The Oslo Center
Encyclopedia
The Oslo Center was founded by former Norwegian
prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik
in January 2006. The purpose of the center is to work for world peace
, human rights
and inter-religious tolerance world wide. The center cooperates closely with the Carter Center
in Atlanta, the Kim Dae Jung Library in Seoul
and the Crisis Management Initiative
in Helsinki
. Bondevik himself has compared the center's activities with those of the Islam
ic Gülen movement
.
Shortly after the announced opening of The Oslo Center, Bondevik
told Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten
, that the center would focus primarily on negotiations between governments and take on the role as a peace
mediator
in conflict
areas around the world. He also said that the center would work closely with western
governments and international human rights
organizations and take advantage of the vast political networks that its members, all former politicians and bureaucrats, had built up over the years.
The center has eight full time
staff members, all of whom are former Norwegian politicians and bureaucrats, and three part time
staff members. The Oslo Center is a non-profit organization
and as a consequence relies solely upon donations from the public
. According to the official webpage, the center has managed to procure funds from various Norwegian businesses and corporations, which will keep it up and running for the next five years. The budget for 2007 is 10.5 million Norwegian krone
s.
received criticism
from both political commentators and newspapers when he informed the media about the new center. The recurring theme in this criticism was that Bondevik was using his political status to gain an unfair advantage for himself and his new center. Some commentators also felt that it was inappropriate for a recently retired prime minister
to accept large sums of money from both the Government and the Norwegian
business community, which up until that moment had benefitted from his politics. This was viewed by some as nepotism
.
Bondevik
was also criticized for selecting President of the Norwegian Parliament, Thorbjørn Jagland
, as chairman of the board
for the new center. Jagland, also received massive criticism for allowing Bondevik, a retired politician, to announce the opening of the centre in Jagland's Parliament office. Some felt that this raised serious doubts as to whether this was a private peace center, or whether it was under the auspices of the Norwegian Government.
newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad
, on the 30th of January 2006, Bondevik
responded to some of the recent criticism
that had been directed against him. In this interview he defended his actions and assured his critics that he had done nothing wrong. He also made it clear that the funds given to the center came without any strings attached. He also went on record to say that securing donations from private companies and businesses was in his opinion a positive thing, and he encouraged other humanitarian organizations to do the same.
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik
Kjell Magne Bondevik
Kjell Magne Bondevik is a Norwegian Lutheran minister and politician . He served as Prime Minister of Norway from 1997 to 2000, and from 2001 to 2005, making him Norway's longest serving non-Labour Party Prime Minister since World War II...
in January 2006. The purpose of the center is to work for world peace
Peace
Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the...
, human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
and inter-religious tolerance world wide. The center cooperates closely with the Carter Center
Carter Center
The Carter Center is a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn Carter. In partnership with Emory University, The Carter Center works to advance human rights and alleviate human suffering...
in Atlanta, the Kim Dae Jung Library in Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
and the Crisis Management Initiative
Crisis Management Initiative
Crisis Management Initiative is an independent, non-governmental organisation that works to resolve conflict and to build sustainable peace. CMI has offices in Helsinki and Brussels and activities in Liberia, Ethiopia, the Black Sea region, Middle East and Aceh. It was founded by Martti Ahtisaari,...
in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
. Bondevik himself has compared the center's activities with those of the Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic Gülen movement
Gülen movement
The Gülen movement is a transnational civic society movement inspired by the teachings of Turkish Islamic theologian Fethullah Gülen. His teachings about hizmet have attracted a large number of supporters in Turkey, Central Asia and increasingly in other parts of the world...
.
Shortly after the announced opening of The Oslo Center, Bondevik
Kjell Magne Bondevik
Kjell Magne Bondevik is a Norwegian Lutheran minister and politician . He served as Prime Minister of Norway from 1997 to 2000, and from 2001 to 2005, making him Norway's longest serving non-Labour Party Prime Minister since World War II...
told Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten
Aftenposten
Aftenposten is Norway's largest newspaper. It retook this position in 2010, taking it from the tabloid Verdens Gang which had been the largest newspaper for several decades. It is based in Oslo. The morning edition, which is distributed across all of Norway, had a circulation of 250,179 in 2007...
, that the center would focus primarily on negotiations between governments and take on the role as a peace
Peace
Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the...
mediator
Mediation
Mediation, as used in law, is a form of alternative dispute resolution , a way of resolving disputes between two or more parties. A third party, the mediator, assists the parties to negotiate their own settlement...
in conflict
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
areas around the world. He also said that the center would work closely with western
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
governments and international human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
organizations and take advantage of the vast political networks that its members, all former politicians and bureaucrats, had built up over the years.
