Thor Halvorssen | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Halvorssen in 2018 | |
| Born | Thor Leonardo Halvorssen Mendoza (1976-03-09)March 9, 1976 (age 49) |
| Education | University of Pennsylvania (BA,MA) |
| Organization(s) | Human Rights Foundation(Founder and CEO) Oslo Freedom Forum(Founder) |
| Parent(s) | Thor Halvorssen Hellum Hilda Mendoza Coburn |
| Family | Eduardo Mendoza Goiticoa (grandfather) Eugenio Mendoza (great uncle) José Antonio Velutini (great-great-uncle) Leopoldo López (cousin) Luis Emilio Velutini (third half cousin) Juan Liscano (fifth cousin) |
Thor Leonardo Halvorssen Mendoza (born 1976;[1][2]Spanish pronunciation:[ˈtoɾ(x)alˈβoɾsen])[a] is aVenezuelan-born human rights activist and film producer with contributions in the field of public policy.
Halvorssen is founder of the annualOslo Freedom Forum and president of theHuman Rights Foundation, an organization that states their mission is to promote freedom in authoritarian regimes. Halvorssen bought the Norwegian news magazineNy Tid in 2010.[3]
Halvorssen has appeared on television outlets such asFox News Channel,MSNBC, andCNN. He was a speaker atTEDx at theUniversity of Pennsylvania in 2010.[4]
Halvorssen was born inVenezuela to Hilda Mendoza, a descendant and a relative, respectively, of Venezuela's first presidentCristóbal Mendoza and liberatorSimón Bolívar. His father isThor Halvorssen Hellum, who served as a Venezuelan Ambassador for anti-Narcotic Affairs in the administration ofCarlos Andrés Pérez and as special overseas investigator of a Venezuelan Senate Commission. His family was prosperous and on his father's side he is the grandson of Øystein Halvorssen, who served as Norway'shonorary consul-general inCaracas[5] and who "built a family dynasty as the Venezuelan representative for corporations includingDunlop,Alfa Laval andEricsson."[1] His cousin is the Venezuelan politicianLeopoldo Lopez.[6] Halvorssen attended theUniversity of Pennsylvania inPhiladelphia, where he graduatedPhi Beta Kappa andmagna cum laude with concurrent undergraduate and graduate degrees in political science and history.[7][8][9]
Halvorssen's father, also namedThor Halvorssen, was a wealthy businessman who was named the CEO of Venezuela's state-owned telephone company CANTV.[10] In 1989, then-President Carlos Andrés Pérez appointed Halvorssen Sr. as Venezuela's "anti-drug ambassador".[11] When Halvorssen was a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania, in 1993, his father was arrested after a series of bombings around the capital city Caracas.[12] His father had been working onmoney laundering investigations into the Medellin cartel and had been framed to stop his investigations. His father was beaten[13] during his 74-day incarceration in a Caracas jail.[14][15][16] Halvorssen helped organize the campaignwithAmnesty International and other organizations to pressure the Venezuelanauthorities to free his father.[12] Halvorssen was never charged and ultimately freed after74 days of detainment. After his release, theInternational Society for Human Rights appointed him director of their Pan-American Committee.[13][17][18]
While attending a peaceful protest of theVenezuelan recall referendum of 2004, Halvorssen's mother, Hilda Mendoza Denham, a British subject, was wounded by a gunshot.[19] Images of government supporters firing upon the demonstrators were captured by a live television broadcast.[20][21] The gunmen were later apprehended, tried, had their sentences revoked, tried again, found guilty, and received 3-year sentences for murder and for bodily harm.[22][23] They were released after serving six months in prison.[24]
Halvorssen has lectured on the subject of human rights including atHarvard Law School, the New York City Junto, theUnited Nations Association in New York, and theAmerican Enterprise Institute.[25][26][27][28] Halvorssen has also spoken at the British parliament for theHenry Jackson Society.[29]
Halvorssen testified to the U.S. Congress that he was the target of a smear campaign byFusion GPS, a private company that also targeted SirWilliam Browder and, laterDonald Trump. Halvorssen provided testimony about Fusion GPS to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in July 2017.[30]
In 1999, Halvorssen became the first executive director and chief executive officer of theFoundation for Individual Rights Expression (FIRE).[citation needed]
In 2001, Halvorssen stated that, "Liberty of opinion, speech, and expression is indispensable to a free and, in the deepest sense, progressive society. Deny it to one, and you deny it effectively to all. These truths long have been ignored and betrayed on our campuses, to the peril of a free society."[31] In a 2003 moderated chat, he said, "History has taught us that a society that does not respect individual rights, freedom of conscience, and freedom of speech will not long survive as a free society in any form."[32]
Halvorssen stepped down as head of FIRE in March 2004 to join its Board of Advisors and announced the creation of the international group Human Rights Foundation. HRF was incorporated in 2005, opening its headquarters inNew York City in August 2006. The chair isYulia Navalnaya.[33][34] He also founded theMoving Picture Institute.[1]
