The Norwegian Women’s Lobby (NWL) works to eliminate all forms of discrimination against all girls and women. NWL is inclusive and broadly representative of the women’s rights movement in Norway.
NWL was founded in 2014 by the key women’s rights NGOs in Norway and some of the country’s leading experts on women’s rights, and has ten member organisations. NWL brings together both the key women’s organisations and the leading experts on women’s rights in Norway. NWL has a key function in monitoring the implementation of the CEDAW Convention in Norway.
The CEDAW committee’s understanding of women as a complex and multidimensional category means that both lesbian women and trans women are protected by the convention.
Anne Hellum, Professor of Public Law and member of NWL’s Expert Committee
NWL is inclusive and works to represent the interests of all those who identify as girls and women. NWL understands discrimination against girls and women in an intersectional perspective and is against, among other things, racism, homophobia, transphobia and ableism.
The establishment of NWL was initiated by Torild Skard, Margunn Bjørnholt and Karin Bruzelius from the Norwegian Association for Women’s Rights. NWL’s establishment was in accordance with the recommendations of the government-appointed Gender Equality Commission of 2010, which was chaired by Hege Skjeie. The Norwegian Women’s Lobby is modelled after the European Women’s Lobby. Our member organisations constitute the core of the women’s movement of Norway and have been championing women’s rights since 1884. The Equality and Anti-Discrimination Ombud has described our founding organisations as “the very foundation of the efforts to advance women’s rights in Norway.”
– Finally! It is very important that so many women’s organisations now unite to work for a strengthened and better gender equality situation in Norway
Sunniva Ørstavik, Equality and Anti-Discrimination Ombud, 2014
The Executive Board is the political leadership of NWL. The Expert Committee is an independent body of experts tasked with making policy recommendations in fields that affect girls and women and gender equality. NWL prepares shadow reports on Norway’s implementation of the CEDAW Convention to the CEDAW Committee.
Member organisations
- Norwegian Association for Women’s Rights
- Norwegian Women’s Public Health Association
- Norwegian Female Lawyers’ Association
- Legal Aid for Women
- Secretariat of the Shelter Movement
- WILPF Norway
- Women’s Front of Norway
- Feminist Group Ottar
- Nordic Women’s University
- MiRA Resource Centre for Black, Immigrant and Refugee Women
- Sámi Women’s Network