Thor Halvorssen
Encyclopedia
Thor Leonardo Halvorssen Mendoza (born 1976)—commonly known as Thor Halvorssen—is a human rights advocate and film producer with contributions in the field of public policy, public interest advocacy, individual rights and civil liberties, and pro-democracy advocacy. The New York Times described Halvorssen in an August 2007 profile as a maverick "who champions the underdog and the powerless." He is a columnist for the left-leaning Huffington Post.
Halvorssen is founder of the Oslo Freedom Forum
, an annual gathering described by The Economist
as a "spectacular human-rights festival... on its way to becoming a human-rights equivalent of the Davos economic forum". Halvorssen is president of the Human Rights Foundation
, an organization devoted to protecting liberty in the Americas. He is the Patron of the Czech-based Children's Peace Movement, On Own Feet, and founder of the Moving Picture Institute
. Halvorssen bought the traditionally leftist Norwegian news magazine Ny Tid
in May 2010.
Halvorssen's opinions have appeared in The New York Times
, The Wall Street Journal
, The Washington Post
, National Public Radio, Time magazine
, The Nation
and National Journal
, and he has appeared on television outlets such as al-Jazeera, Fox News Channel
’s The O'Reilly Factor
and Hannity & Colmes
, MSNBC
’s Hardball with Chris Matthews
, CNN
, and HBO.
Thor Halvorssen was a speaker at TEDx
at the University of Pennsylvania
in October of 2010.
and Simón Bolívar
. His father is Thor Halvorssen Hellum
, who served as a Venezuelan Ambassador for anti-Narcotic Affairs in the administration of Carlos 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, the Norwegian king’s consul who "built a family dynasty as the Venezuelan representative for corporations including Dunlop and Ericsson."
Halvorssen attended the University of Pennsylvania
and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude, with concurrent undergraduate and graduate degrees in Political Science and History.
for possible money laundering
and bank fraud
. His father was tortured, beaten, and in danger of being murdered during his 74-day incarceration in a Caracas jail on "trumped-up" charges of terrorism. Halvorssen led the campaign for his father’s release, garnering help from Amnesty International
which issued protests along with other International organizations. Halvorssen was eventually found innocent of all charges. After his release the United Nations
-affiliated International Society for Human Rights
appointed him director of their Pan-American Committee.
, Halvorssen's mother, Hilda Mendoza Denham, a British subject, was shot and wounded. Images of government supporters firing upon the demonstrators were captured by a live television broadcast. The Wall Street Journal published an article about the shooting of Halvorssen's mother written by himself. According to Halvorssen, his mother was brutally gunned down and wounded by members of the Venezuelan government security apparatus while attending a peaceful public gathering. The gunmen’s actions were broadcast on live television as they shot into the crowd, leaving twelve wounded and one (woman) dead. Gunmen were later apprehended, tried, had their sentences revoked, tried again, found guilty, and received 11-year sentences for murder and for bodily harm.
, Quentin Tarantino
, and Andrew Vajna. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival
. The film relates the story of the popular uprising against dictatorship that occurred in Hungary in 1956.
Halvorssen executive produced Hammer & Tickle, a film about the power of humor, ridicule, and satire as the language of truth under Soviet tyranny—jokes as a code to navigate the disconnect between propaganda and reality and as a means of resisting the system despite the absence of free speech. This film premiered at Tribeca in 2006 and featured Lech Wałęsa
, Ronald Reagan
, Mikhail Gorbachev
and Roy Medvedev
. The film won Best New Documentary Film at the Zurich Film Festival.
Halvorssen is listed as producer of the documentary Indoctrinate U
, "a documentary about left-wing bias on college campuses" which targets "the anti-intellectual, intolerant culture of [the USA's] campuses". American Literary Theorist Stanley Fish
wrote in the New York Times "the academy invites the criticism it receives in this documentary" and the film received positive reviews from the Wall Street Journal, London Telegraph, New York Post, and CNN.
Halvorssen is producer of the film The Singing Revolution, a film about Estonia's peaceful struggle for political independence from Soviet occupation. The film premiered at the Black Nights Film Festival in December 2006 where it received a 15-minute standing ovation. Since then, it has become the most successful documentary film in Estonian box-office history.
