Liv Jessen (born 21 September 1947) is a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

social worker, and former head of ProSenteret in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

—an organization that deals with issues related to prostitution. Jessen was born in

Sandefjord Sandefjord () is a city and the most populous municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. The municipality of Sandefjord was established on 1 January 1838. The municipality of Sandar was merged into Sandefjord on 1 January 1969. On 1 ...

. In 2004 she was awarded Amnesty International Norway's Human Rights prize, in 2007 she received the ''Equality Award'' from the Confederation of Vocational Unions (''YS'') and in 2013 the King's Medal of Merit (''Kongens fortjenstmedalje'').Kongens Fortjenstmedalje til Liv Jessen
Velferdsetaten, Oslo kommune. ''accessed December 30, 2013''

ProSenteret

She led ProSenteret from 1984 until the end of February 2014. (The center is run by both the national government and the municipal government—''statlig''/''kommunal''.) In 2001, the center's

supervised injection site Supervised injection sites (SIS) are medically supervised facilities designed to provide a hygienic environment in which people are able to consume illicit recreational drugs intravenously and prevent deaths due to drug overdoses. The legality ...

was closed, after TV2 had reported about its operating for two months, unlawfully. She has said that the publicity around this, later contributed to such injection sites becoming legal in Norway. Since March 2014 she is not a formal employee of the center, but she will retain her office space until the end of the year, for the purpose of writing until she at the end of the year becomes a retiree.

References

1947 births Norwegian social workers Living people People from Sandefjord {{Norway-bio-stub