The Norwegian Labour Party is considering introducing a third gender category on passports and other official documents.

The party's youth wing has said it would like a new category — 'hen' — created for people who identify as neither male ('han') nor female ('hun').

Labour, which is the largest party in Norway's parliament, had previously said it would consider the move in its 2017-2021 draft party programme.

Neighbour Sweden introduced 'hen' as an official category in April 2015.

Labour youth leader Mani Hussaini said Norwegians should be able to identify as whatever they want.

“I believe that all people should be allowed to live out their identity," he said, in an interview with state broadcaster NRK. "The law should adapt to reality rather than the other way around".

He added the new category would allow those who do not identify with the gender binary to live more openly.

"Those people who neither define themselves as male or female will now have a legal opportunity to get a third gender," he said.

‘Hen’ has been used in Sweden since 1966, as a pronoun to replace he or she when the gender of a person is not known.

Meet Thea, Norway's 12-year-old child bride Show all 4 1 /4 Meet Thea, Norway's 12-year-old child bride Meet Thea, Norway's 12-year-old child bride A Norwegian campaign highlighting the issue of child marriage has gained global attention after a blog seemingly written by a child bride-to-be went viral Courtesy of Plan Meet Thea, Norway's 12-year-old child bride The blog, apparently written by 12-year-old girl 'Thea', charts her thoughts and feelings towards her impending marriage to 37-year-old Geir. However, the blog was carefully created by Plan, an international aid organisation working on strengthening the girls’ rights, to bring home the issue of child brides Meet Thea, Norway's 12-year-old child bride ‘Thea’ introduces the blog by writing: “My name is Thea and I’m 12 years old and in about one month I will marry,” before going on to describe how she is preparing for her nuptials Meet Thea, Norway's 12-year-old child bride Plan’s country director Olaf Thommessen expressed how important it was to draw attention to a problem faced by thousands of girls every day. “We really wanted to bring home the issue and by creating a shock factor, we think we have really got peoples’ attention” “We have all kinds of people engaging, people who are not usually motivated or involved in these kinds of things – the response has been immense.”

But until recently citizens were required to identify as male or female in official documents. 'Hen' was only adopted by parliament two years ago, sparking controversy.