Halvorssen produced The Sugar Babies, a film about human trafficking in the Dominican Republic and the plight of its migrant farm workers. The targets of the documentary are wealthy and politically connected sugar barons who live in West Palm Beach: The Fanjul Family. The film previewed at Florida International University
where a heated exchange with the Dominican diplomatic envoy resulted in police presence. It received numerous negative reviews claiming the film's portrayal of big business and its relationship with the Dominican government was part of a campaign against the country's reputation. Death threats against the film's director and a bribery scandal involving the Dominican embassy have made the film a subject of intense media interest.
He is listed as sole producer of 2081
, the film adaptation of author Kurt Vonnegut
's short story "Harrison Bergeron
", a dystopian film about a future in which a tyrannical government arrests, imprisons without trial, and tortures those who disagree with the government policy of enforced sterilization and enforced handicapping. It premiered at the Seattle Film Festival and stars Academy Award nominee Patricia Clarkson
, Julie Hagerty
, James Cosmo
, and Armie Hammer
. The film's music was composed by Lee Brooks
and recorded by Kronos Quartet
.
, the New York City Junto, the United Nations Association
in New York, and the American Enterprise Institute.
annual shareholder meeting appealing for the creation of an anti-slave labor policy whereby Lucent would require China to certify that Lucent's products were not fabricated using slave labor. China's Laogai
camps allegedly imprison eight million men, women, and children in 1100 factories, farms, and other facilities producing a wide range of consumer products.
(FIRE), a U.S. campus-focused civil liberties organization. U.S. News and World Report described FIRE in February, 2004 as "a major player in the campus wars", helping force "censorship-minded administrators into a defensive crouch".
Halvorssen has worked on civil liberties matters with public intellectuals from across the political and ideological spectrum. As head of FIRE, he formed coalitions that brought together the conservative and libertarian advocacy organizations such as the Heritage Foundation
, Feminists for Free Expression, the Eagle Forum
, with more traditional free speech defenders such as the ACLU. He has a track record of defending individuals both on the right and on the left of the political spectrum.
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." 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."
As someone who "personally understands the importance of protecting human rights" because of his family experiences, Halvorssen founded the Human Rights Foundation
(HRF) in early 2005. Like FIRE, the HRF was conceived as an alternative to other human rights organizations which he considered inconsistent. "'Progressive' organizations such as Amnesty International
and Human Rights Watch
are charged by critics as having redefined human rights in such a way as to weaken the concept and make it unworkable," Halvorssen said the group will instead "champion the definition of human rights that originally animated the human rights movement, centered on the twin concepts of freedom of self-determination and freedom from tyranny.". The foundation was incorporated in 2005, opening its headquarters in New York City
in August 2006. Its International Council includes several well-known prisoners of conscience such as Vaclav Havel
, Elie Wiesel
, Harry Wu
, and Vladimir Bukovsky
. It also includes democracy activists such as Mart Laar
, and Garry Kasparov
.
Halvorssen is a critic of Hugo Chávez
, and has written on anti-Semitism
and the assault on democracy and individual rights in Latin America
. Halvorssen's criticisms have also been directed at U.S. Republicans such as Jack Kemp
as well as Democrats including John Conyers
and Jose Serrano
. In a symposium published by the American conservative magazine National Review
, he condemned Augusto Pinochet
for his human rights abuses.
called it a "Gathering of Heroes". Participants include Lubna al-Hussein
, Jimmy Wales
, Elie Wiesel
, Marina Nemat
, Peter Thiel
, Julian Assange
, Vaclav Havel
, Garry Kasparov
, and Leopoldo Lopez
.
.
honored Halvorssen's achievements by awarding him the Sol Feinstone Award for protecting student speech. Halvorssen is a supporter and fellow of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni
and belongs to the leadership board.
In 2010 Romanian leader Emil Constantinescu
presented Halvorssen with a presidential silver medal to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Romanian Revolution of 1989
. "On behalf of those who fought and died for freedom, I present this medal to the Oslo Freedom Forum founder, and remind those here that even if Romanians live in democracy now, we cannot feel entirely free as long as other people--who live under dictatorial and repressive regimes anywhere in the world--are not also be free."
Halvorssen is founder of the Oslo Freedom Forum
Oslo Freedom Forum
Oslo Freedom Forum is a conference about human rights first held in May 2009 in Oslo, Norway. Founded by the Human Rights Foundation. According to Thor Halvorssen , "the Oslo Freedom Forum is an intimate gathering where leaders who are transforming the world present effective solutions and...
