AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2016/17

state, were forcibly evicted when state
authorities set fire to and demolished their
homes with a bulldozer. On 11 November,
hundreds of residents were forcibly evicted
from another nearby waterfront community,
Ebute Ikate, in Lagos state.
WOMEN’S RIGHTS
In September, the Gender and Equal
Opportunities Bill to eliminate all forms of
discrimination against women passed its
second reading in the Senate. Although
Nigeria ratified the CEDAW in 1985, it was yet
to domesticate the Convention as part of the
national law.
RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL,
TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE
The law prohibiting samesex marriages
remained in force. Police continued to arrest
LGBTI people. Men perceived to be gay were
attacked by mobs and were blackmailed and
targeted for extortion.
CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
In May, Bayelsa state passed the Child Rights
Law bringing to 23 the number of states that
have enacted the law. In addition, the State
House of Assembly in Enugu state passed
the law in August; the Governor was yet to
give his assent.
NORWAY
Kingdom of Norway
Head of state: King Harald V
Head of government: Erna Solberg
The Immigration Law was amended to
introduce significant restrictions on access
to asylum. A new law granting transgender
people the right to legal gender recognition
was passed. Serious concerns remained
about rape and other violence against
women.
REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS
In April, the government tabled 40
amendments to the Immigration Law to
restrict access to asylum. This was in line
with the Minister of Immigration and
Integration’s aim of ensuring that Norway had
“the strictest refugee policy in Europe”. The
proposals included granting police at the
border – rather than the Immigration
Directorate and the Immigration Appeal
Board – the power to assess whether a
person is in need of international protection.
They also included severe restrictions on the
right to family reunification and the rights of
asylum-seeking children. The most restrictive
elements of the proposed legislation did not
pass; but the package approved by
Parliament in June, which began to be
implemented in August, marked a significant
retrogression on Norway’s approach to
international protection. The new provisions
included a requirement for refugees applying
for permanent residency to demonstrate
economic self-sufficiency for 12 months and
a “crisis mechanism” allowing expulsions at
the border when faced with large numbers of
arriving asylum-seekers. As of August, 84
children in families whose claims for asylum
had been rejected were detained together
with their adult family members at the
Trandum police immigration detention centre
near Oslo Airport Gardermoen, pending
return to their country of origin.
In early December, 40 young male Afghan
nationals, some of whom claimed to be under
18, were returned to Afghanistan as part of
the government’s policy to return Afghan
asylum-seekers.
RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL,
TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE
In June, Parliament adopted a new law on
legal gender recognition, granting
transgender people aged 16 or older the right
to legal gender recognition on the basis of
self-identification. Children aged between six
and 16 can apply for legal gender recognition
with the consent of their parents or
guardians. Violence motivated by
discriminatory attitudes towards transgender
people was still not classified as a hate crime
in the Penal Code.
Amnesty International Report 2016/17 281