that hinder access to healthcare for groups of concern to ECRI.
In the report, ECRI welcomes the progress made and the good practices developed in several fields since its previous report published in 2021. The Norwegian authorities have addressed online hate speech through the recently established National hate-crimes expertise unit attached to the Oslo police district. The National Police have published an action plan which includes measures to combat hate crime together with related analysis and statistics. In the education sector, Norway has introduced training for newly arrived immigrants to promote the recruitment of multilingual individuals into pedagogical and assistant roles in kindergartens, schools and after-school programmes.
ECRI notes areas that can be improved in fighting racism
However, ECRI’s report highlights some concerns: the authorities should give high priority to countering antigypsyism and developing a national action plan to prevent and combat hate against Roma and Romani people/Tater.
The anti-racism commission also recommends that all transgender individuals who wish to undertake a medical transition have safe, affordable, and timely access to necessary treatments, in line with ECRI’s General Policy Recommendation No. 17 on preventing and combating intolerance and discrimination against LGBTI persons.
In addition, ECRI stresses the need for legislation that protects the rights of intersex persons to bodily integrity and which prohibits the performance of medically unnecessary surgeries and other non-therapeutic treatments until the intersex child is able to participate in such decisions.
Finally, ECRI recommends that the Norwegian authorities take concrete measures to ensure effective access to justice for people subjected to racial or other forms of discrimination. These measures should include establishing a system under which they do not have to pay for legal representation before the Equality and Anti-Discrimination Tribunal or for court and administrative fees in legal proceedings.
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The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) is a unique Council of Europe human rights monitoring body made up of independent experts, which specialises in questions relating to the fight against racism, discrimination (on grounds of “race”, ethnic/national origin, colour, citizenship, religion, language, sexual orientation and gender identity), xenophobia, antisemitism and intolerance in Europe; it prepares reports and issues recommendations to member states.
