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From apartheid to Gaza and Ukraine: Norway's unwavering stand for justice in a divided world

Espen Barth Eide
By Espen Barth Eide
17 Oct 2024
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The global community needs to pick up the rulebook and remember the fundamental principles of international law and human rights, and stand up for what is right.

Forty-five years ago I joined the labour youth movement in Norway. My first national position was on the board of the Norwegian anti-apartheid movement. From the early 1980s I participated in daily chants of “Free Nelson Mandela”, and we held meetings and lobbied for sanctions against the apartheid regime.

We live in a complex world. Having spent 60 years on this planet, I don’t think there’s ever been a time with such a complex set of realities. We have more wars, both internal and between countries. In addition, the number of regional hotspots is rising, and geopolitical competition has re-emerged substantially.  

I’m proud of the fact that in Norway there were many who stood up against apartheid. The anti-apartheid Struggle was a cause that resonated greatly with the Norwegian people. We felt that apartheid was fundamentally irreconcilable with values and principles of the UN charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other key international principles.

The world should simply not accept systematic discrimination between people as the apartheid regime was predicated on. So, we took a clear position of supporting the liberation movements. It followed the lead of the liberation movements in South Africa and the region. We were not neutral, we were not impartial, and we did not want to negotiate a compromise.

Longstanding ties


My recent visit to South Africa and the excellent meeting with the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Mr Ronald Lamola, confirmed the solid and longstanding ties between Norway and South Africa. Despite the geographic distance between Norway and South Africa our analysis of global challenges and how to overcome them is remarkably similar.    

A good starting point for navigating this complex world is to look at the principles and rules that the international community agreed on when we came out of the biggest global war ever, the World War 2.

The founding document of the United Nations, the UN Charter, codified the major principles of international relations, from sovereign equality of states to the prohibition of the use of force in international relations, except for acts of self-defence or where the Security Council authorised military action.

A few years later, we got a milestone document in the history of human rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Protocol, which say that individual human rights are universal.

When we’re navigating today’s conflicts, we must adhere to these principles. We must avoid double standards. I think it’s a fair observation that there are double standards in the world. Double standards are not twice as good as one standard. Norms are not a menu from which you choose when it suits you — they should be applied equally across the board. That’s what Norway did when we stood up against apartheid. We took a position.  

When Norway is standing up for Palestine, we do the same because key principles of international law are being violated.

After Hamas’ brutal terror attack on Israeli citizens, Israel had a right to defend itself. But that exercise of power is constrained by international law. All parties need to take active action to protect civilians, and to allow for humanitarian access.   

Norway was one of the first countries in the West to say very clearly that what we are seeing in Gaza are military operations that do not comply with the founding principles of proportionality and distinction between combatants and civilians.

Ceasefire


We asked for a ceasefire at an early point, and we have stated that a Palestinian state is the only path to peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis alike. Many African countries, including South Africa, took the same position.

Norway will keep promoting peace in the Middle East, but not any peace. We need a peace that stops the fighting in Gaza, stops the attacks on Israel, stops the illegal occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and allows for the establishment of a viable two-state solution. 

Since the early 1990s, we have had the Oslo Accords, which have been unfulfilled. The idea has always been that there should be an Israeli state, which should be left in peace, and a Palestinian state that should also be left in peace. 

We must apply the same principles of international law to Ukraine and Russia. Here our position is also very clear. There is an aggressor and a victim. The aggressor is Russia.

Russia has been Norway’s neighbour for more than a thousand years without any conflict. Russia’s external aggression today is a result of its internal repression against democracy and human rights, the very ideas that got me involved in international politics in my youth.  

While Russia chose a path of increasing authoritarianism and suppression of democratic voices, Ukraine stands as a free, sovereign, independent country that has the right to choose its own path. Ukraine has the right to defend itself. Russia invaded Ukraine in a blatant violation of international law, including the UN Charter.

We must be consistent and principled. No country has more clearly engaged in double standards than Russia. In the afternoon Russia expresses their concerns over the killing of civilians in Gaza. The next morning, they kill civilians in Ukraine with their missiles, their bombs and their drones in a war of choice they started.  

If we really want to collaborate on preventing double standards, we must consider what standards we should hold ourselves and others to. And the rulebook is there, it’s called international law, and it includes the UN Charter, international humanitarian law and international human rights.

Geopolitically shifting landscape


Does it solve all problems? No, but it provides excellent guidance when navigating a geopolitically shifting landscape. 

We spend so much time on man-made conflicts that we don’t have the bandwidth we need to deal with the global challenges to humans and our planet. Issues like climate change, global health and poverty alleviation can only be solved if we work together.

So, a particular motivation for stopping the worst conflicts is that there are so many better things to do on this planet than to fight with each other.

That’s why we should all go back and look at the rulebook and the principles. Let’s be firm, principled and work together. DM

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