Oslo, Norway - Norway's Constitution requires that over half of the government cabinet are members of the state church - the Norwegian Helsinki Committee says this provision is a violation of human rights.
"It cannot be so that one has to join a certain religious community in order to be a cabinet minister. Not if there is to be true religious freedom," NHC assistant secretary general Gunnar M. Karlsen told newspaper Dagsavisen.
Karlsen believes it is time to revise Norway's Constitution.
Lawyer Njål Høstmælingen at the Center for Human Rights at the University of Oslo agrees with this interpretation.
"The Constitution's paragraph 12 is in conflict with both the United Nations convention on civil and political rights and the European Council's human rights convention," Høstmælingen said.
The new 'red-green' coalition government of the Labor, Socialist Left and Center parties is currently hammering out their common policy platform, but are likely to favor such a change.
Incoming prime minister Jens Stoltenberg (Labor) told Dagsavisen that he would await the conclusion of the state-church committee before making a final stance. Stoltenberg is not a member of the state church, but Socialist Left Party leader Kristin Halvorsen and Center Party leader Åslaug Haga both are.