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Smoking declared a basic human right
iol.co.za ^
| April 14, 2004
| iol.co.za
Posted on 05/01/2004 8:59:43 AM PDT by RogerFGay
Oslo, Norway - A Norwegian county has declared smoking to be a basic human right in a dispute over a ban imposed on one town's workers.
Levanger, a township of about 18 000 people in central Norway, banned all smoking by municipal employees during working hours on or off city property at the beginning of the year.
The ruling, which made national news Wednesday, came after three opponents of the rule, all local council members from the right-wing Party of Progress, asked the county governor's office to assess the ban's legality.
In a letter to the city dated Tuesday, the county declared the ban invalid because it violates the European Human Rights Convention.
It said the city can ban smoking on its property, but not, for example, if a worker was driving their own car or on private property.
The county cited a section of the convention that protects citizens' private lives.
The letter said "a total ban on smoking during working hours is a measure that is not reasonable in relation to the goal of the ban."
Birger Meinhardt and Steinar Holten, two of the politicians who lodged the complaint, celebrated the ruling on the steps of the Levanger town hall by lighting up the biggest cigars they could find.
"Just like before January 1, 2004," Holten told the Troender-Avisa newspaper as he puffed on the cigar. - Sapa-AP
TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: chimneypeople; humanrights; pufflist; smoking; stinkystinky
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1
posted on
05/01/2004 8:59:44 AM PDT
by
RogerFGay
To: anguish; AzSteven; Bartholomew Roberts; bc2; Charles Henrickson; duke_h3; Eurotwit; fdsa2; ...
Swedish ping for story from Norway
2
posted on
05/01/2004 9:00:43 AM PDT
by
RogerFGay
To: RogerFGay
A Norwegian county has declared smoking to be a basic human right... - Good!
To: RogerFGay
Again, a right-wing party standing up for individual rights!
4
posted on
05/01/2004 9:02:54 AM PDT
by
Bismarck
To: RogerFGay
"Smokem if ya got em"
5
posted on
05/01/2004 9:04:34 AM PDT
by
mylife
(The roar of the masses could be farts)
To: Bismarck
Isn't it funny how they took the label "progressive"? A lot more appropriate than those claiming to "progressive" in this country...
To: RogerFGay
Calling smoking a basic human right is just as silly as calling gay marriage a basic human right.
7
posted on
05/01/2004 9:07:46 AM PDT
by
AM2000
To: RogerFGay
That is just stupid. Wanting something doesn't mean you have a basic human right to it.
8
posted on
05/01/2004 9:08:52 AM PDT
by
Grig
To: AM2000
Calling smoking a basic human right is just as silly as calling gay marriage a basic human right.>>>
You notice that the declaration does not restrict itself to tobacco. Duuuuuuude.
To: RogerFGay; *puff_list; Just another Joe; SheLion; CSM; Mears; lockjaw02; qam1; metesky; ...
PUFF!!!!!!!!!!
10
posted on
05/01/2004 9:09:33 AM PDT
by
Gabz
(Those people with no honor have no idea how to treat honorable people.)
To: RogerFGay
I hadn't thought about it before but, going off my definition of Individual Human Rights - that an Individual Human Right is anything you can do which doesn't require the effort or involvement of another person - smoking is a Right.But, like everyone other Individual Human Right, smoking must be tempered by a social contract.
To: Welsh Rabbit
True... here hardcore Marxists who have wet dreams with Lenin call themselves "progressives". How the hell can you be progressive if you are constantly trying to implement dated economical systems that have consistently failed throughout history? There's a question the red vermin hates to answer...
12
posted on
05/01/2004 9:12:01 AM PDT
by
Bismarck
To: AM2000
"Calling smoking a basic human right is just as silly as calling gay marriage a basic human right."
Wow! A thread that combines Puffs and Poofs.
13
posted on
05/01/2004 9:12:49 AM PDT
by
Socratic
(Yes, there is method in the madness.)
To: AM2000
What an ugly comparison.
This is an issue of over intrusion in to private lives and private property by government.
14
posted on
05/01/2004 9:15:27 AM PDT
by
Gabz
(Those people with no honor have no idea how to treat honorable people.)
To: AM2000
Calling smoking a basic human right is just as silly as calling gay marriage a basic human right. LOL
15
posted on
05/01/2004 9:15:37 AM PDT
by
Wheee The People
(Oo ee oo ah ah, ting tang, walla-walla bing bang. Oo ee oo ah ah, ting tang, walla-walla bing bang!)
To: Grig; AM2000
True, but this was really about the town council's right to forbid something - and that is certainly not a basic right!
16
posted on
05/01/2004 9:17:02 AM PDT
by
ScaniaBoy
(Part of the Right Wing Research & Attack Machine)
To: Gabz
Breathing air is a basic human right. If someone wants to breathe in air mixed with hot smoke, that "right" is tempered by the right of other people to breathe in plain air.
Do you know how many people have asthma that is triggered by breathing in other peoples' cigarette smoke?
Just a question.
I am not an anti-smoking Nazi. I just like to breathe plain air and stay alive. In public places (airports, post offices, and so on) smoking should be banned. Otherwise, many people with breathing difficulties could not go to those places.
Private businesses, that's another story. If they want to allow smoking, fine, they can get along with a lot of customiers who will choose to patronize non-smoking establishments.
17
posted on
05/01/2004 9:26:01 AM PDT
by
little jeremiah
(...men of intemperate minds can not be free. Their passions forge their fetters.)
To: little jeremiah
I am fully aware of the problems of those with asthma.....this has nothing to do with that.
The county ruled the city could ban smoking on city property.....but could not forbid their employees to smoke in their own vehicles or on private property where it is permitted.
The county ruling was that the city was over stepping its bounds in regard to private property.
18
posted on
05/01/2004 9:29:54 AM PDT
by
Gabz
(Those people with no honor have no idea how to treat honorable people.)
To: RogerFGay
If this is supposed to be a basic human right, then they have no right to sue tobacco companies~
19
posted on
05/01/2004 9:31:49 AM PDT
by
Dr. Marten
(Treason...How can such a small word mean so little to so many?)
To: RogerFGay
I wish Irish local government had that kind of power, we're so ****ing centralized here (and I don't think we're centralized to Dublin, but to Brussels at this stage)
Norwegians have a wisdom the rest of Europe obviously lacks-they kept the **** out of the Eurocratic Neosocialist Politburo that is the European Union.
P.S, I'm a smoker, but I don't believe you have a right to smoke on someone else's property without their permission, but Government has not the right to ban it either on private property
20
posted on
05/01/2004 9:38:55 AM PDT
by
Irish_Thatcherite
(Centerism mean that the state grows more slowly- gives Liberty a slow and painful death)
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