Bjørn Erik Thon (born 6 February 1964) is a Norwegian jurist and ombudsman.

Career

He graduated as cand.jur. in 1989. From 1999 to 2000, during the

first cabinet Bondevik Bondevik's First Cabinet governed Norway between 17 October 1997 to 17 March 2000. It was led by Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, and consisted of the Christian Democratic Party, the Centre Party and the Liberal Party The Liberal Party is a ...

Thon worked as a political advisor in the Ministry of Justice and the Police. He has been a member of

Grefsen thumbnail, 250px, Grefsen Church Grefsen is a neighbourhood in the city of Oslo, Norway. Grefsen was a part of the municipality of Aker before the Second World War, later incorporated into Oslo. Together with Kjelsås, Grefsen then formed the bo ...

Kjelsås Kjelsås, sometimes called Kjelsaas, is one of the northern neighbourhoods of Oslo situated in Nordre Aker, the northern borough of Oslo, Norway. History Together with Grefsen, Kjelsås was part of the borough ''Grefsen-Kjelsås'' until Ja ...

borough council for the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

. From 2000 to 2010, he headed the office of the Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman. His period was renewed in 2007. He succeeded

Georg Apenes Georg Apenes (5 April 1940 – 2 October 2016) was a Norwegian politician and jurist. Career Apenes was born in Fredrikstad. After finishing secondary education, he briefly worked as a substitute school teacher in his hometown in 1960 before ente ...

as director of the

Norwegian Data Inspectorate The Norwegian Data Protection Authority ( no, Datatilsynet) is an agency of the Norwegian Government responsible for managing the ''Personal Data Act 2000'', concerning privacy concerns. This Act replaced the ''Data Register Act 1978''. The ...

in late May 2010, though his immediate predecessor was acting director Ove Skåra.

Ombudsman of Gender Equality and Anti-Discrimination

On 19 November 2021, he was nominated to succeed Hanne Bjurstrøm as ombudsman of the Gender Equality and Anti-Discrimination Ombud. He became the first man to hold the position. He assumes office on 28 February 2022. In July 2022, Thon argued that the incident of a woman of Russian woman not being granted a job interview due to her nationality, was a clear example of discrimination. He also emphasised that it was important to differentiate between the Russian state and individual Russian citizens. He was supported by lawyer Henriette Willix from Advokatfirmaet Sulland.

Writing

In 2000, he started his career as a writer with his crime novel ''Svart kappe''. He followed with the crime novels ''Den tause klienten'' in 2002 and ''Den enes død'' in 2004. In 2005 he wrote the consumer issues book ''Forbrukerjungelboka'' with Ola Fæhn.

References

1964 births Living people Norwegian jurists Directors of government agencies of Norway Norwegian crime fiction writers Norwegian non-fiction writers Ombudsmen in Norway Liberal Party (Norway) politicians Politicians from Oslo {{Norway-writer-stub