Sugar Mizzy
January 27, 2022
In a message on their website, the Attorney General writes that they have found several violations of the religious community law by Jehovah’s Witnesses.
“After receiving warnings from previous members regarding exclusion and expulsion of members, the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs has asked the State Administrator in Oslo and Viken to review Jehovah’s Witnesses’ own statements and publications. In this review, the State Administrator has uncovered several violations of the Religious Communities Act “, they write.
It was Vårt Land that first reported the case.
According to the State Administrator’s review, Jehovah’s Witnesses have an exclusionary practice that members are denied contact with unsubscribed members. In practice, this means that those who resign cannot have contact with family and friends in the congregation, the State Administrator believes.
“In our opinion, this prevents the right to free withdrawal, and is contrary to the Religious Communities Act § 2. This means that the organization violates the right to free withdrawal and section 2 of the Religious Communities Act.”
Will appeal the decision
Fabian Fond at the branch office of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Scandinavia, writes in an e-mail to NRK that they are disappointed:
“The decision will be appealed. The appeal process will give us an opportunity to clearly explain why our faith and religious practices fully respect the rights and freedoms of others. “
Fond further writes that no one is forced or pressured to become, or continue to be, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses:
“It is worth noting that trials in several lands have confirmed the right of Jehovah’s Witnesses to exclude persons who choose not to live by the moral standards of the Bible. As a registered religious community in Norway, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been eligible to receive government grants for more than 30 years. “
The Ministry of Children and Family Affairs is to process a complaint.
The state administrator writes in his decision that they are also critical of the religious community opening up to exclude baptized minors.
“This means that children can be excluded if they break the rules of the religious community. We believe this is negative social control and violates children’s rights “, writes the State Administrator.
– We have considered the offenses to be systematic and intentional, and have therefore chosen to refuse subsidies.
The current Minister of Culture and Gender Equality, Anette Trettebergstuen, said in 2019 that Jehovah’s Witnesses were violating human rights and should lose state support.
– This feels like a victory
Former Jehovah’s Witness member Louise Myrland is delighted with the decision.
– I was super happy. I went straight to social media to contact friends. This feels like a victory, that I have won a case, she says to NRK.
– I myself am a victim of this exclusion scheme that Jehovah’s Witnesses have. It involves not seeing my family or friends I grew up with.
She told her story in the Brennpunkt documentary God’s Chosen as well Ida Kårhus.
– The idea that I pay tax money that has gone, among other things, to support the religious community that runs this exclusion scheme, has never been right for me since I was 21 years old. It has been hard to support something that takes away my joy, she says.
The state administrator in Oslo and Viken, Valgerd Svarstad Haugland, says that they were notified by former Jehovah’s Witness members about what they believe is a crime.
– The religious communities law we now have has been changed, so that we are obliged to supervise the religious communities so that they follow the legislation. And then we see that they have an exclusionary practice that is not in line with the legislation we have, she says to NRK.
She states that in their investigations, they have had conversations with both members and ex-members of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
16 million kroner
According to an overview from the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs, 12,686 contributing members of Jehovah’s Witnesses were registered in 2021. According to the State Attorney, they will now miss out on NOK 16 million in support.
What does it take for Jehovah’s Witnesses to receive state aid again?
– Then they must look at the new religious community law and follow it. And then they may have to apply again, says Svarstad Haugland.
How serious would you say this case is for a religious community?
– To put it this way: it takes a lot before one deprives a religious community of state support. But this time we think it’s so serious that we have to do it.
The Chairman of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Norway responds by email.
Originally published in Norwegian on vl.no
Let me first emphasize that protecting human rights (or human needs) is important for everyone, but especially for religious minorities such as Jehovah’s Witnesses. I also understand the complexity of a modern society, where several core issues often seem to collide, for example to counter violent extremism.
But when the State Administrator attacks Jehovah’s Witnesses, she stigmatizes more than 12,000 law-abiding and peaceful citizens, while claiming to protect victims who exist only in her own imagination.
She is discriminating against a religious group that has been active in Norway since 1890 and registered since 1985. For more information on the case itself, see my opinion piece published in Vårt Land on 17 March 2022.
After receiving letters from two or three people who disagree with our religious beliefs, the State Administrator clearly thought it was her job to read and interpret religious texts, and based on her own interpretation of these, decided to deny us state aid and registration. As far as I know, no other internationally recognized religious community in Norway has fallen victim to such treatment by the authorities. Among the more than 700 registered religious communities, as far as I know, only the religious texts of the Jehovah’s Witnesses have been interpreted.
