Educated as a physician, Brundtland joined the Labour Party and entered the government in 1974 asMinister of the Environment. She became the first female prime minister of Norway[1] on 4 February 1981, but left office on 14 October 1981; she returned as prime minister on 9 May 1986 and served until 16 October 1989. She finally returned for her third term on 3 November 1990. After her surprise resignation as prime minister in 1996, she became an international leader insustainable development andpublic health, and served asdirector-general of the World Health Organization and as UNspecial envoy on Climate Change from 2007 to 2010.[2] She is also deputy chair ofThe Elders and a former vice-president ofSocialist International.
Brundtland belonged to the moderate wing of her party and supported Norwegian membership in theEuropean Union during the1994 referendum. As prime minister, Brundtland became widely known as the "mother of the nation".[3] Brundtland received the 1994Charlemagne Prize, and has received many other awards and recognitions.
Brundtland was born inOslo in 1939, the daughter of physician and politicianGudmund Harlem and Inga Margareta Elisabet Brynolf (1918–2005). She has a younger brother, Lars and a younger sister,Hanne.
From 1966 to 1969, she worked as a physician at theDirectorate of Health (Helsedirektoratet), and from 1969 she worked as a doctor in Oslo's public school health service.
Brundtland became Norway's first femaleprime minister in 1981.[4] She served as prime minister from February to October.[5]
At 41 years old she was the youngest person to become Prime Minister of Norway.
Brundtland served as prime minister for two further, and more durable, terms. The second ministry was from 9 May 1986 until 16 October 1989 and this cabinet became known worldwide for its high proportion of female ministers: nearly half, or eight of the total eighteen ministers, were female. The third ministry was from 3 November 1990 to 25 October 1996.
Brundtland became leader of the Labour Party in 1981 and held the office until resigning in 1992, during her third term as prime minister. In 1996, she resigned from office and retired completely from politics. Her successor as both Labour Party leader in 1992 and as prime minister in 1996 wasThorbjørn Jagland.
During her third ministry, the Norwegian government in 1993 took the initiative to sponsor secret peace talks between the Government of Israel led byYitzchak Rabin – like Brundtland, leader of a Labour Party – and the PLO led byYasser Arafat. This culminated with the signing of theOslo Accords. For several years afterwards, Norway continued to have a high-profile involvement in promoting Israeli-Palestinian peace, though increasingly displaced by the United States from its role as the mediator.
After the end of her term as PM, Brundtland was then elected Director-General of theWorld Health Organization in May 1998. In this capacity, Brundtland adopted a far-reaching approach to public health, establishing a Commission on Macroeconomics and Health, chaired byJeffrey Sachs, and addressingviolence as a major public health issue. Brundtland spearheaded the movement, now worldwide, to achieve the abolition ofcigarette smoking by education, persuasion, and increased taxation.[8] Under her leadership, the World Health Organization was one of the first major employers to make quitting smoking a condition of employment.Under Brundtland's leadership, the World Health Organization was criticized[9] for increased drug-company influence on the agency.
Brundtland was recognized in 2003 byScientific American as their 'Policy Leader of the Year' for coordinating a rapid worldwide response to stem outbreaks ofSARS. Brundtland was succeeded on 21 July 2003 byJong-Wook Lee. In 1994, Brundtland was awarded theCharlemagne Prize of the city ofAachen.
In 2007, Brundtland was working forPepsi as a consultant.[11]
Brundtland is a member of theCouncil of Women World Leaders, an international network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers whose mission is to mobilize collective action on issues of critical importance to women and equitable development.[12]
Brundtland is also a member of theClub of Madrid, an independent organization of former leaders of democratic states, which works to strengthen democratic governance and leadership.[13]
Brundtland is a founding member ofThe Elders, a group of world leaders originally convened byNelson Mandela,Graça Machel andDesmond Tutu in order to tackle some of the world's toughest problems. Mandela announced the launch of the group on 18 July 2007 inJohannesburg, South Africa. Brundtland has been active in The Elders' work, participating in a broad range of the group's initiatives. She has travelled with Elders delegations toCyprus, theKorean Peninsula,Ethiopia, India and theMiddle East. Brundtland has also been involved in The Elders' initiative onchild marriage, including the founding ofGirls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage.[14] She was appointed Deputy Chair of the group in 2013 and was succeeded in this role byBan Ki-moon andGraça Machel in 2018.[15][16]
Brundtland attended theBilderberg meetings in 1982 and 1983.[17] Her husband attended in 1991.
Brundtland narrowly escapedassassination byAnders Behring Breivik on22 July 2011. She had been on the island ofUtøya hours before themassacre there to give a speech to theAUF camp; Breivik stated that he originally intended Brundtland to be the main target of the attack (along withEskil Pedersen andJonas Gahr Støre), but he had been delayed while travelling from Oslo.[18][19] Breivik arrived on Utøya about two hours after Brundtland had left.
Duringhis trial in 2012, Breivik revealed detailed assassination plans for Brundtland.[20] He told the court that he had planned to handcuff her and then record himself reading out a prepared text detailing her "crimes", before decapitating her on camera using abayonet and uploading the footage to the internet. Breivik said that while Brundtland had been his main target, he had still planned to massacre everyone else on the island.[21]
Brundtland was operated on foruterine cancer in 2002 atOslo University Hospital, Ullevål.[23] In 2008 it became known that during 2007 she had received two treatments at Ullevål, paid for by Norwegian public expenditures. Since she had previously notified the Norwegian authorities that she had changed residence to France, she was no longer entitled to Norwegiansocial security benefits. Following media attention surrounding the matter, Brundtland decided to change residence once more, back to Norway, and she also announced that she would be paying for the treatments herself.[24] Brundtland has claimed to suffer fromelectrical sensitivity which causes headaches when someone uses a mobile phone near her.[25]
Wilsford, David, ed.Political leaders of contemporary Western Europe: a biographical dictionary (Greenwood, 1995) pp 49–56.
Skard, Torild (2014). "Gro Harlem Brundtland".Women of Power: Half a Century of Female Presidents and Prime Ministers Worldwide. Bristol:Policy Press.ISBN9781447315780.
Brundtland, Gro Harlem (2002) "Madam Prime Minister: A Life in Power and Politics". New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,ISBN0-374-53002-5, primary source
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