Eritrea, Erik Stephansen | Norwegian-Eritreans should have the same rights as the rest of society

Dear Erik Stephansen.

We at the Norwegian-Eritrean Cooperation Organization have carefully considered your post, which raises important questions about the treatment of cases concerning minority groups and their rights.

This is the post: Some of these Emilie Enger Mehl actually has to send home

The purpose of the recent demonstration, where over 1,000 Norwegian Eritreans took to the streets of Oslo, was to deepen our perspective on what the proposed action plan means for us as individuals.

The proposed action plan, based on threatens not only our freedom of expression, but also our right to celebrate our cultural and national identity.

Here you can read more Proba reports

By limiting our opportunity to participate in national celebrations such as National Day and Martyrs’ Day, as well as carrying our flag, we are undeservedly stigmatized as regime-friendly.

This is a direct threat to our freedom and equality as citizens of Norway.

Not a support for the “regime”

The action plan undermines our sense of belonging and community in society. It forces us to suppress our identity for fear of stigmatization and reprisals.

Our participation as volunteers and our integration into the local community are part of our identity and our contribution to society.

We wanted to point out that our participation in national markings and expressions of our cultural identity should not be regarded as support for a “regime”, as is often used by politicians in their speech about us, but as a natural part of our integration into the Norwegian society.

We will particularly highlight the political arguments against an action plan aimed only at one population group, including:

1. The risk to establish a dangerous precedent that endangers the rights of all minority groups. This may contravene section 185 of the Criminal Code, which protects the individual’s rights and equality.

2. The opportunity to include people from countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, and other countries with political persecution or conflict that have forced people to seek protection in Norway. This may be contrary to the principles of protection and fair treatment laid down in section 28 of the Refugee Convention and section 3 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

3. The concern because the action plan will limit the general freedom of expression and the rights of all minority groups, and not just the specific group it targets. This is contrary to the principles in section 185 of the Criminal Code and section 4 of OMOD (Act prohibiting discrimination on grounds of ethnicity, religion etc.).

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Defends fundamental rights

We would also like to highlight an important input that was given during the demonstration.

An action plan should be based on verified and quality-checked research or investigations, which is lacking in the Proba report. The report also does not include the affected parties, such as the Eritrean associations and religious communities. There should be an equal standard or yardstick for the treatment of minority groups and the majority in the society we live in in 2024.

We at The Norwegian-Eritrean Cooperation Organization in Norway want to emphasize that our commitment is not about being political, but rather about defending basic rights and the freedom to express oneself.