At the helm of HRF Halvorssen repeatedly lobbied and advocated for the release of Chinese political prisonerLiu Xiaobo.[35][36] In 2010 Halvorssen was special guest of Liu Xiaobo at the Nobel Prize ceremony awarding the prize to Liu Xiaobo in absentia.[37][38][39] Halvorssen is identified as a supporter of ChineseUyghur leaderRebiya Kadeer and has sharply criticized the TaiwaneseKuomintang government for its banning visits by Kadeer.[40]
Halvorssen was part of a symposium by the American conservative magazineNational Review to praiseAugusto Pinochet, where Halvorssen was the only one also pointing out his human rights abuses.[41] Halvorssen has criticised several celebrities likeJennifer Lopez,Erykah Baduh andMariah Carey for accepting payments for their performances in countries governed by authoritarian leaders like Russia.[42][43][44][45][46]
Halvorssen appears as a frequent critic ofUganda’s presidentYoweri Museveni and, in particular, the legislative efforts in Uganda to punishhomosexuality with the death penalty.[47]
Halvorssen is a critic ofHugo Chávez.[48] In 2005, he wrote about what he believed was Venezuela’santi-Semitism and the assault on democracy and individual rights inLatin America.[49] Halvorssen's criticisms have also been directed at U.S. Republicans such asJack Kemp[50] as well as Democrats includingJohn Conyers andJose Serrano.[51] Halvorssen led a campaign to exposeChechen presidentRamzan Kadyrov’s human rights violations and ultimately created a firestorm for Hollywood actressHilary Swank after she accepted a cash payment to celebrate Kadyrov’s birthday.[52][53] In the same manner Halvorssen has exposed payments from dictators toJennifer Lopez,Erykah Baduh,Mariah Carey,Nelly Furtado, and50 Cent.[54][55][56]
In 2009, Halvorssen founded a gathering of human-rights campaigners and policymakers called the Oslo Freedom Forum. It has taken place in Oslo annually since then.Wired Magazine blogger David Rowan praised the event for its sessions "if the global human-rights movement were to create its own unified representative body, it would look something like this."[57]
Since 2009, Halvorssen is listed as "Patron" of the Children's Peace Movement, On Own Feet. Known as the "Centipede Movement" it is a Czech-based group that facilitates bilateral relations between children and adolescents inPoland, theCzech Republic,Slovakia,Canada, andNorway with children in war-torn countries such asAfghanistan andIraq. The previous Patron was former Czech presidentVáclav Havel.[58][59]
In 2006, Halvorssen executive producedHammer & Tickle, a film about the power of humor, ridicule, and satire as the language of truth in theSoviet Union. The film won Best New Documentary Film at theZurich Film Festival.[60]
Halvorssen co-produced the filmFreedom's Fury which was executive produced byLucy Liu,Quentin Tarantino, andAndrew Vajna. It premiered at theTribeca Film Festival.[61][62] The film relates the story of theuprising against the government that occurred in Hungary in 1956.
Halvorssen is a producer of the filmThe Singing Revolution, a film aboutEstonia's peaceful struggle for political independence fromSoviet occupation.[63] It has with 18.000 viewers become the most successful documentary film in Estonian box-office history.[64]
Halvorssen producedThe Dissident in 2020, a film about the murder of Saudi journalistJamal Khashoggi, directed byBryan Fogel.[65]
| Title | Year | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Hammer & Tickle | 2006 | executive producer |
| Freedom's Fury | 2006 | producer |
| The Singing Revolution | 2006 | producer |
| The Sugar Babies | 2007 | producer |
| Indoctrinate U | 2007 | producer |
| 2081 | 2009 | producer |
| Pups of Liberty | 2009 | executive producer |
| U.N. Me | 2009 | executive producer |
| State of Control | 2016 | producer |
| The Dissident | 2020 | producer[66] |
John Strausbaugh described Halvorssen as a "conservative operating in fields more often associated with liberals .. who champions the underdog".[1] Neoconservative columnistJames Kirchick described Halvorssen as having a "burning desire to right the countless injustices of this world".[67]
The magazineThe Economist pointed out that the Oslo Freedom Forum strucks a different tone than organisations like Amnestry International orHuman Rights Watch. "Given his conservative ideas, Mr Halvorssen's list of heroes and rogues might differ from that of say, Claudio Cordone, the acting head of Amnesty". It praised their event as being spectacular, competition and "on its way to becoming a human-rights equivalent of theDavos economic forum".[68]
University of Pennsylvania presidentJudith Rodin honored Halvorssen's achievements by awarding him the Sol Feinstone Award for protecting student speech.[69] In 2018, Halvorssen was awarded the Millennium Candler Justice Prize, honoring leadership in effecting positive social change, presented at theMillennium Gate Museum.[70]
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