Kingdom of Norway
Head of state: King Harald V
Head of government: Erna Solberg

Transgender people continued to face significant obstacles to legal gender recognition. Impunity for rape and sexual violence continued to be the norm.

Discrimination – transgender people

Transgender people could only obtain legal recognition of their gender following a psychiatric diagnosis, compulsory hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery including irreversible sterilization.[1] In December 2013, the Directorate of Health established an expert group composed of health professionals, legal experts and representatives of transgender organizations. It was tasked to develop recommendations on legal gender recognition and access to health care for transgender people by 25 February 2015.

In March, John Jeanette Solstad Remø applied to the Ministry of Health and Care Services to change her legal gender. The Ministry refused her request. In September, the Office of the Equality and Anti-Discrimination Ombud stated that the Ministry's requirement for diagnosis, hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery including irreversible sterilization was discriminatory and breached the law against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.

Violence against women and girls

The first national study on the prevalence of rape and sexual violence, published in February, confirmed rape to be a widespread and gendered crime. Nearly one in 10 surveyed women reported having been raped. Half of the victims reported experiencing rape before the age of 18. The report documented that one in three victims had never told anyone about the abuse, and only one in 10 rapes had been reported to the police. Half of those who had reported being raped considered that the police had not investigated the crime. Police statistics indicated that eight out of 10 reported rape cases were dropped at various stages of the legal process, reinforcing longstanding concerns about attrition in rape prosecutions.

Refugees and asylum-seekers

In October 2013, the government announced an amnesty for up to 578 minor children of asylum-seekers whose applications for asylum had been finally rejected and who had been in the country for over three years. NGOs criticized its restricted application to only children from countries with which Norway has a readmission agreement, arguing that such an arbitrary criterion was discriminatory and undermined the principle of best interests of the child. In April, the Minister of Justice stated publicly that only 130 out of the 578 children would be covered by the amnesty. In a new consultation paper issued in June, the Ministry of Justice proposed additional conditions on access to the scheme.

On 18 December, the Immigration Appeals Board announced that it was suspending all forced and voluntary returns to Uzbekistan of asylum-seekers whose applications had been finally rejected.

International justice

The appeal by a 47-year-old Rwandan national against his conviction for murder during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda remained outstanding at the end of the year. On 14 February 2013, the Oslo District Court sentenced him to 21 years' imprisonment. He was convicted of premeditated murder under especially aggravating circumstances, but not of genocide, as the article defining the latter only entered into force in 2008 and does not have retrospective effect.

Torture and other ill-treatment

Following Norway's ratification of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture in 2013, the National Preventive Mechanism, taken on by the Parliamentary Ombudsman, was fully operational by April 2014. The Mechanism was created with an advisory committee of members from the National Institution for Human Rights, the other Ombudspersons and civil society and NGO representatives.


1. The state decides who I am: Lack of legal gender recognition for transgender people in Europe (EUR 01/001/2014) www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/EUR01/001/2014/en

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