Redress for Institutional Abuse of Children: The Unique Case of Norway

Daly, Kathleen and Victoria Meyer (2026). Redress for Institutional Abuse of Children: The Unique Case of Norway. International Redress Project Special Report. Revised and updated May 2026. Brisbane: School of Criminology and Criminal Justice and Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University.

Norway is unique in the world of redress with its complexity, fragmentation, and intensity of deliberative and administrative activity. This report synthesises the historical and socio-political contexts of Norway’s responses to institutional abuse of children and related historical/policy wrongs, and it shows the outcomes of national and municipal redress schemes for marginalised groups (Sámi and Kven, Romani/Tater, and war children and their mothers) and care leavers. Norway has had more redress schemes for institutional abuse than any other country in the world: in addition to the national gratia scheme payment, it has had 72 municipal redress schemes.