Norway 2023
The Parliamentary Ombudsperson raised serious concerns about inadequate healthcare for people in detention experiencing mental illness. LGBTI meeting places were at ongoing risk of violent attack. The prevalence of gender-based violence against women and girls remained high. Following a period of government non-compliance with a Supreme Court judgment that wind farms on the Fosen peninsula violated the rights of Sami people to herd reindeer, agreement was reached with Sami communities in the south of the peninsula. Significant investments in new oil and gas fields were approved notwithstanding emissions reduction targets.
Cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
In March, a report released by the Parliamentary Ombudsperson expressed concerns about long-standing issues in Norway’s prisons and detention facilities, including over the use of solitary confinement, inadequate mental healthcare services and rising levels of suicide and suicide attempts. Recommendations made by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture in 2019, including that people in prison should be allowed to spend a minimum of eight hours per day outside their cells, had yet to be implemented. The most recent figures presented by Oslo Economics in September showed that prison inmates in 24 wards, spread over 17 prisons, had not received this minimum allocation in 2022.
Discrimination
In May, an official report on the June 2022 mass shooting at a gay club during Oslo Pride, which killed two people and injured at least 21, found that the attack could have been prevented had the Police Security Service (PST) taken information about prevailing threats seriously. The PST assessed that LGBTI meeting places were at ongoing risk of attacks. Organizers cancelled a rainbow festival for children during Bergen Pride due to threats of violence.
Violence against women and girls
In January, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security launched a public consultation on a proposed revision to the Penal Code definition of rape. Human rights bodies were concerned that the proposed new provision criminalizing sexual acts committed without consent would not fully comply with the freely given consent standard required by Article 36 of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention).1
The prevalence of gender-based violence against women and girls in Norway remained high. In February, the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies revealed that more than one in five women had reported suffering rape through force, coercion or while incapacitated, at least once in their lifetime. The majority of victims had been raped more than once, many for the first time before the age of 18.
Right to a healthy environment
In February, week-long demonstrations in the capital, Oslo marked 500 days of government non-compliance with a Supreme Court verdict declaring wind farm licences on the Fosen peninsula a violation of human rights. In March, the government formally apologized to Indigenous Sami communities that their rights to herd reindeer in the area had been violated by the wind farm turbines, yet the projects remained fully operational. In December, agreement was reached between one wind farm operator and Sami communities in the southern herding district of the peninsula. Mediation continued for other projects.
Ongoing government tax incentives encouraged oil companies to invest NOK 200 billion (almost USD 20 billion) in new production, with 19 new oil and gas field licences approved in June, notwithstanding an emissions reduction target of 55% by 2030.