, an annual gathering described by The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
as a "spectacular human-rights festival... on its way to becoming a human-rights equivalent of the Davos economic forum". Halvorssen is president of the Human Rights Foundation
Human Rights Foundation
The Human Rights Foundation is a non-profit organization whose stated mission "is to ensure that freedom is both preserved and promoted" in the Americas. The Human Rights Foundation was founded in 2005 by Thor Halvorssen...
, an organization devoted to protecting liberty in the Americas. He is the Patron of the Czech-based Children's Peace Movement, On Own Feet, and founder of the Moving Picture Institute
Moving Picture Institute
The Moving Picture Institute is an American non-profit organization and film production company founded in 2005 by human rights advocate Thor Halvorssen. Its current executive director is Rob Pfaltzgraff, and its creative council includes June Arunga and David Zucker.MPI produces and collaborates...
. Halvorssen bought the traditionally leftist Norwegian news magazine Ny Tid
Ny Tid
Ny Tid is Norway's only international news magazine, published in Newsweek-format every Friday. Politically, its history and editorial line is on the left side of the political spectrum and, until its recent sale, it was founded and owned by the Socialist Left Party of Norway...
in May 2010.
Halvorssen's opinions have appeared in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, National Public Radio, Time magazine
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
and National Journal
National Journal
National Journal is a nonpartisan American weekly magazine that reports on the current political environment and emerging political and policy trends. National Journal was first published in 1969. Times Mirror owned the magazine from 1986 to 1997, when it was purchased by David G. Bradley...
, and he has appeared on television outlets such as al-Jazeera, Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
’s The O'Reilly Factor
The O'Reilly Factor
The O'Reilly Factor, originally titled The O'Reilly Report from 1996 to 1998 and often called The Factor, is an American talk show on the Fox News Channel hosted by commentator Bill O'Reilly, who often discusses current controversial political issues with guests.The program was the most watched...
and Hannity & Colmes
Hannity & Colmes
Hannity & Colmes was a live television show on Fox News Channel in the United States, hosted by Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes, who respectively presented a conservative and liberal perspective. The series premiered on October 6, 1996, and the final episode aired on January 9, 2009. It was the...
, MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
’s Hardball with Chris Matthews
Hardball with Chris Matthews
Hardball with Chris Matthews is a talk show on MSNBC, broadcast weekdays at 5 and 7 PM hosted by Chris Matthews. It originally aired on now-defunct America's Talking and later CNBC. The current title was derived from a book Matthews wrote in 1988, Hardball: How Politics Is Played Told by One Who...
, CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, and HBO.
Thor Halvorssen was a speaker at TEDx
TED (conference)
TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
in October of 2010.
Background
Halvorssen was born in Venezuela to Hilda Mendoza, a descendant of Venezuela's first two presidents Cristóbal MendozaCristóbal Mendoza
Cristóbal Hurtado de Mendoza was a Venezuelan politician. Cristobal became the first President of Venezuela in 1811.-Biography:...
and Simón Bolívar
Simón Bolívar
Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Yeiter, commonly known as Simón Bolívar was a Venezuelan military and political leader...
. His father is Thor Halvorssen Hellum
Thor Halvorssen Hellum
Thor Halvorssen Hellum —commonly known as Thor Halvorssen—is a Venezuelan-Norwegian businessman who served as CEO and President of the Venezuelan state-owned telephone company, CANTV and later as Special Commissioner for International Narcotic Affairs in the administration of President Carlos...
, who served as a Venezuelan Ambassador for anti-Narcotic Affairs in the administration of Carlos Andrés Pérez
Carlos Andrés Pérez
Carlos Andrés Pérez Rodríguez , also known as CAP and often referred to as El Gocho , was a Venezuelan politician, President of Venezuela from 1974 to 1979 and again from 1989 to 1993. His first presidency was known as the Saudi Venezuela due to its economic and social prosperity thanks to...
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, the Norwegian king’s consul who "built a family dynasty as the Venezuelan representative for corporations including Dunlop and Ericsson."
Halvorssen attended the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude, with concurrent undergraduate and graduate degrees in Political Science and History.
