On 15 December 2021, the Supreme Regional Court ruled that a number of residents in Mjølnerparken have the right to bring legal action against the Ministry of the Interior and Housing regarding the measures in the "Ghetto Package". More specifically, the lawsuit concerns the Ministry of Interior and Housing's approval of a development plan for Mjølnerparken, which involves selling off the residents' homes.
The residents filed the lawsuit on 27 May 2020 and since then the Ministry of Interior and Housing has been trying to have the case dismissed. The Ministry held that the residents could not sue the Ministry because the Ministry had not prepared the development plan itself and because the decision to approve the development plan was not itself directed against the residents.
The Supreme Court has now rejected the Ministry's claim, reasoning that the residents are specifically and individually affected by the Ministry's approval of the development plan, which entails the sale of their homes. The Court states that it is of no importance that the development plan has not yet been implemented and that the residents have not been terminated, since termination is such an intrusive circumstance that the residents must be allowed to have the validity of the approval tested before it has reached that stage.
The "ghetto package" and the case against the Ministry of the Interior and Housing have received considerable international attention, and with the decision of the Supreme Court that the case against the Ministry of the Interior and Housing will continue, two UN Special Rapporteurs have now requested permission to intervene in the case in support of the Mjølnerpark residents.
The UN Special Rapporteurs are independent human rights experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council.
The two Rapporteurs who have submitted requests to intervene in the case are the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, Mr E. Tendayi Achiume, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal.
We are leading the case on behalf of the residents, with the support of the Open Society Justice Initiative and Almen Resistance, and are also assisting the UN Special Rapporteurs with their interventions.