Exposed to threats and harassment
After the decision to deny Jehovah’s Witnesses state support, there have been several cases of violence, vandalism, threats, and even arson against people who are Jehovah’s Witnesses and against our meeting places. The Ministry of Children and Families says that various government offices have received almost 2,000 letters from various Jehovah’s Witnesses (who are also taxpayers) following the decision to refuse state subsidies. Are these 2,000 letters worth less than the letters from the two or three people who wrote to the Governor and disagree with our beliefs?
As mentioned, there are more than 12,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses in Norway, and their sincere beliefs are publicly attacked by the Norwegian authorities. The Norwegian authorities’ decision to punish more than 12,000 citizens for adhering to a Bible-based teaching, which Jesus Christ himself instituted, is in practice precisely the behaviour they claim to combat: forcing someone to follow a certain behaviour due to fear of being pressured or punished.
Professional studies have shown that Jehovah’s Witnesses “show a high respect for life and human dignity,” and that our teaching is “characterized by wider freedom of choice and freedom of personal decisions”.
Human rights
It also appears that there is some confusion in the public sphere, including among politicians and journalists, about what human rights are in this context. The following quotes from human rights experts may be of help.
“The challenge is that Schmitt is right, but does not stand for any positive alternative”
Professor Heiner Bielefeldt, the former UN special rapporteur for freedom of religion and belief, has said the following: “Human rights do not give the state the mandate to enforce inner-religious reforms, for instance with the intention of opening them up for the adoption of human rights principles into their internal teaching and preaching.”
In the book, Religion and human rights (pp. 48-49), Professor Dag Øistein Endsjø says: “The individual’s freedom of religion is instead guaranteed by the absolute right to leave a religious community with which one does not agree.” Concerning religious autonomy, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has recently confirmed: “States do not have the right under the Convention to decide what beliefs may or may not be taught because the right to freedom of religion as guaranteed under the Convention excludes any discretion on the part of the State to determine whether religious beliefs or the means used to express such beliefs are legitimate”.
Over the years, several international professional studies confirmed that Jehovah’s Witnesses have “a high level of social integration,” and “contribut[e] in many different ways to the growth, cohesion, and prosperity of society”.
Violations of religious freedom are often followed by violations of other human rights
Our Bible-based, personal conviction motivates us to be peaceful, and to show respect and kindness to all people regardless of their age, ethnicity, religion, social status, sexual orientation, and gender, which many Norwegian residents can confirm. The state administrator insists that refusing state grants and registration is not an attempt to pressure or influence our beliefs. If that is true, then what is the point of denying Jehovah’s Witnesses government subsidies and deregistering us?
If our faith remains unchanged, then what has the State Trustee accomplished? The ECHR has flatly rejected Russia’s use of deregistration (and other things) to force Jehovah’s Witnesses to comply. In a recent decision of 7 June 2022, in the case Taganrog LRO and Others v. Russia, the ECHR stated that Russia’s “policy of intolerance … towards the religious practices of Jehovah’s Witnesses” (§254), was a violation of several of the articles of the ECHR.
It is worth noting that the spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry recently defended Russia’s persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses by comparing what Russia is doing to Norway’s decision to deregister us as a religious community. We hope that the Norwegian authorities do not continue on that course.
As history has clearly shown, violations of religious freedom often lead to violations of other human rights, which will affect all Norwegian citizens, not just those who belong to a particular religious community. As Jan Figel, the EU’s former special envoy for freedom of religion and belief, said: “Freedom of religion or belief is a litmus test of civil and political rights. When it is not respected, other human rights are not guaranteed either.”
The State Administrator and the Ministry of Children and Families seem to be talking down on the importance of this principle. Norwegian citizens should be deeply concerned if the authorities are allowed to trample on human rights (human needs), regardless of whether it is due to misunderstandings or simply prejudice.
Jørgen Pedersen
The State Administrator’s response:
‘To claim that I am “protecting victims who only exist in my own imagination”, I think that is quite gross,’ says state administrator Valgerd Svarstad Haugland to Vårt Land.
‘This has been dealt with in our legal department and is based on Norwegian legislation,’ elaborates the state administrator. ‘No one has deprived Jehovah’s Witnesses of the right to be Jehovah’s Witnesses and practice their faith,’ she emphasizes.
‘But we have deprived them of financial support and registration because we believe that their exclusion practices are on a collision course with Norwegian law.”