V

REVERSED BURDEN OF EVIDENCE

- The beginning of the end for Norwegian justice

On the 19.april 2005 the Norwegian parliament passed a new law on demand from the "kommunal" committee. It has been named "the discrimination act".The new law addresses various sides of discrimination and regulates among other things employers and landlords, and represents the end of the right to freely decide who to hire or rent out to. For a vast period of time the Norwegian government has been worried about its own population’s reluctancy to act according to the political correct guidelines superimposed on them through extensive propaganda. The committee has therefore produced a draft for a new resolution which was passed as mentioned above. Only the Progressive party voted against the draft, which means that the parties Høyre and Venstre which claim to be liberal have taken part in a substantial reduction of their voter’s freedom. However, the committee and the parliament were not satisfied by bringing to life a regular law. Therefore the principle of innocence till proven guilty was abandoned for the first time in Norway since suspected witches were prosecuted under the Danish king Christian IV almost 400 years ago. This marks a new era in Norwegian law, in which the defendant must prove his or hers innocence or face punishment. Conveniently this is labelled "divided demand of evidence". The resolution that is to be the foundation of the new law states:

"The department proposes that there shall be a general rule of divided burden of proof in civilian law following the discrimination act. In those cases there is reason to believe that discrimination has taken place, the court shall treat it as a proven fact, unless the defendant can prove that such discrimination did not take place. Such a regulation will give the act efficiency in preventing discrimination, and will help assure that the intentions of the act are met. It is also proposed that divided burden of proof be used in cases where anyone claims to be have been the victim of retribution"

Furthermore, the suspected party is obligated to supply the other applicants with "some information" about the hiring/renting process. What is to be understood by "some information" is not clarified in the proposal, except that it is limited to education and prior experience. If this is in violation with other Norwegian laws regarding the protection private information the department does not comment.

"The department can not see that such obligation to provide information is an unreasonable burden for the employer. The department emphasize that employers that do not hire on inadequate grounds by such an obligation can free themselves of any suspicion."

In other words, Norwegian employers should consider themselves lucky to be offered this opportunity to show themselves as honest and multiculturally trustworthy.

The only fragment of Norwegian life excluded from this law is family life.

"The department proposes that the law shall be valid for all functions of society where discrimination on basis of ethnicity, religion e.t.c. can be found. Family life and personal relationships are excluded."

Thus; Norwegians still have their right to free election of partner.

(Conflict 24.04.05)