Father's imprisonment
When Halvorssen was a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania in 1993, his father was arrested while investigating the Medellín cartelMedellín Cartel
The Medellín Cartel was an organized network of "drug suppliers and smugglers" originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia. The drug cartel operated in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Central America, the United States, as well as Canada and Europe throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It was founded and...
for possible money laundering
Money laundering
Money laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...
and bank fraud
Bank fraud
Bank fraud is the use of fraudulent means to obtain money, assets, or other property owned or held by a financial institution, or to obtain money from depositors by fraudulently representing to be a bank or financial institution. In many instances, bank fraud is a criminal offense...
. His father was tortured, beaten, and in danger of being murdered during his 74-day incarceration in a Caracas jail on "trumped-up" charges of terrorism. Halvorssen led the campaign for his father’s release, garnering help from Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
which issued protests along with other International organizations. Halvorssen was eventually found innocent of all charges. After his release the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
-affiliated International Society for Human Rights
International Society for Human Rights
The International Society for Human Rights is an international non-governmental, non-profit human rights organization with Participative Status with the Council of Europe and is a member of the Liaison Committee of the Non-Governmental Organisations at the Council of Europe...
appointed him director of their Pan-American Committee.
Mother's shooting
While attending a peaceful protest of the Venezuelan recall referendum of 2004Venezuelan recall referendum of 2004
The Venezuelan recall referendum of 15 August 2004 was a referendum to determine whether Hugo Chávez, the current President of Venezuela, should be recalled from office...
, Halvorssen's mother, Hilda Mendoza Denham, a British subject, was shot and wounded. Images of government supporters firing upon the demonstrators were captured by a live television broadcast. The Wall Street Journal published an article about the shooting of Halvorssen's mother written by himself. According to Halvorssen, his mother was brutally gunned down and wounded by members of the Venezuelan government security apparatus while attending a peaceful public gathering. The gunmen’s actions were broadcast on live television as they shot into the crowd, leaving twelve wounded and one (woman) dead. Gunmen were later apprehended, tried, had their sentences revoked, tried again, found guilty, and received 11-year sentences for murder and for bodily harm.
Film
Halvorssen co-produced the film Freedom's Fury which was executive produced by Lucy LiuLucy Liu
Lucy Alexis Liu is an American actress and film producer. She became known for playing the role of the vicious and ill-mannered Ling Woo in the television series Ally McBeal , and has also appeared in several Hollywood films including Charlie's Angels, Chicago, Kill Bill, and Kung Fu Panda.-Early...
, Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
, and Andrew Vajna. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...
. The film relates the story of the popular uprising against dictatorship that occurred in Hungary in 1956.
Halvorssen executive produced Hammer & Tickle, a film about the power of humor, ridicule, and satire as the language of truth under Soviet tyranny—jokes as a code to navigate the disconnect between propaganda and reality and as a means of resisting the system despite the absence of free speech. This film premiered at Tribeca in 2006 and featured Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa is a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity , the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland between 1990 and 95.Wałęsa was an electrician...
, Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
and Roy Medvedev
Roy Medvedev
Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev |Georgia]]) is a Russian historian renowned as the author of the dissident history of Stalinism, Let History Judge , first published in English in 1972...
. The film won Best New Documentary Film at the Zurich Film Festival.
Halvorssen is listed as producer of the documentary Indoctrinate U
Indoctrinate U
Indoctrinate U is a 2007 American feature-length documentary film written by, directed by and starring Evan Coyne Maloney, on ideological conformism and political correctness in American higher education...
, "a documentary about left-wing bias on college campuses" which targets "the anti-intellectual, intolerant culture of [the USA's] campuses". American Literary Theorist Stanley Fish
Stanley Fish
Stanley Eugene Fish is an American literary theorist and legal scholar. He was born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island...
wrote in the New York Times "the academy invites the criticism it receives in this documentary" and the film received positive reviews from the Wall Street Journal, London Telegraph, New York Post, and CNN.
Halvorssen is producer of the film The Singing Revolution, a film about Estonia's peaceful struggle for political independence from Soviet occupation. The film premiered at the Black Nights Film Festival in December 2006 where it received a 15-minute standing ovation. Since then, it has become the most successful documentary film in Estonian box-office history.
