STATEMENT
UPR47
Review of Norway
4 November 2024
Statement delivered by Special Adviser Maria ESPINOZA,
Ministry of Children and Families
Check against delivery
President.
We thank several delegations for the possibility to reflect on the question put forward on the assessments Norway has done on ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure.
As stated in our report the Norwegian Parliament last addressed this question in 2022. The proposal to ratify the protocol mentioned did not gain support. Since the matter recently has been debated in Parliament, the Government is currently not considering ratification.
Nevertheless the Government is working on a national system to ensure children’s opportunity to appeal.
It is important that children have easy access to effective national complaint procedures - and that children receive information about their right to complain in individual cases.
Measures have been implemented to improve information to children and young people about their right to appeal in individual cases focusing on national complaint mechanisms.
Several Ministries have recently mapped out children’s national complaint options across all sectors. To improve information to children about their rights on this matter an overview of existing complaint procedures has recently been published the government’s primary digital information channel for children and young people.
This overview will regularly be updated.
President. I would also like to underline the importance of the best interests of the child always being a fundamental consideration in actions and decisions that affect children.
Several of the rights arising from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child have been included in Article 104 of the Norwegian Constitution.
This includes the right of children to be heard in questions affecting them, that their views must be given weight in accordance with their age and maturity.
To ensure the right of children and young people to participate in matters that concern them, from local to national level, the government is currently strengthening the comprehensive and strategic work for children's participation at a national level.
President. We also thank several delegations to bringing forward recommendations on the optional protocol to the CRPD.
Norway has not ratified the Optional Protocol to the CPRD. Ratification was considered in a white paper to Parliament in 2016.
The conclusion was that the government did not propose ratification, but that the government would monitor the development of the committee’s practice and await clarification on the understanding of key provisions of the convention. The question of ratification has not been considered since.
Finally I would like to thank Panama for the possibility to adress Norways policy to prevent adolescent pregnancies. First of all I would like to emphasize that the numbers of teenage pregnancies in Norway are very low.
Ensuring sexual and reproductive health and rights for all is of high priority. Comprehensive sexual education is crucial, in Norway this is included in the National Curriculum and is a topic at several levels and many different school subjects.
Additionally we would like to mention that contraception for adolescents is free until the age of 20 years.