a. Extrajudicial Killings

There were no reports the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings during the year.

b. Coercion in Population Control

There were no reports of coerced abortion or involuntary sterilization on the part of government authorities.

a. Freedom of the Press

The constitution and law provided for freedom of expression, including for members of the press and other media, and the government generally respected this right. An independent press, an effective judiciary, and a functioning democratic political system combined to promote freedom of expression, including for media members.

Hate speech and other hate crimes were prohibited by law. In June, the leader of political party The Alliance, Hans Lysglimt Johansen, was sentenced to seven months’ imprisonment for hate speech and other crimes, after posting memes containing hateful expressions targeting Jews, Arabs, Muslims, and gays on social media platforms, including X. According to the verdict, Lysglimt Johansen depicted Jews as child abusers, barbaric, inferior, and the primary antagonists behind a nefarious global conspiracy.

b. Worker Rights

Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining

The law provided for the right of workers, including migrant workers (those who had a work permit in the country), to form and join independent unions, bargain collectively, and conduct legal strikes. The law prohibited antiunion discrimination and required reinstatement of workers fired for union activity.

The government effectively enforced applicable laws. The penalties were commensurate with those for other laws involving denials of civil rights, such as discrimination. Penalties were regularly applied against violators.

Forced or Compulsory Labor

See the Department of State’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report at https://www.state.gov/trafficking-in-persons-report/.

Acceptable Work Conditions

Wage and Hour Laws

The law did not mandate an official minimum wage. Instead, minimum wages were set in collective bargaining agreements. An estimated 10 percent of the population had an income below the relative poverty limit, which Statistics Norway set at 60 percent of the median household income after tax. The law provided for premium pay of 40 percent of salary for overtime and prohibited compulsory overtime in excess of 10 hours per week. Violations of wage, hour, or overtime laws were not common.

Occupational Safety and Health

The law provided for safe and physically acceptable working conditions for all employed persons. The occupational safety and health (OSH) standards were appropriate for the main industries in the country. Workers could remove themselves from situations endangering health or safety without jeopardy to their employment, and authorities effectively protected employees in this situation.

The Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority (NLIA) could close an enterprise immediately if the life or health of employees was in imminent danger and could report enterprises to police for serious breaches of the law.

The government proactively identified unsafe conditions. The Norwegian Working Environment Act required employers to prevent work-related accidents and maintain a safe and healthy working environment for all employees. The law required employers with 50 or more workers to establish environment committees composed of management, workers, and health-care personnel. Employers with 10 or more workers needed to have safety delegates elected by their employees.

The country’s Transparency Act compelled companies to respect human rights and decent working conditions in connection with the production of goods and services and ensured the public had access to information on how companies handled negative consequences on human rights and decent working conditions.

Violations of OSH standards occurred most often at building and construction sites, compared with workplaces.

Wage, Hour, and OSH Enforcement

The NLIA was responsible for enforcing wage, hour, and OSH laws, and in consultation with nongovernment experts, it set OSH standards and effectively enforced laws and standards in the formal sector. Penalties were commensurate with those for similar crimes, such as fraud or negligence, and were regularly applied against violators. The law provided the same benefits for citizens and foreign workers with residency permits but forbade employment of foreign workers without residency permits. The number of labor inspectors was sufficient to enforce compliance. Inspectors could conduct unannounced inspections and initiate sanctions. The NLIA and the Norwegian Tax Directorate carried out inspections to ensure employers upheld their responsibilities and to combat potential informal markets.

The International Labor Organization reported that, according to the EU Survey of Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, the country’s informal employment sector amounted to 1.9 percent of total employment (measured from a minimum age of 16). The estimate was based on collected microdata from 2020 and did not specify sectors of economic activity.

c. Disappearance and Abduction

Disappearance

There were no reports of enforced disappearances by or on behalf of government authorities.

Prolonged Detention without Charges

The constitution and law prohibited arbitrary arrest and detention and provided for the right of any person to challenge the lawfulness of their arrest or detention in court. The government generally observed these requirements.

Detainees needed to be informed of charges against them immediately after an arrest, and to detain suspects, the prosecutor needed to arraign them within three days after arrest. The arraigning judge determined whether the accused should be held in custody or released pending trial. There was a bail system, but it was rarely utilized. Officials routinely released defendants, including nonresident foreigners, accused of minor crimes pending trial. Defendants accused of serious or violent crimes usually remained in custody until trial.

By law, authorities provided detainees access to a lawyer of their choice before interrogation or, if the requested lawyer was unavailable, to an attorney appointed by the government. The government paid the attorney fees in all cases. Criminal detainees benefited from legal aid if the period of police custody was expected to last more than 24 hours (for adults) or 12 hours (for juveniles). Consequently, because most questioning and detention took place within 24 hours, it was not uncommon for criminal suspects to be subjected to police questioning without a lawyer present.