Halvorssen produced The Sugar Babies, a film about human trafficking in the Dominican Republic and the plight of its migrant farm workers. The targets of the documentary are wealthy and politically connected sugar barons who live in West Palm Beach: The Fanjul Family. The film previewed at Florida International University
Florida International University
Florida International University is an American public research university in metropolitan Miami, Florida, in the United States, with its main campus in University Park...
where a heated exchange with the Dominican diplomatic envoy resulted in police presence. It received numerous negative reviews claiming the film's portrayal of big business and its relationship with the Dominican government was part of a campaign against the country's reputation. Death threats against the film's director and a bribery scandal involving the Dominican embassy have made the film a subject of intense media interest.
He is listed as sole producer of 2081
2081 (film)
2081 is a 2009 science fiction short film, which premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival on May 29, 2009. It is directed and written by Chandler Tuttle...
, the film adaptation of author Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle , Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.-Early...
's short story "Harrison Bergeron
Harrison Bergeron
"Harrison Bergeron" is a satirical, dystopian science fiction short story written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and first published in October 1961. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, the story was re-published in the author's collection Welcome to the Monkey House in...
", a dystopian film about a future in which a tyrannical government arrests, imprisons without trial, and tortures those who disagree with the government policy of enforced sterilization and enforced handicapping. It premiered at the Seattle Film Festival and stars Academy Award nominee Patricia Clarkson
Patricia Clarkson
Patricia Davies Clarkson is an American actress. After studying drama on the East Coast, Clarkson launched her acting career in 1985, and has worked steadily in both film and television. She twice won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in Six Feet Under...
, Julie Hagerty
Julie Hagerty
Julie Hagerty is an American actress and former model.-Early life:Hagerty was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the daughter of Harriet Yuellig, a model and singer, and Jerry Hagerty, a musician. Her brother Michael Hagerty was also an actor. Her parents later divorced. Hagerty attended Indian Hill High...
, James Cosmo
James Cosmo
James Cosmo is a prolific Scottish actor, with numerous credits in film and television since the late 1960s and Cosmo is still currently acting. Cosmo was born in Clydebank, Scotland, the son of actor James Copeland...
, and Armie Hammer
Armie Hammer
Armand Douglas "Armie" Hammer is an American actor. After appearing on television and playing the title role in 2008's Billy: The Early Years, he became known for his portrayal of the Winklevoss twins in the 2010 film The Social Network, and Clyde Tolson in J. Edgar...
. The film's music was composed by Lee Brooks
Lee Brooks
Lee Raymond Brooks is a composer and sound designer for film.-Biography:Lee Brooks is a composer for stage, film and television...
and recorded by Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
.
Democracy, civil liberties, and human rights advocacy
Halvorssen has a specialty on matters regarding human trafficking, slavery, and threats to democracy. He has lectured widely on the subject of human rights including Harvard Law SchoolHarvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
, the New York City Junto, the United Nations Association
United Nations Association
The United Nations Associations are non-governmental organizations that exist in various countries to enhance the relationship between the people of a member state and the United Nations, raise public awareness of the UN and its work, promote the general goals of the UN and act as an advisory body...
in New York, and the American Enterprise Institute.
Lucent Technologies
In 1999, Halvorssen spearheaded a campaign on the floor of the Lucent TechnologiesLucent Technologies
Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc., originally Lucent Technologies, Inc. is a French-owned technology company composed of what was formerly AT&T Technologies, which included Western Electric and Bell Labs...
annual shareholder meeting appealing for the creation of an anti-slave labor policy whereby Lucent would require China to certify that Lucent's products were not fabricated using slave labor. China's Laogai
Laogai
Laogai , the abbreviation for Láodòng Gǎizào , which means "reform through labor," is a slogan of the Chinese criminal justice system and has been used to refer to the use of prison labor and prison farms in the People's Republic of China . It is estimated that in the last fifty years more than...
camps allegedly imprison eight million men, women, and children in 1100 factories, farms, and other facilities producing a wide range of consumer products.
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
In 1999, Halvorssen became the first executive director and chief executive officer of the Foundation for Individual Rights in EducationFoundation for Individual Rights in Education
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education is a non-profit group founded in 1999 and focused on civil liberties in academia in the United States...
(FIRE), a U.S. campus-focused civil liberties organization. U.S. News and World Report described FIRE in February, 2004 as "a major player in the campus wars", helping force "censorship-minded administrators into a defensive crouch".
