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For Halvorssen's father, see
Thor Halvorssen Hellum
.
Thor Halvorssen Mendoza
Born
Thor Leonardo Halvorssen Mendoza

(1976-03-09) March 9, 1976 (age 48)[1][2]
Venezuela
Alma materUniversity of Pennsylvania
Organization(s)Human Rights Foundation (Founder and CEO)
Oslo Freedom Forum (Founder)

Thor Leonardo Halvorssen Mendoza[a] (born 1976;[1][2] Spanish pronunciation: [ˈtoɾ alˈβoɾsen]) is a Venezuelan 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 as a maverick "who champions the underdog and the powerless."[1] Buzzfeed publishes that Halvorssen "possesses a burning desire to right the countless injustices of this world and he has committed himself to this task with an intensity to match that of the dictatorship he has placed in his sights. And he does not care if those injustices are being committed by the 'right-wing' or 'left-wing' regimes."[3]

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".[4] Halvorssen is president of the Human Rights Foundation, an organization devoted to global human rights and freedom. He is the Patron of the Czech-based Children's Peace Movement, On Own Feet.[5]

Halvorssen bought the traditionally leftist Norwegian news magazine Ny Tid in May 2010.[6]

Halvorssen's opinions have appeared in

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 2010.[8]

Background

Halvorssen was born in Venezuela to Hilda Mendoza, a descendant and a relative, respectively, of Venezuela's first president

Leopoldo Lopez.[10]
a Venezuelan politician, activist, and a political prisoner after called for peaceful protests in February 2014.

Halvorssen attended the

magna cum laude
, with concurrent undergraduate and graduate degrees in Political Science and History.

Father's imprisonment

Halvorssen’s father, also named Thor Halvorssen, was a wealthy businessman who was named the CEO of Venezuela's state TV CANTV.[11] In 1989, then-President Carlos Andrés Pérez appointed Halvorssen Sr. as Venezuela’s “anti-drug ambassador.[12]”

When Halvorssen was a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania,

Medellín cartel for money laundering and bank fraud. His father was tortured, beaten, and in danger of being murdered. It was named the 'yuppie' terrorists plot because its planners were allegedly bankers and other gilded elite who hoped that the panic caused by the bombs would help them speculate on the stock market.".[14] His father was beaten[15] during his 74-day incarceration in a Caracas jail on charges of terrorism.[16][17][18] Halvorssen led the campaign for his father’s release, garnering help from Amnesty International[13] which issued protests along with other International organizations. Halvorssen was eventually found not guilty of all charges. After his release the International Society for Human Rights appointed him director of their Pan-American Committee.[15][19][20]

Mother's shooting

While attending a peaceful protest of the

Venezuelan recall referendum of 2004, Halvorssen's mother, Hilda Mendoza Denham, a British subject, was shot.[21] Images of government supporters firing upon the demonstrators were captured by a live television broadcast.[22][23] 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.[24][25] They were released after serving six months in prison.[26]

Activism

Halvorssen has a specialty on matters regarding dictatorships, human trafficking, slavery, and threats to democracy. He has lectured widely on the subject of human rights including at Harvard Law School, the New York City Junto, the United Nations Association in New York, and the American Enterprise Institute.[27][28][29][30] Halvorssen has also spoken at the British parliament.[31] Alongside Harvard Law School dean Martha Minow he testified to the U.S. Commission on Unalienable Rights of the U.S. State Department.[2]

Halvorssen testified to the U.S. Congress that he was the target of a smear campaign by Fusion GPS. Halvorssen provided testimony to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in July 2017.[32][33]

Lucent Technologies

In 1999, Halvorssen spearheaded a campaign on the floor of the

slave labor. China's Laogai camps allegedly imprison eight million men, women, and children in 1,100 factories, farms, and other facilities producing a wide range of consumer products.[34]

Foundation for Individual Rights in Education

In 1999, Halvorssen became the first executive director and chief executive officer of the

ACLU. Halvorssen has a track record of defending individuals both on the right[35] and on the left of the political spectrum.[36]

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."[37] 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."[38]

Human Rights Foundation

Halvorssen stepped down as head of FIRE in March 2004 to join its Board of Advisors and announced the creation of an international group that would "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."[39] HRF 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 Elie Wiesel, Harry Wu, and Vladimir Bukovsky. It also includes democracy activists such as Mart Laar, and Garry Kasparov. Its chairman until his death in December 2011, was Václav Havel.