The law mandated detainees be transferred from temporary police holding cells to a regular prison cell within 48 hours. The law provided that a court needed to determine whether and for how long a detainee could be held in solitary confinement during pretrial detention. There were no reports these rights were not respected.

d. Violations in Religious Freedom

See the Department of State’s annual International Religious Freedom Report at https://www.state.gov/international-religious-freedom-reports/.

e. Trafficking in Persons

See the Department of State’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report at https://www.state.gov/trafficking-in-persons-report/.

a. Torture and Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

The constitution and law prohibited such practices, and there were no credible reports government officials employed them.

b. Protection of Children

Child Labor

The law prohibited all the worst forms of child labor. Children between ages 13 and 15 could be employed up to 12 hours per week in light work that did not adversely affect their health, development, or schooling, such as assistant work in offices or stores. Children ages 14 and younger needed parental permission to work, and those 15 and older could work as part of vocational training, if supervised. Between ages 15 and 18, children not in school could work up to 40 hours per week and a maximum eight hours per day. The government effectively enforced these laws, and both civil and criminal penalties were commensurate with those for other analogous serious crimes, such as kidnapping. Penalties were regularly applied against violators.

There was no significant presence of the worst forms of child labor.

Child Marriage

The minimum legal age for marriage in the country was 18 for both women and men, and the government effectively enforced this law.

c. Protection to Refugees

The government cooperated with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations in providing protection and assistance to refugees, returning refugees, or asylum seekers, as well as other persons of concern.

Provision of First Asylum

The law provided for the granting of asylum or refugee status, and the government had a system for providing protection to refugees.

The nongovernmental organization (NGO) Norwegian Organization for Asylum Seekers (NOAS) criticized the perceived lack of openness and transparency in the Immigration Appeals Board, an entity under the Ministry of Justice and Public Security. It noted the board’s strict criteria to hear cases that resulted in few hearings granted with the appeals board in 2022, particularly family reunification applicants. Applicants could not contest a final decision by the appeals board, but the appeals board could make a final decision based on an issue not originally in question, which removed the applicant’s opportunity to respond to the board’s grounds for rejecting the case. NOAS reported most asylum applicants were granted protection in the initial review but highlighted that most applicants waited two years before their first interview.

Resettlement

The government offered resettlement for refugees in cooperation with UNHCR. The government’s Directorate of Immigration had several programs to settle refugees permanently in the country. Through the International Organization for Migration, the government assisted the return of unsuccessful asylum seekers to their countries of origin through voluntary programs offering financial and logistical support for repatriation. Identity documents issued by either the Norwegian or the returnee’s government were required to use this program. The government routinely offered migrants cash support in addition to airfare to encourage persons with rejected asylum claims to leave the country voluntarily.

Individuals granted refugee status could apply for citizenship when they met the legal requirements, which included a minimum length of residence of seven of the previous 10 years, completion of an integration course on Norwegian society, and successfully passing a Norwegian language test.

d. Acts of Antisemitism and Antisemitic Incitement

At least 1,500 Jews lived in the country, 760 of whom belonged to Jewish congregations, according to Statistics Norway.

Jewish community leaders reported the public and government generally supported the community, although they acknowledged incidents of antisemitism. According to NGOs and research institutes, including the National Human Rights Institution and Jewish community leaders, hate speech on the internet against ethnic minorities and religious groups increased. The government funded initiatives to combat antisemitism through the national budget guided by its national action plan. The action plan provided programmatic support and coordination for addressing antisemitism by integrating targeted education programs into all schools, supporting Jewish museums and cultural institutions, funding research on antisemitism and Jewish life, and funding public advocacy programs to combat antisemitism. The government provided funding to the Dembra Program to train teachers to increase awareness and prevent and combat antisemitism, prejudice, discrimination, and harassment of minorities in schools. The Dembra Program was coordinated by the Holocaust Center.

The Holocaust Center, the Jewish Community of Oslo and the Oslo Synagogue reported a rise in antisemitic speech, particularly online, prior to the Israel-Hamas conflict, and a sharp increase following the October 2023 terrorist attacks in Israel.

The Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies conducted extensive polling regarding attitudes toward Jews and Muslims. According to the Center, negative responses toward Jews declined between 2011 and 2023, but rose sharply during the year as the Israel-Gaza conflict intensified. According to the Holocaust Center’s Norwegian Attitudes Towards Jews and Muslims 2024 survey of 1,031 individuals, 51 percent of those surveyed agreed with the statement “Israel today treats Palestinians as badly as they [Jews] were treated during World War II.” Leaders of the MOSAIC Jewish community group reported an increasingly hostile climate following the October 2023 attack and an increasing reluctance among Jews to reveal their Jewish identity in public.

In January, Arkivet, a human rights center in Kristiansand, was criticized after announcing it was rebranding school events to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27 as a Celebration of Human Dignity following “events in the Middle East” and a desire to be “inclusive.” Following public criticism, Arkivet apologized and reinstated the name Holocaust Day.

For further information on incidents of antisemitism in the country, whether or not those incidents were motivated by religion, and for reporting on the ability of Jews to exercise freedom of religion or belief, see the Department of State’s annual International Religious Freedom Report at http://www.state.gov/religiousfreedomreport/.