A female Prime Minister served for 9 of 10 years between 1986 and 1996. The current Prime Minister appointed women to lead 9 of the 18 ministries. The Parliament is headed by a woman. In practice the Sameting has been most interested in protecting the group's language and cultural rights and in influencing decisions on resources and lands where Sami are a majority. Section 4 Governmental Attitude Regarding International and Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human Rights A number of human rights groups operate without government restriction, investigating and publishing their findings on human rights cases.
Government officials are very cooperative and responsive to their views.
When the current government took office in 1997, the Prime Minister appointed a Minister of Development, Cooperation and Human Rights. In December the Human Rights Minister presented the Government's Human Rights Report for 1998, the first report of its kind in Norway. The purpose of the report is to present an overview of the Government's efforts to further human rights domestically and abroad. The Constitution prohibits discrimination based on race, sex, religion, disability, language, or social status, and the Government enforces this prohibition in practice. In 1997 there were approximately 30,000 contacts by telephone by women with crisis action centers and 4,360 overnight stays by women at shelters.