At the helm of HRF Halvorssen has repeatedly lobbied and advocated for the release of Chinese political prisoner

Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer and has sharply criticized the Taiwanese Kuomintang government for its banning visits by Kadeer.[45]
Halvorssen has supported UN-level action to address the violations of Uyghur rights in China.

Halvorssen appears as a frequent critic of Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni and, in particular, the legislative efforts in Uganda to punish homosexuality with the death penalty.[46] Halvorssen is a critic of

Erykah Baduh, Mariah Carey, Nelly Furtado, and 50 Cent.[55][56][57]

Other advocacy campaigns include Panama’s president Ricardo Martinelli on freedom of speech violations; political prisoner cases in Venezuela, Vietnam, Cuba, and Bolivia; as well as the rights of human rights defenders in Colombia.

Oslo Freedom Forum

Main article: 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. According to

Wired Magazine, "if the global human-rights movement were to create its own unified representative body, it would look something like this."[58]

Norwegian newspaper

Mikhail Khodorkovskii
.

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, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Canada, and Norway with children in war-torn countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq.[60][61] The previous Patron was former Czech president Václav Havel.

Film

In 2006, Halvorssen executive produced

Tribeca Film Festival.[62] The film won Best New Documentary Film at the Zurich Film Festival.[63]

Halvorssen co-produced the film

Tribeca Film Festival.[62][64] The film relates the story of the uprising against the government that occurred in Hungary
in 1956.

Halvorssen is producer of the film

Black Nights Film Festival in December 2006 where it received a 15-minute standing ovation.[66] Since then, it has become the most successful documentary film in Estonian box-office history.[67]

Halvorssen produced The Dissident in 2020, a film about the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, directed by Bryan Fogel.[68]

Filmography

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

Awards and recognition

University of Pennsylvania president Judith Rodin honored Halvorssen's achievements by awarding him the Sol Feinstone Award for protecting student speech.[69]

In 2010 Romanian leader

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."[70]

In 2018, Halvorssen was awarded the Millennium Candler Justice Prize, honoring leadership in effecting positive social change, presented at the Millennium Gate Museum.[71] The prize was previously awarded to Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter and to Prince Jean of Orléans, Dauphin of France.[72]

Publications

Notes

  1. ^ In this article, the surname is Halvorssen, not Mendoza.

