The State of the World's Human Rights; Norway 2025

A Black lawyer was awarded state redress for ethnic discrimination by police. A new bill proposed to reduce solitary confinement in prisons. Parliament finally adopted a consent-based legal definition of rape. Sámi communities continued to be excluded from decisions affecting their land rights.

Discrimination

In November, the Oslo City Court awarded compensation to Awon Amidu, a Black lawyer, for ethnic discrimination involving repeated unjustified police stops between 2015 and 2020. The legal action was brought on the back of a 2021 decision by the Equality and Anti-Discrimination Ombud, which found that the police had discriminated against Amidu based on his ethnicity.

Cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment

In August, the government presented a draft bill to reduce solitary confinement in prisons and set a minimum standard of eight hours a day for prisoners to spend outside cells.

The proposal followed a report criticizing prison conditions published by the Parliamentary Ombudsperson in March, as well as long-standing concerns raised by UN and Council of Europe bodies.

Women’s and girls’ rights

In an historic vote in June, parliament adopted a consent-based legal definition of rape, which came into effect in July, bringing the provision in line with human rights standards.

Indigenous Peoples’ Rights

In June, parliament passed a new Minerals Act, which lacked provisions to ensure the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples in relation to mineral exploration or extraction projects on their traditional lands. As such, the legislation ignored concerns over land use raised in March by the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as well as those consistently raised by Sámi and other civil society organizations.¹

Right to a healthy environment

In November, the Borgarting Court of Appeal heard an appeal brought by environmental organizations against the Norwegian state, which challenged the approval of development plans for three North Sea oil projects on the grounds that their global climate impacts had not been properly assessed. The court found in favour of the applicants but did not suspend operations in the oil fields. In December, the state appealed the decision.

Corporate accountability

The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund came under increasing scrutiny over its investments in companies operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territory or connected to Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip.

In June, a majority of parliamentarians voted in favour of a proposal to ban trade and business activities with such companies.

In August, the state-owned manager of the fund, Norges Bank Investment Management, divested from six companies with connections to the West Bank and the occupied Gaza Strip.

In November, parliament voted to allow the government to review the fund’s ethical framework and put the proposals for ethical divestments on hold until then. Civil society organizations were critical of the measure.

Refugees’ and migrants’ rights

Norway drastically reduced its annual refugee resettlement quota to just 500 in 2025, down from 1,000 in 2024, and a high of 2,000 in 2022. The government cited the large number of refugees fleeing Ukraine that it had received until 2023, but its decision defied the calls from civil society organizations – and the UNHCR’s guidance figure of 5,000 – to increase the quota.

1. Finland, Norway, Sweden: Just Transition or ‘Green Colonialism’? How Mineral Extraction and New Energy Projects Without Free, Prior and Informed Consent are Threatening Indigenous Sámi Livelihoods and Culture in Sweden, Norway and Finland, 1 January ↩︎