Oral assertion denouncing the discrimination by the Dutch department of Human Rights With out Frontiers on the OSCE Warsaw Human Dimension Convention on 7 October
“Mensenrechten Zonder Grenzen Nederland is deeply involved a couple of resolution in Norway which arbitrarily revoked the registration of Jehovah’s Witnesses current within the nation for over 130 years. This measure places an finish to their eligibility for state grants they’d obtained for 30 years.
The registration of the Norwegian Jehovah’s Witnesses as a spiritual group for 39 years was put to an finish on unclear and controversial grounds in 2022.
As well as, on 4 March of this yr, the Oslo District Court docket upheld the selections of the County Governor of Oslo and Viken who has denied Jehovah’s Witnesses state subsidies since 2021. The monetary loss is estimated at 1.6 million EUR for 2021. An enchantment has been lodged.
We suggest that the Authorities of Norway
- cancel the discriminatory resolution to take away the registration of Jehovah’s Witnesses as a spiritual neighborhood;
- rethink and reverse the denial of state grants since 2021;
- abide by their dedication to uphold elementary freedoms assured by the Structure of Norway, the ICCPR and the European Conference on Human Rights for all residents, together with Jehovah’s Witnesses.
State subsidies in Norway are usually not a present. The Lutheran Church of Norway which is a state church is financially supported by the federal government and will get state subsidies proportional to the variety of its members. For the sake of coherence and non-discrimination, the Structure mandates that different religions also needs to profit from the identical financing system and get subsidies in proportion of the variety of their members. Over 700 non secular communities obtain such state grants in Norway, together with Orthodox parishes subordinated to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow who blessed Russia’s conflict on Ukraine.”
Background info
Supply: Faith Information Service (16.01.2024)
With its recognition of greater than 700 registered religion communities, Norway is usually admired as a bastion of non secular freedom. However after Norway deregistered the Jehovah’s Witnesses final yr, some human rights consultants say that popularity might be in query. Now, the Jehovah’s Witnesses of Norway are suing the state for revoking their nationwide registration and withholding state funds. Based on Jehovah’s Witnesses, they’re the primary non secular group to lose their nationwide registration in Norway.
The trial, which started Jan. 8, 202 will decide whether or not some practices of the Jehovah’s Witnesses violate Norway’s Non secular Communities Act or whether or not withdrawing the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ registration violates their proper to freedom of faith and freedom of affiliation, as assured within the European Conference on Human Rights.
“It’s definitely an important trial a couple of non secular freedom problem in Norway in many years,” Willy Fautré, director of the Brussels-based group Human Rights With out Frontiers, informed Faith Information Service.
In January 2022, Valgerd Svarstad Haugland, the county governor of Oslo and Viken, in Norway, denied Jehovah’s Witnesses state grants for the yr 2021 in response to considerations about what she perceived as exclusionary practices. The Jehovah’s Witnesses had obtained the grants, which at the moment quantity to round $1.5 million yearly, for 3 many years. These funds are usually used for worldwide catastrophe aid work and supporting non secular exercise in Norway, together with translating literature and constructing kingdom halls, based on Jørgen Pedersen, spokesperson for Jehovah’s Witnesses in Norway.
In an announcement initially written in Norwegian, the county governor of Oslo and Viken claimed that Jehovah’s Witnesses are forbidden to contact disfellowshipped members, in addition to individuals who voluntarily dissociate, which may hinder an individual’s potential to freely withdraw from the group. She additionally argued that Jehovah’s Witnesses could disfellowship kids who’ve chosen to be baptized in the event that they break the non secular neighborhood’s guidelines, a observe she mentioned constituted “damaging social management” and violated kids’s rights. These practices, the county governor argued, defy Norway’s Non secular Communities Act. “We have now assessed the offenses as systematic and intentional, and have subsequently chosen to refuse grants,” the press launch mentioned.
In an e mail to RNS, Jehovah’s Witnesses spokesperson Jarrod Lopes mentioned Witnesses solely disfellowship an unrepentant member who “makes a observe” of significant violations of “the Bible’s ethical code.” Even then, Lopes added, Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t drive members to restrict or stop affiliation with former congregants, whether or not they’ve been disfellowshipped or withdrawn voluntarily — that’s as much as people. “Congregation elders don’t police the private lives of congregants, nor do they train management over the religion of particular person Jehovah’s Witnesses,” wrote Lopes.
Pedersen added that the intense sins that may result in disfellowship embrace manslaughter, adultery and drug use. He mentioned a congregation will all the time attempt to assist a person restore their relationship with God, but when the issue persists, Jehovah’s Witnesses really feel compelled to respect all the Bible, together with directions to not affiliate with unrepentant sinners, akin to 1 Corinthians 5:11.
Although the Witnesses appealed the county governor’s resolution, in September 2022 the Ministry for Kids and Households upheld the ruling. In October that very same yr, the county governor mentioned in a press launch that until Jehovah’s Witnesses would “rectify the circumstances that led to the refusal of state subsidies,” they might lose registration, which they did a number of months later, in December. With out its nationwide registration, Jehovah’s Witnesses can not carry out marriages, they usually lose entitlement to authorities grants.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses of Norway filed two lawsuits in opposition to the state in December 2022: one difficult the denial of state grants and one other difficult their lack of registration. These lawsuits have since been mixed. Although the Oslo District Court docket initially granted the Jehovah’s Witnesses an injunction that suspended their deregistration till that case was argued, the Ministry challenged the injunction, and in April 2023, the court docket eliminated it.
Because the trial performs out on the District Court docket of Oslo, Jason Smart, an lawyer who’s performing as a marketing consultant on the case for the authorized workforce representing the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Norway, mentioned a part of the Witnesses’ argument is that there isn’t a proof of hurt and that it’s not the place of the state to interpret non secular texts. The state continues to contend that the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ practices are in battle with the Non secular Communities Act, notably, they declare, by exposing kids to psychological violence.
Since 2022, Jehovah’s Witnesses have reported a rise in vandalism, harassment and bodily assaults in Norway. In September 2022, two Jehovah’s Witnesses in Harstad, Norway, reported {that a} man screamed at them and repeatedly tried to hit one in all them. That very same month, a person in Kristiansand, Norway, reportedly set a Jehovah’s Witnesses cell show automobile on fireplace, and a month later, somebody tried to set fireplace to a Jehovah’s Witnesses assembly place in Fauske, Norway.
Norway isn’t the one place the place Jehovah’s Witnesses’ practices have been beneath scrutiny. In December, the Belgian Court docket of Cassation — the very best court docket within the Belgian judiciary — rejected an enchantment of a decrease court docket’s resolution, ruling in favor of Jehovah’s Witnesses’ proper to keep away from contact with former members. “Norway is simply the tip of one other phenomenon. That could be a supply of concern, as a result of we see that there are increasingly more makes an attempt in Europe by state establishments to intervene and intrude into the teachings and practices of non secular teams, which is forbidden by the European Conference,” mentioned Fautré. “The chance is they might open the door to extra court docket circumstances in opposition to different non secular teams.”