References

  1. ^
    New York Times. (Archived by WebCite here.
    )
  2. ^
    Forbes
    .
  3. ^ Gray, Rosie (2013). "Is This The Face Of A New Global Human Rights Movement?". buzzfeed.com. Buzzfeed, Inc.
  4. ^ "A crowded field". The Economist. May 27, 2010.
  5. Huffington Post
    .
  6. ^ "Global Solidarity in Action: New owners of Ny Tid". Ny Tid. May 10, 2010. Archived from the original on September 6, 2010. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  7. ^ The Human Rights Foundation (2014-01-22). "HRF on BBC World News TV Today to Discuss North Korea Balloon Launch | News" (Press release). The Human Rights Foundation. Archived from the original on 2014-05-05. Retrieved 2014-05-24.
  8. ^ "TEDxPenn exceeded expectations". Thedp.com. 2010-10-04. Archived from the original on 2011-05-18. Retrieved 2014-05-24.
  9. ^ Aftenposten, 26 August 1947, p. 5
  10. ^ Halvorssen, Thor (March 14, 2012). "Hugo Chavez channels the dead". Pittsburgh Post Gazette
  11. ^ "Can TV Past Presidents". Archived from the original on 2007-05-23.
  12. ISBN 978-0-8061-7221-7
    .
  13. ^ a b Grady, Rosie. "Is This The Face Of A New Global Human Rights Movement?". Buzzfeed News. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  14. ISBN 978-1-78032-988-8
    .
  15. ^
    Christian Science Monitor
    . Boston, Mass.: Dec 20, 1993.
  16. Gentlemen's Quarterly
    (GQ) UK: July 1994.
  17. ^ Fonzi, Gaeton. "The Troublemaker". The Pennsylvania Gazette (November 1994)
  18. ^ Malaver, Manuel (August 29, 2001). "Recuerdos del terrorismo caraqueño" (in Spanish). Tal Cual. Archived from the original on August 23, 2004. Retrieved March 3, 2007.
  19. ^ Former Venezuelan Drug Official Freed; Christian Science Monitor. Boston, Mass.: Dec 24, 1993.
  20. Wall Street Journal. New York, N.Y.: Mar 4, 1994. pg. A9 Available online here.
  21. ^ Briton Shot In Venezuela. Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine EURSOC, (August 19, 2004). Retrieved on September 14, 2006.
  22. ^ (in Spanish) Olivares, Francisco. Otra vez los pistoleros. Archived 2011-07-10 at the Wayback Machine El Universal (5 September 2004). Retrieved on September 9, 2008.
  23. ^ (in Spanish) Fotos de la nueva masacre de Altamira, 2004.08.16 urru.org. Retrieved on September 14, 2006.
  24. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-08-21. Retrieved 2010-08-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  25. ^ Revocan condena a ‘pistoleros de Altamira’. Prensa.com (11 April 2006)
  26. ^ Arenas, Macky (2014). "El ABC de Katty Ron / Hermana de Maritza Ron, asesinada en Plaza Altamira "Mi hermana vino a votar para el Revocatorio, sin imaginar que encontraría la muerte"". abcdelasemana.com. ABC de la Semana.
  27. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-06-21. Retrieved 2010-06-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  28. ^ "The New York City Junto". Nycjunto.com. 2007-05-03. Retrieved 2017-03-13.
  29. ^ "UNA-NY: Event Archive". Unanyc.org. 2008-03-20. Retrieved 2017-03-13.
  30. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-05-31. Retrieved 2010-06-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  31. ^ "The Responsibility to Protect". The Henry Jackson Society. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  32. ^ Halvorssen, Thor (25 July 2017). "Here is my testimony to U.S. @senjudiciary committee about paid smear campaigns of #FusionGPS #Derwick #Venezuela …". twitter.com. Retrieved 29 July 2017. https://www.scribd.com/document/354721041/Testimony-of-Thor-Halvorssen-to-the-Senate-Committee-on-the-Judiciary-7-26-2017 {{cite web}}: External link in |quote= (help)
  33. ^ Smith, Lee. "'Fusion GPS' Sleazy Venezuela Links Shed New Light on Trump Dossier". tabletmag.com. Tablet Magazine. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  34. ^ Lucent Stockowners Want Anti-Slave Labor Policy for China Operations. Retrieved on August 26, 2006. Archived December 15, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
  35. Buckley, William F. Jr. Who Do We Blame? The case of a YAF student chapter at Penn State. National Review
    (April 10, 2001). Retrieved on September 9, 2008.
  36. ^ Carlson, Scott. University Orders Student Group to Remove Online Link to a Rebel Group's Web Site. The Chronicle of Higher Education (September 27, 2002). Retrieved on September 9, 2008.
  37. ^ Halvorssen, Thor L. Campus Tyranny. Archived 2005-03-18 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on August 26, 2006.
