Fredrik Stang Heffermehl (born 11 November 1938) is a Norwegian jurist, writer and translator. He formerly worked as a lawyer and civil servant from 1965 to 1982 and as the first secretary-general of the Norwegian Humanist Association, from 1980 to 1982. He later made his mark as an independent writer and activist for peace

Peace movement

A peace movement is a social movement that seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war , minimize inter-human violence in a particular place or type of situation, often linked to the goal of achieving world peace...

 and against nuclear arms.

Career

Born in Rena

Rena, Norway

Rena is a small town in eastern Norway. It is the administrative centre of Åmot municipality in the Norwegian county of Hedmark. Rena is a rather rural but picturesque town, and is situated at the meeting point of Glomma and Rena rivers . The latter is one of the best for fishing in Norway.Its...

, Heffermehl enrolled at the University of Oslo

University of Oslo

The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...

, graduating with the cand.jur. degree in 1964. He then worked as a lawyer from 1965 to 1973, while also taking a master's degree in 1970 at New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

. In 1973 Heffermehl was hired as a sub-director under the Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman

Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman

The Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman is a government-appointed ombudsman in Norway for consumer affairs.The office was established in 1973 with Inger Louise Valle as the first holder. The office of the consumer ombudsman sees to it that the marketing of goods and services is done in accordance with...

. He left this position in 1980 to become the first secretary-general of the Norwegian Humanist Association. He left the Humanist Association in 1982 to work as an independent writer. In addition to writing non-fiction books, Heffermehl has translated several books to Norwegian

Norwegian language

Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...

.

In 1988 he became the president of the NGO Norwegian Peace Council, and a member of the board of the International Peace Bureau

International Peace Bureau

International Peace Bureau is the world's oldest international peace federation. It was founded in 1891, and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1910....

. In 1994 he became vice president in the International Peace Bureau, and in 1997 he assumed the same position in the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms. After stepping down as president of the Norwegian Peace Council, he was proclaimed honorary president.

Support of Mordechai Vanunu

Heffermehl is an outspoken supporter of Mordechai Vanunu

Mordechai Vanunu

Mordechai Vanunu ; is a former Israeli nuclear technician who, citing his opposition to weapons of mass destruction, revealed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the British press in 1986. He was subsequently lured to Italy by a Mossad agent, where he was drugged and kidnapped by...

, the technician who revealed the Israeli nuclear programme

Nuclear weapons and Israel

Israel is widely believed to be the sixth country in the world to have developed nuclear weapons and to be one of four nuclear-armed countries not recognized as a Nuclear Weapons State by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty , the others being India, Pakistan and North Korea...

. According to Heffermehl, he had, as of 2008, nominated Vanunu for the Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...

 eighteen times. He has also tried to pressure the Norwegian government to grant political asylum to Vanunu on numerous occasions, citing that Norway has a special responsibility due to their 1959 delivery of heavy water

Heavy water

Heavy water is water highly enriched in the hydrogen isotope deuterium; e.g., heavy water used in CANDU reactors is 99.75% enriched by hydrogen atom-fraction...

 to Israel via Great Britain. In April 2008 it was revealed that the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration had granted asylum to Vanunu in 2004, but the decision was overturned by then-Minister Erna Solberg

Erna Solberg

Erna Solberg is a Norwegian politician, and current leader of the Conservative Party of Norway. She was the Municipal and Regional Minister in Kjell Magne Bondevik's second government, 19 October 2001 until 17 October 2005. In 2005, she was appointed a Commander of the Order of St. Olav.-Early...

. Upon the revelation Heffermehl expressed concern that although the political leadership of Norway changed in 2005, not nearly enough was done in the way of helping Vanunu, due to perceived loyalty concerns to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre

Jonas Gahr Støre

Jonas Gahr Støre is the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, having been appointed to Jens Stoltenberg's second cabinet on 17 October 2005. He represents the Norwegian Labour Party.-Personal life:...

, on the other hand, stated that Norway already had put enough pressure on Israel, through diplomatic channels. In May 2008 Heffermehl, this time together with prominents jurists such as Ketil Lund

Ketil Lund

Ketil Lund is a Norwegian judge.He was born in Oslo as a son of barrister and director Bernt Bjelke Lund and Irlin Sommerfelt . He is a paternal grandson of Jens Michael Lund. From 1963 to 1967 he was married to curator Inger Marie Grue; he then married artist Liv Bussoli...

 and Jan Fridthjof Bernt

Jan Fridthjof Bernt

Jan Fridthjof Bernt is a Norwegian professor of law and former rector at the University of Bergen.He graduated with the cand.jur. degree from the University of Oslo in 1968, with the Master of Comparative Law from the University of Michigan in 1971 and took the dr.juris degree at the University...

, again petitioned to Norwegian Prime Minister to take action.

Nobel Peace Prize criticism

Since August 2007 Heffermehl has marked himself as a staunch critic of the Norwegian Nobel Committee

Norwegian Nobel Committee

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the Nobel Peace Prize each year.Its five members are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament and roughly represent the political makeup of that body.-History:...

, which, according to Heffermehl, has failed to comply with the will

Will (law)

A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...

 of Alfred Nobel

Alfred Nobel

Alfred Bernhard Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, and armaments manufacturer. He is the inventor of dynamite. Nobel also owned Bofors, which he had redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron and steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon and other armaments...

