countries - Norway

The information contained on this page was compiled in April 2009 by our country team.

Contact:
Jan Tøssebro
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Department of Social Work and Health Science
Dragvoll, block 11, level 5, room 11 543
N-7491 Trondheim           

Email: jant@svt.ntnu.no
Web:
http://www.ntnu.no/disability
http://www.samforsk.no
Centre for Disability and Society

The full text can be downloaded here.

The key national bodies with responsibility for disability law and policy implementation include:

Several departments in the Norwegian government have responsibility for disability law and policy, according to the principle that each department has responsibility for disability policy in their area. However, the Ministry of Children and Equality (Barne- og likestilllingsdepartementet) co-ordintates disability policy.

Norway has signed the United Nations Convention  but not the Optional Protocol.

Important national laws, policies and strategies concerning disabled people include:

The question of ratification and signing the optional protocol for the UN Convention is under consideration and a decision is expected in 2009.

Key features of the national system include (including adapted items from the MISSOC database December 2008):

Disability benefits

The number of people on disability pensions (working age only) has increased gradually since the 1960s. The number was 159,725 in 1980, 264,353 in 1999 and 295,072 in 2008.

Data on population indicate that:

The number of disabled people varies considerably between surveys due to different definitions. According to the Labour force surveys 15% of the population (aged 16-66) has a limiting chronic illness or disability. Other surveys tend to find that 17-20% of the population has a disability or long-standing illness, but there are examples of surveys with broad definitions counting about 25% of the population as having an impairment.

The source that is most likely to be comparable with other European countries is the EU-SILC survey.

The Nordic Network on Disability Research (NNDR): the main network among disability researchers in the Nordic countries.

The Norwegian Network on Disability Research (NoNDR): the national network of NNDR in Norway:

Scandinavian Journal on Disability Research (SJDR): the main Nordic journal in this field of research, which publishes articles in English. It welcomes articles from other countries as well

The national organisation representing disabled people at the European level (European Disability Forum) is:

The Norwegian Federation of Organisations of Disabled People (FFO), which represents 70 member associations, with a total 325 000 individual members.

Other significant national organisations of disabled people include: 

Useful sources of more detailed information about the situation of disabled people, and the policies and support available, include:

Annual 'Status reports‘ from the National Centre for Documentation on Disability (from 2009 part of the Equality and Anti-Discrimination Ombud). The 2008 Status Report is available online (in Norwegian).