  38. ^ Tests for Academic Freedom in a Time of War. The Chronicle of Higher Education. (April 17, 2003). Retrieved on September 9, 2008.
  39. ^ Glabe, Scott L. New Organization Opens Fire on Chavez Archived November 20, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, The Dartmouth Review, November 22, 2005. Retrieved on September 9, 2008.
  40. ^ Halvorssen, Thor (October 8, 2010). "Human Rights Is Big Winner in Nobel Peace Prize Selection". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  41. ^ Halvorssen, Thor (December 23, 2010). "Truth will Outweigh the Chinese Dictatorship--Liu Xiaobo's Freedom is the Test". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  42. ^ "HRF announces its membership in the International Committee to Support Liu Xiaobo". Human Rights Foundation. Archived from the original on 10 March 2012. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  43. ^ "Nobel Peace Prize winners campaign to release Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo". London: The Telegraph. December 9, 2011. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  44. ^ "Nobel winners urge China to release Liu Xiaobo". The Guardian. London. January 23, 2008. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  45. ^ Halvorssen, Thor (August 17, 2010). "Taiwan Fails to Learn From Its Own History". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  46. ^ Halvorssen, Thor (November 23, 2010). "United Nations: It's Okay to Kill the Gay". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  47. ^ Halvorssen, Thor. Guerrilla Nation. The Weekly Standard (January 26, 2005).
  48. ^ Halvorssen, Thor. Hurricane Hugo. The Weekly Standard, August 8, 2005, Volume 010, Issue 44. Also available at LookSmart.
  49. ^ Halvorssen, Thor. Hugo Chavez vs. the Media. The Weekly Standard (June 9, 2003).
  50. ^ Halvorssen, Thor. Comandante Chavez's Friends. The Weekly Standard (March 11, 2003).
  51. ^ Halvorssen, Thor (December 11, 2006). Pinochet Is History. National Review Online Symposium. Retrieved on February 21, 2010.
  52. ^ Knapp, Alex (December 13, 2006). Another Symposium of Denial. Outside the Beltway. Retrieved on February 21, 2010.
  53. ^ Child, Ben (October 11, 2011). "Hilary Swank under fire for attending Ramzan Kadyrov's party in Chechnya". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  54. ^ Child, Ben (October 31, 2011). "Hilary Swank sacks manager and staff following Ramzan Kadyrov PR disaster". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  55. ^ Daunt, Tina (2013). "Jennifer Lopez Accused of Accepting $10 Million From 'Dictators and Crooks'". The Hollywood Reporter.
  56. ^ "Human Rights Group Slams Mariah Carey for Concert in Angola". The Hollywood Reporter. 2013.
  57. ^ Halvorssen, Thor; Gladstein, Alex (2014). "Erykah Badu's Oppressively Apolitical Stance on Human Rights". time.com. Time.
  58. Wired Magazine. Conde Nast UK. Archived from the original
    on 2016-04-19. Retrieved 2017-09-16.
  59. ^ "Heltene samles i Oslo" [The heroes gather in Oslo] (in Norwegian). Hanne Skartveit. 2010-05-28. Retrieved 2014-05-24.
  60. The Huffington Post
    . Retrieved 2017-03-13.
  61. ^ "Hnutí Na vlastních nohou - Stonožka". Stonozka.org. Retrieved 2017-03-13.
  62. ^
    IMDb
    Retrieved on August 26, 2006.
  63. ^ Closing Night of the 2nd Zurich Film Festival.[permanent dead link] Zurich Film Festival (October 10, 2006). Retrieved on December 9, 2006.
  64. ^ Cold War Tale Told at Last. New York Post (April 29, 2006). Available online. Archived 2011-07-14 at the Wayback Machine
  65. ^ The Singing Revolution. Official website. Retrieved on September 9, 2008.
  66. ^ Reviews. The Singing Revolution. Retrieved on September 9, 2008.
  67. ^ Singing Revolution. Archived 2010-02-12 at the Wayback Machine Estosite.org. Retrieved on February 21, 2010.
  68. ^ Glieberman, Owen. "'The Dissident': Film Review". Variety. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  69. ^ Thor Halvorssen. PublicEye.org Retrieved 26 August 2006.
  70. ^ [1] Archived July 28, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  71. ^ "Millennium Gate Museum | 2018 Millennium Candler Honorees". thegatemuseum.org. Retrieved 2018-10-26.
  72. ^ Staff, Neighbor. "National Monuments Foundation sends delegation to Denmark, announces 2018 awards". MDJOnline.com. Retrieved 2018-10-26.

External links

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