THE PRESSURE AGAINST NORWAY IS INCREASING. DOZENS OF FAMILIES FROM EUROPEAN UNION ARE CALLING FOR ACTION AGAINST BARNEVERNET.
Up to 38 families from Norway and other countries have turned to the European Parliament, Pope Francis, the UN and other global institutions and asked them for help in the cases of children taken by the Norwegian authorities, writes a czech newspaper. Eva Michalakova (from Czech Republic), whose two sons have been taken from her by Norwegian Barnevernet, also joined the initiative in a form of a common letter.
According to parents, Norway is acting unlawfully against citizens of European Union. European authorities should take action in their defense. Jordanka Jirásková, who helped to write an open letter to the institutions that was released in media on Wednesday, also announced a new initiative in order to help affected families: «We contacted several institutions. We also wrote to the Pope and the organization Human Rights Watch.»
Jordanka Jirásková pointed to fact that Norway was convicted in 50 cases from violations of human rights and children’s rights, in front of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Eva Michaláková also filed a complaint, but the judges refused to deal with the case.
«We therefore feel that there is no other chance but to turn to those institutions and begin to do something about it. Parents are willing to provide all evidence of the trivial reasons for which their children were taken from them, » added Jordanka Jirásková.
Although one of the letter signatories is also Eva Michaláková, the initiative is not only to support her case. It includes 38 families from Norway, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, USA, Romania, Brazil, Russia, India, Turkey and Iraq. The letter to all concerned institutions contains a brief enumeration of children and their ages, but not the reasons of their removal from the parents. The letter is also available with the editors of iDNES.cz.
«I would like to emphasize that the number of all concerned families is not only 38, there are thousands of them. I personally know of around 150 families, but they are terribly frightened. The letter was originally signed by more people, but later, after our common agreement, they withdrew their signatures because the parents began to fear that it will affect them in a way that they will never be allowed to see their children again», said Jordanka Jirásková.
The initiative to support families was put together through social networks. Dozens of volunteers who are in contact with affected families in different countries, also helped to support the initiative. On 30th May this year the first international demonstration against the practices of the Norwegian social services Barnevernet took place in front of the Norwegian embassies in more than a dozen of European cities as well as in Norway alone, where people gathered to support the affected families.
Leave a Reply