PRESS RELEASE
January 5, 2016
Demonstrations in front of Norwegian embassies around the world are about to disclose human rights violations in Norway throughout January
A spontaneous protest organised by parents against the practices of the Norwegian social service Barnevernet is about to begin in Oslo today. More protests in front of Norwegian embassies in other capitals both in Europe and overseas, including Washington D.C., are going to happen throughout January.
Following major demonstrations that took place last June in several European cities a new wave of outrage has been sparked by a recent case of a Norwegian-Romanian Bondariu family. Barnevernet took all their five children in November, including a fully breastfed three months old baby (more information below).
Similar discontent followed a case of a Slovak-Norwegian family, from which Barnevernet took away a fully breastfed daughter exclusively because of mother’s handicap – the mother has impaired hearing. This family is now waiting for the appeal procedure. Another case known internationally is the case of Eva Michaláková, who has been fighting Barnevernet for over four years in order to have her two sons, taken away on grounds of a later unconfirmed accusation against the children’s father, who was accused of sexual molestation of them, returned. Like in these cases, more Norwegian, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian and other families are fighting to get their children back.
The international wave of protest has been organised not only by the Norwegians themselves, but also by the citizens of countries of origin of other affected families. Even people in countries whose citizens were unaffected by the social services, but where the Norwegian practices massively breaching human rights are known, are joining the protest.
“After last year’s major protests that were organised by the Petition Committee for the Support of Michalák Family comes a series of smaller spontaneous protests around the world. People are going to gather symbolically in front of Norwegian embassies in order to publicly call attention to ongoing systematic human rights violations in Norway and to support the affected families in their fight. Parents of children that have been taken away are no activists, but desperate common people, who only want their children back”, said Jordanka Jirásková, a Czech columnist involved in international chat rooms connecting the affected families.
The protest are to happen in following cities (list valid as of January 5, more places will follow):January 5 – Norway
January 8 – Washington D.C., United States
January 8 – United Kingdom
January 8 – Ireland
January 8 – Spain
January 9 – Romania
January 9 – Belgium
January 9 – Germany
January 9 – Canada
January 9– Italy
January 10 – Spain
January 16 – Czech Republic
January 16 – Russia
January 16–Latvia
January 17 – India
January 23 – Slovakia
January 30 – Poland
Concerning Bondariu case:
The case began by the school principal informing social services that the family is overly religious (the family is very devoutly Christian) with a recommendation that Barnevernet was to consult the family. Instead of consulting them, Barnevernet decided to take their children away, including a three years old, fully breastfed baby. Later the social workers added accusation of using physical punishments. The interesting point is that the school principal refused to cooperate with Barnevernet after the children were taken. There was no investigation carried out in the family itself prior to the decision to take the children away.
The children were divided between three foster families and have to attend a different school. The parents have minimal allowed contact with them – the baby can be visited twice a week, two older boys can be visited by the mother only once a week and the two oldest daughters were not seen by their parents since November 16.
Unlike other families that respect Barnevernet’s ban on publishing any information about their case, the Bondariu have stood against the social services’ decision immediately. They started publishing information and pictures from their family albums on-line and fight for their children in front of the public.
The father, a Romanian national, is an IT engineer and the mother, a Norwegian national, is a nurse. The children have Romanian nationality.
More information about the case is on the Facebook page “Norway, return the children to the Bondariu family”, where a press release containing details about the case has been published.
For more information please contact:
Jordanka Jirásková
email: jordanita@seznam.cz
For more information please see:
Facebook page“Norway, return children to the Bodnariu family”
www.stopbarnevernet.com
Facebook page “Česko, vraťme děti rodičům” (Czech Republic, return the children to their parents)
Daniel Bodnariu
email: Daniel.bodnariu@gmail.com
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