On 1 January 2006, the Equality and Anti-discrimination Ombud started its activities in Norway based on a new Anti-discrimination Ombud Act. The Ombud was established after an extended political process, which started in 2000 with the purpose of enhancing the efforts against discrimination as well as the rights of the Norwegian citizens. In all the Nordic countries there have either been initiated or implemented similar revisions of the gender equality and equal treatment legislation in order to provide better protection against discrimination and to have a more effective handling of complaints.
Norway’s leading efforts within the field of discrimination policy describe the trend away from a one-dimensional policy, i.e. the fact that legislation on one ground (e.g. ethnicity) shall be considered to be inadequate in order to combat the actual form of discrimination taking place. In the Nordic countries, gender equality as a policy area is currently developing from being closely connected to the conception of gender inequality to covering several, different social categories. This may be seen in the light of recent theories within the field of gender research, e.g. intersectionality, which in the gender equality policies of several Nordic and European countries are included in different ways as a question of “diversity” and “equal opportunities for all”.
On the following pages you can find more information on these recent developments and download a report on multi-dimensional discrimination policies in the Nordic countries.
