Last year, Norway took a step forward by removing a law that prohibited people helping undocumented migrants. So from that angle there is progression concerning undocumented migrants in the country where the Nobel Peace Prize is distributed. But it’s moving just as slow as in the legislative system of its neighbour.

This is the first day of President Barack Obama’s new life. He now has one more Nobel Prize-medal than yesterday’s morning and even more expectations to live up to. Apart from closing down Guantánamo, integrating United States in some kind of global ecological process and changing the national social insurance system, he also has to convince the sceptics who don’t appreciate a president involved in several wars and conflicts as a appropriate choice of the Norwegian jury. He has a tough job.

In Oslo, Obama held his speech during the prize-ceremony. Obama is well-known for his rhetoric strengths and yesterday they played their part in a speech that made the Norwegian Princess cry of all the emotions and many people must have regret the eight lost years the world politics had with Obama’s predecessor.

The Third Way
One thing Obama discussed was the three ways the world had to choose to avoid wars and build a lasting peace. To obtain peace, the fundamental human rights must be respected. Society can rot from inside if there is an absence of hope. A society where human beings don’t have access to enough food, medicine and shelter to survive, is a society where the absence of hope will grow. Societies must give the children an education and care for the sick, the President said. Thus, it is not just a question of charity, but of security. A society has to be built on the principle of helping people in need.

Or else, it will rot from inside ; a phrase that describes the outcome from the situation when a state doesn’t respect every person’s fundamental right to health care. Sweden, for example. From outside known being a very generous country to foreigners. It’s true in a historic perspective, but nowadays from inside the situation could be described as rotten with a growing rejection of asylum seekers and still no rights for undocumented migrants to get health care on the same premises as nationals.

Norway - a Rotten Country ? [1]
The even bigger tragedy in this is that the country where the Alfred Nobel Peace Prize is distributed every year – i. e. Norway, separated from Sweden in 1905 – the situation is perhaps even worse. Until 2008, it was illegal to help undocumented migrants : anyone giving health care or trying to make undocumented migrants’ social situation better could be reported to the police. The law was very confusing though so it was hard to be penalized for this. And fortunately, the law has changed now so that people from the Christian organisation Kirkens Bymission doesn’t have to be reported by the far right political parties as was the case before when they helped undocumented migrants. With the new law, there is a growing interest in Norway to organize help for the undocumented migrants.

Concerning Norway, Obama told the reporters that he would like to take his family there for a longer stay, but for this time he now had to return to Washington D.C. because he has a lot of work to do. He surely has. So has Norway and Sweden as well when it comes to respect the agreed International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights from 1966. It declares that “The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health”. This declaration is not respected now in the legislative system in Norway and Sweden. But it has to be. Otherwise, the societies might rot from inside.