The Lund Report (Official title: "Dokument nr. 15 (1995-96) - Rapport til Stortinget fra kommisjonen som ble nedsatt av Stortinget for å granske påstander om ulovlig overvåking av norske borgere", in English: "Document no. 15 (1995-96) - Report to the Storting from the commission which was appointed in order to investigate allegations of illegal surveillance of Norwegian citizens") was presented to the
Norwegian Parliament
The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years bas ...
on 28 March 1996. It was produced by the so-called Lund Commission, which had been appointed on 1 February 1994 and consisted of Supreme Court Justice
Ketil Lund
Ketil Lund (born 14 October 1939) is a Norwegian judge.
He was born in Oslo as a son of barrister and director Bernt Bjelke Lund (1898–1956) and Irlin Sommerfelt (1902–1974). He is a paternal grandson of Jens Michael Lund. From 1963 to 1967 ...
(chairman), lawyer
Regine Ramm Bjerke, professor and former politician
Berge Furre, Major General
Torkel Hovland Torkel is a Nordic masculine given name that may refer to
*Torkel Andreas Trønnes (born 1925), Norwegian automobile advocate
*Torkel Franzén (1950–2006), Swedish academic
*Torkel Halvorsen Aschehoug (1822–1909), Norwegian philosopher of law, e ...
and Gender Equality Ombud
Ingse Stabel.
Reidar T. Larsen and
Vegard Holm were also proposed as member of the commission, but a majority of the Norwegian Parliament rejected this.
The report reveals extensive surveillance of
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
communists
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
,
socialists
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the eco ...
and individuals and groups which the
Norwegian Police Security Agency
The Norwegian Police Security Service (, ) is the police security agency of Norway. The agency was previously known as ''POT'' (' or Police Surveillance Agency), the name change was decided by the Parliament of Norway on 2 June 2001.
History an ...
regarded to represent a threat to
national security. It also criticizes several issues in relation to the secret services:
*The intimate collaboration between the security agency and the
Norwegian Labour Party
*Registrations contrary to binding guidelines
*Registrations on the basis of old attitudes
*Unclear responsibilities
Even though an addendum to the report discusses the relationship between the work of the surveillance service and
human rights
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
, the framework as such is not a theme for the report.
The report shows that the illegal surveillance first and foremost has focused on the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
, the
Socialist People's Party, the
Workers' Communist Party, and the
Socialist Left Party, as well as organizations which were assumed to be in close contact with these parties, such as
Nei til Atomvåpen (No to Nuclear Weapons),
Sambandet Norge-Sovjetunionen (Norway-Soviet Union Association), the
Norwegian Palestine Committee, the
Women's Front of Norway and the
Norwegian Solidarity Committee for Vietnam. Right-wing extremist groups are also mentioned in relation to the threat image, but nothing in the report indicates that illegal surveillance against these milieus took place.
An
open hearing took place in the Storting following the report. Here former Prime Minister
Kåre Willoch
Kåre Isaachsen Willoch (; 3 October 1928 – 6 December 2021) was a Norwegian politician who served as the 30th prime minister of Norway from 1981 to 1986 and as leader of the Conservative Party from 1970 to 1974. He previously served as the ...
among others defended the surveillance of the Workers' Communist Party with the assertion that this was an illegal organization, a view which was gainsayed by experts. The hearing and the conditions surrounding it led to the departure from the cabinet by among others minister for oil and energy, former minister of justice,
Grete Faremo
Grete Faremo (born 16 June 1955) is a Norwegian politician, lawyer and business leader. From August 2014 to May 2022, she held the post of Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). ...
. No-one has been held legally responsible for the illegalities, however, the Storting voted to establish a law about right to look into the files. Even though the
Innsynsutvalget, which is the authority which decides who shall be allowed to look into the material, proposed to make the law permanent, the time limit for applying for permissions to look into the files expired on 31 December 2002.
Individuals who have suffered serious damage because of registration in violation with official guidelines or surveillance, have been able to apply for damages up to 100,000
NOK.
Also in other countries the ways of the surveillance services have been subject of scrutiny, but outside of the former
Soviet bloc few countries have taken this as far as Norway has.
References
Sources
Lund-rapportenby Arne Jørgensen
by
Erling Folkvord
Erling Folkvord (born 15 June 1949) is a Norwegian politician for the Red party, and a former member of the Parliament of Norway. A revolutionary socialist, he was one of the leading members of the Workers' Communist Party and the Red Electora ...
Rett, makt og overvåkningby Erik Oddvar Eriksen
Mappeinnsyn til besværby
Ronald Bye
Ronald Joseph Bye (23 November 1937 – 24 September 2018) was a Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group ...
Organisasjonen mot politisk overvåkning- lecture notes by
Torstein Hjellum Hysj!- editorial in
Dag og Tid
Dag, or variant forms, may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''DAG'' (American TV series), 2000–2001
* ''Dag'' (Norwegian TV series), 2010–2015
* ''DAG'' (newspaper), a former free Dutch newspaper
* DAG (band), an American funk band
* D ...
{{in lang, no
Cold War history of Norway
Politics of Norway
Intelligence operations
Cold War documents
Labour Party (Norway)
Political scandals in Norway