Oral statement denouncing discrimination by the Dutch branch of Human Rights Without Borders at the OSCE Human Dimension Conference in Warsaw, October 7
“Mensenrechten Zonder Grenzen Nederland is deeply concerned by a decision in Norway that arbitrarily revoked the registration of Jehovah’s Witnesses who have been in the country for more than 130 years. This measure ends their eligibility for state subsidies that they have received for 30 years.
The 39-year-old registration of the Norwegian Jehovah’s Witnesses as a religious organization ended in 2022 for unclear and controversial reasons.
Furthermore, on March 4 this year, the Oslo District Court upheld the decisions of the Oslo County Governor and Viken that denied public subsidies to Jehovah’s Witnesses since 2021. The financial loss is estimated at 1 .6 million euros for 2021. An appeal has been filed. been filed.
We recommend to the Norwegian government
overturn the discriminatory decision to remove the registration of Jehovah’s Witnesses as a religious community; reconsider and cancel the refusal of state subsidies since 2021; uphold their commitment to respect the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Norwegian Constitution, the ICCPR and the European Convention on Human Rights Human rights for all citizens, including Jehovah’s Witnesses.
State subsidies in Norway are not a gift. The Lutheran Church of Norway, which is a state church, is financially supported by the government and receives state subsidies proportional to the number of its members. For the sake of consistency and non-discrimination, the Constitution requires that other religions also benefit from the same financing system and receive subsidies proportional to the number of their members. More than 700 religious communities receive such state subsidies in Norway, including Orthodox parishes subordinate to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, who blessed Russia’s war against Ukraine.
General information
Source: Religion Information Service (01/16/2024)
With its recognition of over 700 registered faith communities, Norway is often admired as a bastion of religious freedom. But after Norway deregistered Jehovah’s Witnesses last year, some human rights experts say the reputation could be called into question. Today, Jehovah’s Witnesses in Norway are suing the state for revoking their national registration and withholding public funds. According to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, they are the first religious group to lose their national registration in Norway.
The trial, which began on January 8, 202, will determine whether certain practices of Jehovah’s Witnesses violate the Norwegian law on religious communities or whether the withdrawal of registration of Jehovah’s Witnesses violates their right to freedom of expression. religion and freedom of association, as guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights.
“This is certainly the most important trial on a religious freedom issue in Norway in decades,” Willy Fautré, director of the Brussels-based organization Human Rights Without Borders, told Religion News Service.
In January 2022, Valgerd Svarstad Haugland, governor of Oslo and Viken County, Norway, denied state grants to Jehovah’s Witnesses for the year 2021 in response to concerns over what she perceived to be exclusionary practices. Jehovah’s Witnesses have received grants, currently amounting to approximately $1.5 million per year, for three decades. These funds are generally used for international disaster relief and to support religious activities in Norway, including the translation of publications and the construction of kingdom halls, according to Jørgen Pedersen, spokesperson for Jehovah’s Witnesses in Norway.
In an announcement originally written in Norwegian, the governor of Oslo and Viken County claimed that Jehovah’s Witnesses are prohibited from contacting excluded members, as well as people who voluntarily disassociate, which may hinder the ability of a person to freely withdraw from the group. She also argued that Jehovah’s Witnesses can exclude children who have chosen to be baptized if they break the religious community’s rules, a practice she says constitutes “negative social control” and violates human rights. children. According to the county governor, these practices defy Norwegian law on religious communities. “We assessed the violations as systematic and intentional and therefore chose to deny the grants,” the statement said.
In an email to RNS, Jehovah’s Witnesses spokesman Jarrod Lopes said the Witnesses only excommunicate an unrepentant member who “practices” serious violations of the “moral code of the Bible.” Even then, Lopes added, Jehovah’s Witnesses do not force its members to limit or cease their association with former worshipers, whether they were expelled or removed voluntarily – that depends on the individual. “Congregational elders do not control the personal lives of worshipers, nor do they exercise control over the faith of each Jehovah’s Witness,” Lopes wrote.
Pedersen added that serious sins that could lead to exclusion include manslaughter, adultery and drug use. He said a congregation will always try to help an individual restore their relationship with God, but if the problem persists, Jehovah’s Witnesses feel obligated to uphold the Bible in its entirety, including the instructions not to associate with unrepentant sinners, as 1 Corinthians 5:11.
Although the Witnesses appealed the county governor’s decision, in September 2022 the Department of Children and Families upheld the decision. In October of that year, the county governor said in a press release that unless Jehovah’s Witnesses “rectified the conditions that led to the denial of state grants,” they would lose their registration. , which they did a few months later, in December. Without national registration, Jehovah’s Witnesses cannot perform marriages and lose their right to government subsidies.
Jehovah’s Witnesses in Norway filed two lawsuits against the state in December 2022: one challenging the denial of state subsidies and the other challenging the loss of their registration. These lawsuits have since been consolidated. Although the Oslo District Court initially granted the Jehovah’s Witnesses an injunction suspending their delisting until this case was litigated, the ministry contested the injunction, and in April 2023 the court withdrew it .
As the trial unfolds in the Oslo District Court, Jason Wise, a lawyer who is acting as a consultant on the case for the legal team representing Jehovah’s Witnesses in Norway, said that part of the Witnesses’ argument is that there is no proof. of harm and that it is not the role of the State to interpret religious texts. The state continues to maintain that the practices of Jehovah’s Witnesses conflict with the law on religious communities, including by exposing children to psychological violence.
Since 2022, Jehovah’s Witnesses have reported an increase in vandalism, harassment and physical attacks in Norway. In September 2022, two Jehovah’s Witnesses in Harstad, Norway, reported that a man yelled at them and repeatedly tried to hit one of them. That same month, in Kristiansand, Norway, a man allegedly set fire to a Jehovah’s Witness mobile car, and a month later, someone attempted to set fire to a Jehovah’s Witness meeting place in Fauske, Norway.
Norway is not the only country where the practices of Jehovah’s Witnesses are under scrutiny. In December, the Belgian Court of Cassation — the highest court in the Belgian justice system — rejected an appeal of a lower court ruling, ruling in favor of the right of Jehovah’s Witnesses to avoid contact with former members. “Norway is just the tip of another phenomenon. This is a source of concern, because we see that there are more and more attempts by state institutions to interfere and interfere in the teachings and practices of religious groups, which is prohibited by the European Convention,” Fautré declared. “The risk is that they would open the door to more legal action against other religious groups. »
Originally published in The European Times.
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