, thereby making several awards—45% of the awards after 1945—juridically illegal. Among the laureates perceived by Heffermehl as illegal are the more controversial laureates, such as Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissinger

Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...

 and Le Duc Tho

Le Duc Tho

Lê Đức Thọ , born Phan Đình Khải in Ha Nam province, was a Vietnamese revolutionary, general, diplomat, and politician, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 1973, although he declined it....

 (1973) and Arafat, Peres

Shimon Peres

GCMG is the ninth President of the State of Israel. Peres served twice as the eighth Prime Minister of Israel and once as Interim Prime Minister, and has been a member of 12 cabinets in a political career spanning over 66 years...

 and Rabin (1994), but also less controversial ones such as Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa , born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu , was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950...

 (1979) and 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...

 (1986). Although many laureates have done "commendable work", Heffermehl stresses that this is not good enough to receive a prize whose criteria explicitly pertain to disarmament and peace work.

His views were first explained in-depth in the 2008 book Nobels vilje (English: "Nobel's Will"). Since 1948, the selection of members of the Nobel Committee has been delegated from the Parliament of Norway (against what Nobel prescribed) to the major political parties. According to Heffermehl, the Norwegian political parties have used committee membership as an award to over-the-hill politicians in recognition of their service, rather than picking non-partisan people with an actual background in peace activism. Furthermore, Heffermehl, being an opponent of the Norwegian membership in NATO, finds that the broad pro-NATO consensus among Norwegian political parties has skewed the Nobel Peace Prize in a similar direction. This, says Heffermehl, runs contrary to Alfred Nobel's wishes to abandon military institutions.

In an interview with 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...

he suggested that the current Committee members be replaced with people such as Jan Egeland

Jan Egeland

Jan Egeland was the United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator from June 2003 to December 2006. Egeland was appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan and succeeded Kenzo Oshima...

, Ingrid Fiskaa

Ingrid Fiskaa

Ingrid Fiskaa is a Norwegian activist and politician for the Socialist Left Party.She was the leader of the Socialist Youth from 2002 to 2004, and also a central committee member of the Socialist Left Party. In 2007 she was a candidate to become deputy leader of the Socialist Left Party, but lost...

, Jostein Gaarder

Jostein Gaarder

Jostein Gaarder /ˈju:staɪn ˈgɔːrdər/ is a Norwegian intellectual and author of several novels, short stories and children's books. Gaarder often writes from the perspective of children, exploring their sense of wonder about the world. He often uses metafiction in his works, writing stories within...

 and Sverre Lodgaard

Sverre Lodgaard

Sverre Lodgaard is a Norwegian political scientist and politician for the Labour Party.He graduated from the University of Oslo with the cand.polit. degree in 1971...

. Other suggestions from Heffermehl include Gunnar Garbo

Gunnar Garbo

Gunnar Garbo is a Norwegian journalist, politician and ambassador. He represented the Liberal Party of Norway at the Norwegian Parliament during four electorial periods, from 1958 to 1973, and was leader for the party from 1964 to 1970...

, Ingrid Eide

Ingrid Eide

Ingrid Eide is a Norwegian sociologist, United Nations official and politician for the Labour Party.-Political career:...

, Erik Dammann

Erik Dammann

Erik Dammann is a Norwegian author and environmentalist, educated within advertising. He is mostly known for founding of the Norwegian-based organization, The Future in Our Hands...

, Torild Skard

Torild Skard

Torild Skard is a Norwegian psychologist and researcher, feminist, politician for the Socialist Left Party, civil servant and former high-ranking United Nations official . She served as a Member of Parliament, President of its upper chamber and Deputy Chair of the Standing Committee on Justice...

, Reiulf Steen

Reiulf Steen

Reiulf Steen is a Norwegian politician for the Norwegian Labour Party. He was active in the Norwegian Labour Party from 1958 to 1990, serving as deputy party chairman from 1965 to 1975 and chairman from 1975 to 1981....

, Johan Galtung

Johan Galtung

Johan Galtung is a Norwegian sociologist and the principal founder of the discipline of peace and conflict studies. He founded the Peace Research Institute Oslo in 1959, serving as its Director until 1970, and established the Journal of Peace Research in 1964...

 and Berit Ås

Berit Ås

Berit Ås is a Norwegian politician, professor of social psychology, and feminist. She was the first leader of the Socialist Left Party and served as a Member of Parliament 1973–1977. She was also a deputy member of parliament 1969–1973  and 1977–1981...

. In Nobels vilje, Heffermehl regrets that Eide was not hired as Nobel Committee secretary when she actually applied for that position in 1990.

Criticism of Norwegian parliament distorting Nobel's intention

In the autumn of 2010 Heffermehl published a critical study, The Nobel Peace Prize. What Nobel really wanted. The aim was to look into the methods used by the Norwegian establishment to repress his rediscovery of the content of the prize for "the champions of peace" named in the 1895 will of Alfred Nobel. Nobel made a choice between two fundamentally different ways forward for humanity, either continuing to seek peace by military means or by co-operation on international law, institutions, and disarmament. When Parliament and the Nobel Committee ignored his views and declared that no one supported his interpretation, Heffermehl set out to prove them wrong. He found that numerous academic and other works over the years had expressed the same views on the role of Bertha von Suttner and that Nobel intended to support the antimilitarist peace movement. This made it necessary to use the fate of the Peace Prize for a case study of the distortion of Nobel's testament and how Parliament had managed the prize entrusted to them by Nobel.