Halvorssen has worked on civil liberties matters with public intellectuals from across the political and ideological spectrum. As head of FIRE, he formed coalitions that brought together the conservative and libertarian advocacy organizations such as the Heritage Foundation
Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation is a conservative American think tank based in Washington, D.C. Heritage's stated mission is to "formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong...
, Feminists for Free Expression, the Eagle Forum
Eagle Forum
Eagle Forum is a conservative interest group in the United States founded by Phyllis Schlafly in 1972 and is the parent organization that also includes the Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense Fund and the Eagle Forum PAC. The Eagle Forum has been primarily focused on social issues; it describes...
, with more traditional free speech defenders such as the ACLU. He has a track record of defending individuals both on the right and on the left of the political spectrum.
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." 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."
Human Rights Foundation
Halvorssen stepped down as head of FIRE in March 2004 to join its Board of Advisors, saying he wanted to move in a different direction. According to him, "In my birthplace, Venezuela, the government constantly tramples its constitution; due process, freedom of speech, freedom of movement, and economic liberty are all under assault. I know first-hand how readily innocent civilians may be arrested and even tortured for disagreeing with the government." He is no longer listed as a member of FIRE's Board of Advisors.As someone who "personally understands the importance of protecting human rights" because of his family experiences, Halvorssen founded the Human Rights Foundation
Human Rights Foundation
The Human Rights Foundation is a non-profit organization whose stated mission "is to ensure that freedom is both preserved and promoted" in the Americas. The Human Rights Foundation was founded in 2005 by Thor Halvorssen...
(HRF) in early 2005. Like FIRE, the HRF was conceived as an alternative to other human rights organizations which he considered inconsistent. "'Progressive' organizations such as Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
and Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
are charged by critics as having redefined human rights in such a way as to weaken the concept and make it unworkable," Halvorssen said the group will instead "champion the definition of human rights that originally animated the human rights movement, centered on the twin concepts of freedom of self-determination and freedom from tyranny.". The foundation was incorporated in 2005, opening its headquarters in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in August 2006. Its International Council includes several well-known prisoners of conscience such as Vaclav Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
, Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel
Sir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...
, Harry Wu
Harry Wu
Harry Wu is an activist for human rights in the People's Republic of China. Now a resident and citizen of the United States, Wu spent 19 years in Chinese labor camps. In 1992, he founded the Laogai Research Foundation. In 1996 the Columbia Human Rights Law Review awarded Wu its second Award for...
, and Vladimir Bukovsky
Vladimir Bukovsky
Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky is a leading member of the dissident movement of the 1960s and 1970s, writer, neurophysiologist, and political activist....
. It also includes democracy activists such as Mart Laar
Mart Laar
Mart Laar is an Estonian statesman, historian and a founding member of the Foundation for the Investigation of Communist Crimes. He was the Prime Minister of Estonia from 1992 to 1994 and from 1999 to 2002, and is the leader of the conservative party Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica...
, and Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
.
Halvorssen is a critic of Hugo Chávez
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
, and has written on anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
and the assault on democracy and individual rights in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
. Halvorssen's criticisms have also been directed at U.S. Republicans such as Jack Kemp
Jack Kemp
Jack French Kemp was an American politician and a collegiate and professional football player. A Republican, he served as Housing Secretary in the administration of President George H. W. Bush from 1989 to 1993, having previously served nine terms as a congressman for Western New York's 31st...
as well as Democrats including John Conyers
John Conyers
John Conyers, Jr. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1965 . He is a member of the Democratic Party...
and Jose Serrano
José Serrano
José Enrique Serrano is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1990. He is a member of the Democratic Party....
. In a symposium published by the American conservative magazine National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
, he condemned Augusto Pinochet
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
for his human rights abuses.
Oslo Freedom Forum
In 2009 Halvorssen founded a global gathering of human rights advocates called the Oslo Freedom Forum. It has taken place in Oslo annually since then. Forbes magazine described the meeting as "a heck of a good idea" and Norwegian newspaper Verdens GangVerdens Gang
Verdens Gang , generally known under the abbreviation VG, is a Norwegian tabloid newspaper...
called it a "Gathering of Heroes". Participants include Lubna al-Hussein
Lubna al-Hussein
Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein is a Sudanese Muslim, media worker and activist who came to international attention in July 2009 when she was prosecuted for wearing trousers...
, Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company....
, Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel
Sir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...
, Marina Nemat
Marina Nemat
Marina Nemat is the author of a memoir about growing up in Iran, serving time in Evin Prison for speaking out against the Iranian government, escaping a death sentence and finally fleeing Iran for a new life in Canada.-Life:...
, Peter Thiel
Peter Thiel
Peter Andreas Thiel is an American business magnate, venture capitalist, and hedge fund manager. With Elon Musk and Max Levchin, Thiel co-founded PayPal and was its CEO...
, Julian Assange
Julian Assange
Julian Paul Assange is an Australian publisher, journalist, writer, computer programmer and Internet activist. He is the editor in chief of WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website and conduit for worldwide news leaks with the stated purpose of creating open governments.WikiLeaks has published material...
, Vaclav Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
, Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
, and Leopoldo Lopez
Leopoldo López
Leopoldo López Mendoza is a Venezuelan politician and economist. From 2000 until 2008, López was the mayor of the Chacao Municipality of Caracas. A 2006 Los Angeles Times article describes López as an immensely popular leader of the opposition to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, as well as a...
.
Children's Peace Movement
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 in Poland, Czech, Slovakia, Canada, and Norway with children in war-torn countries such as Afghanistan, Serbia, Croatia, and Iraq. The previous Patron was former Czech president Vaclav HavelVáclav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
.
Criticism of the United Nations Human Rights Council
In an article in the Huffington Post Halvorssen wrote: "It doesn’t take an academic or an intellectual to understand that something is very wrong when on the platform is the national leader of Iran who previously denied the holocaust that took place in Europe, expresses an interest in killing millions of Israeli Jews, and leads a government that actually hangs homosexuals. And this was just the first speaker! Durban II was a sad disappointment and it illustrates everything that is wrong with the current human rights establishment inside the UN. NGOs were put to one side and not allowed to comment or participate until after the final document was written. And some NGOs such as the ones representing Tibet or the Dalits were not even allowed to attend. What should have been a celebration of tolerance and dignity became a hatefest with several democracies simply standing up and walking out of the conference including Australia, Italy, Germany, Canada, The Netherlands, New Zealand, the U.S., Israel, and the Czech Republic. What did this say about Durban? Durban II was a disastrous embarrassment for those involved and it highlights several important weaknesses and shortcomings displayed by the human rights establishment. A magnificent opportunity to advance human rights in the world became a platform for the continuing corruption of human rights. Human Rights has, unfortunately, become watered down and redefined."Awards and recognition
University of Pennsylvania president Judith RodinJudith Rodin
Judith Rodin was the 7th president of the University of Pennsylvania from 1994 to 2004 and the first permanent female president of an Ivy League university. She is currently the president of the Rockefeller Foundation, a position she has held since 2005. A University of Pennsylvania alumna, she...
honored Halvorssen's achievements by awarding him the Sol Feinstone Award for protecting student speech. Halvorssen is a supporter and fellow of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni
American Council of Trustees and Alumni
The American Council of Trustees and Alumni is a non-profit organization whose stated mission is to "support liberal arts education, uphold high academic standards, safeguard the free exchange of ideas on campus, and ensure that the next generation receives a philosophically rich, high-quality...
and belongs to the leadership board.
In 2010 Romanian leader Emil Constantinescu
Emil Constantinescu
Emil Constantinescu was President of Romania from 1996 to 2000.He graduated from the law school of the University of Bucharest, and subsequently started a career as a geologist...
presented Halvorssen with a presidential silver medal to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Romanian Revolution of 1989
Romanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...
. "On behalf of those who fought and died for freedom, I present this medal to the Oslo Freedom Forum founder, and remind those here that even if Romanians live in democracy now, we cannot feel entirely free as long as other people--who live under dictatorial and repressive regimes anywhere in the world--are not also be free."
Publications
- Halvorssen, Thor L (1996). Simón Bolívar and the Enlightenment, University of Pennsylvania.
External links
- Writings on the Venezuelan recall referendum of 2004Venezuelan recall referendum of 2004The Venezuelan recall referendum of 15 August 2004 was a referendum to determine whether Hugo Chávez, the current President of Venezuela, should be recalled from office...
- Featured in The NationThe NationThe Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
- FIRE
- IMdB Profile