Principles for Union of Education Norway’s international work

The international work carried out by the Union of Education Norway (UEN) is embedded in a set of principles. Our goal is to lobby the authorities, build networks and share knowledge both at home and abroad.

Download Principles for Unio of Education Norway`s international work

Read the norwegian version: Prinsipper for vårt arbeid internasjonalt

UEN’s international work should help bolster the union as a united and strong organisation. Our policies and values should inform our efforts to create a fair and inclusive society both nationally and internationally.


Principles for Union of Education Norway’s international work

• UEN is working to win support for the same policies locally, nationally and internationally
• UEN’s international work should be based on decisions made by the UEN national
congress and Education International (EI) congresses
• All domestic and international co-operation involving UEN should promote, develop and
reinforce UEN as a united, strong and influential organisation
• UEN should actively use its membership in Education International,
the Nordic Teachers’ Council (NLS) and Unio to influence, obtain information and
participate in knowledge-sharing
• Issues and policy areas at all levels of the organisation should adopt an international
perspective where appropriate and significant
• Employee reps should ascertain when it is relevant to incorporate an international
perspective into issues and policy areas at their respective organisational levels
• UEN’s governing documents should take an international perspective where relevant
• UEN should be familiar with and influence the Norwegian authorities’ international policies where appropriate
• UEN shall be familiar with and, in partnership with others, influence international processes and tendencies that may come to affect Norwegian education policy and social development

The international work carried out by the Union of Education Norway (UEN) is embedded in a set of principles. Our goal is to lobby the authorities, build networks and share knowledge both at home and abroad.


UEN’s international work should help bolster the union as a united and strong organisation. Our policies and values should inform our efforts to create a fair and inclusive society both nationally and internationally.


Stronger together

To achieve our goals, we will be working with others who share our objectives and values. We can achieve more when we work together.

As a part of the organised labour movement, we want to help reach the sustainable development goals.

One of our objectives is to enable our members and reps to identify correlations between local, national and international policies. Such insights will help boost UEN both domestically and internationally.

The same policy at home and abroad

We must respect national cultures and contexts. However, this does not mean that we should compromise our own policies. We remain steadfast in our fight for the right to a good public education for all, the right to organise and decent work. The ethical platform of the teaching profession should also form the basis of all our policies, statements and lobbying – including abroad.

We must promote the representative voice of our teachers, and we want to help increase awareness of the need for co-determination, input and involvement from organised teachers.

Domestic and global lobbying

A considerable amount of  UEN’s international work takes place in Norway. UEN aims to lobby the Norwegian authorities and influence the policies they promote in international forums.

We must maintain a presence in domestic and international arenas where we can build networks and alliances and provide input to national authorities. This work is usually co-ordinated with Education International, the Nordic Teachers’ Council (NLS) and our confederation Unio.