The center has eight full time
Full time
Full-time employment is employment in which the employee works the full number of hours defined as such by his/her employer. Full-time employment often comes with benefits that are not typically offered to part-time, temporary, or flexible workers, such as annual leave, sickleave, and health...
staff members, all of whom are former Norwegian politicians and bureaucrats, and three part time
Part time
A part-time job is a form of employment that carries fewer hours per week than a full-time job. Workers are considered to be part time if they commonly work fewer than 30 or 35 hours per week...
staff members. The Oslo Center is a non-profit organization
Organization
An organization is a social group which distributes tasks for a collective goal. The word itself is derived from the Greek word organon, itself derived from the better-known word ergon - as we know `organ` - and it means a compartment for a particular job.There are a variety of legal types of...
and as a consequence relies solely upon donations from the public
Public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individuals, and the public is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the Öffentlichkeit or public sphere. The concept of a public has also been defined in political science,...
. According to the official webpage, the center has managed to procure funds from various Norwegian businesses and corporations, which will keep it up and running for the next five years. The budget for 2007 is 10.5 million Norwegian krone
Norwegian krone
The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"...
s.
Projects that the Center is currently involved in
- Burma:
- Bondevik co-authored the book prisoners in our own country about human rights abuse in Burma
- North Korea, failure to protect:
- Commissioning a study of the present humanitarian situation in North KoreaNorth KoreaThe Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
- Commissioning a study of the present humanitarian situation in North Korea
- Club de Madrid:
- An organization dedicated to democracyDemocracyDemocracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
around the world
- An organization dedicated to democracy
- Inter-culture and inter-religious dialogue:
- working for inter-religious dialogue
- New born’s right to life:
- organization working for the right’s of children*
- The right to life and the present situation in the Horn of Africa:
- organization working in the Horn of AfricaHorn of AfricaThe Horn of Africa is a peninsula in East Africa that juts hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden. It is the easternmost projection of the African continent...
- organization working in the Horn of Africa
- Health and human rights:
- Mapping out religious health assets that can be mobilized in the battle against AIDSAIDSAcquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
/HIVHIVHuman immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
in sub-Saharan AfricaSub-Saharan AfricaSub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...
- Mapping out religious health assets that can be mobilized in the battle against AIDS
Criticism of nepotism
Kjell Magne BondevikKjell Magne Bondevik
Kjell Magne Bondevik is a Norwegian Lutheran minister and politician . He served as Prime Minister of Norway from 1997 to 2000, and from 2001 to 2005, making him Norway's longest serving non-Labour Party Prime Minister since World War II...
received criticism
Criticism
Criticism is the judgement of the merits and faults of the work or actions of an individual or group by another . To criticize does not necessarily imply to find fault, but the word is often taken to mean the simple expression of an objection against prejudice, or a disapproval.Another meaning of...
from both political commentators and newspapers when he informed the media about the new center. The recurring theme in this criticism was that Bondevik was using his political status to gain an unfair advantage for himself and his new center. Some commentators also felt that it was inappropriate for a recently retired prime minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
to accept large sums of money from both the Government and the Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
business community, which up until that moment had benefitted from his politics. This was viewed by some as nepotism
Nepotism
Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives regardless of merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos, nepotis , from which modern Romanian nepot and Italian nipote, "nephew" or "grandchild" are also descended....
.
Bondevik
Kjell Magne Bondevik
Kjell Magne Bondevik is a Norwegian Lutheran minister and politician . He served as Prime Minister of Norway from 1997 to 2000, and from 2001 to 2005, making him Norway's longest serving non-Labour Party Prime Minister since World War II...
was also criticized for selecting President of the Norwegian Parliament, Thorbjørn Jagland
Thorbjørn Jagland
is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party, currently serving as the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe...
, as chairman of the board
Chairman of the Board
The Chairman of the Board is a seat of office in an organization, especially of corporations.Chairman of the Board may also refer to:*Chairman of the Board , a 1998 film*Chairmen of the Board , a 1970s American soul music group...
for the new center. Jagland, also received massive criticism for allowing Bondevik, a retired politician, to announce the opening of the centre in Jagland's Parliament office. Some felt that this raised serious doubts as to whether this was a private peace center, or whether it was under the auspices of the Norwegian Government.
Bondevik's reaction to the criticism
In an interview given to NorwegianNorway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad
Stavanger Aftenblad
Stavanger Aftenblad or simply Aftenbladet is a daily newspaper in Stavanger, Norway. It was founded in 1893 by the priest Lars Oftedal, and was for a long period a publication for the Liberal Party. It had a circulation of 68,186 copies in 2005...
, on the 30th of January 2006, Bondevik
Kjell Magne Bondevik
Kjell Magne Bondevik is a Norwegian Lutheran minister and politician . He served as Prime Minister of Norway from 1997 to 2000, and from 2001 to 2005, making him Norway's longest serving non-Labour Party Prime Minister since World War II...
responded to some of the recent criticism
Criticism
Criticism is the judgement of the merits and faults of the work or actions of an individual or group by another . To criticize does not necessarily imply to find fault, but the word is often taken to mean the simple expression of an objection against prejudice, or a disapproval.Another meaning of...
that had been directed against him. In this interview he defended his actions and assured his critics that he had done nothing wrong. He also made it clear that the funds given to the center came without any strings attached. He also went on record to say that securing donations from private companies and businesses was in his opinion a positive thing, and he encouraged other humanitarian organizations to do the same.