Ögmundur Jónasson (born 17 July 1948) is an Icelandic politician who served as a member of

Althing The (; ), anglicised as Althingi or Althing, is the Parliamentary sovereignty, supreme Parliament, national parliament of Iceland. It is the oldest surviving parliament in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at ('Thing (assembly), thing ...

i, the Icelandic Parliament, from 1995 to 2016. He is the former

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

(2011-2013);

Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

and human rights and minister of transport, communications and local government (2010); and

Minister of Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare spending and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental heal ...

and social security (2009).

Early life and education

Ögmundur was born in

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

. He is born to father Jónas B. Jónsson, an education director, and mother Guðrún Ö. Stephensen, a housewife. Ögmundur graduated from

Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík (MR; official name in English: Reykjavik College) is collegein Iceland. It is located in Reykjavík. The school traces its origin to 1056, when a school was established in Skálholt, and it remains one of the oldest ...

in 1969 and from the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

in 1974 with a MA in history and political science.

Early career

Apart from his political career, Ögmundur has been a

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and a

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

leader, researcher, and part-time lecturer including at the

University of Iceland The University of Iceland ( ) is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland, and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. Founded in 1911, it has grown steadily from a small civil servants' school to a modern co ...

. He has been active in various grass-root activities, a prolific commentator and public speaker. He was a radio broadcaster and TV reporter at

RÚV Ríkisútvarpið (, ; abbr. RÚV ) is Iceland's national public broadcasting, public-service broadcasting organization. Founded in 1930, it operates from studios in the country's capital, Reykjavík, as well as regional centres around the count ...

, the Icelandic Public Broadcasting Service (1978-1988), and the Chairman of BSRB, the Confederation of State and Municipal Employees of Iceland (1988-2009). He has served on several international trade union boards, such as the

European Trade Union Confederation The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is the major trade union organisation representing workers at the European level. In its role as a European social partner, the ETUC works both in a consulting role with the European Commission and ...

(ETUC), the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU),

Public Services International Public Services International (PSI) is the global union federation for workers in public services, including those who work in social services, health care, municipal services, central government and public utilities. , PSI has 700 affiliated ...

(PSI), the

Council of Nordic Trade Unions The Council of Nordic Trade Unions (NFS) is a regional trade union federation. It represents 9 million members from 16 national trade unions in the Nordic countries of Europe. It was founded in 1972, and has close ties with the Baltic Sea Trade Un ...

(NFS) and the Council of Nordic Municipal Employees (NTR).

Political career

When Ögmundur entered Parliament in 1995 for the now defunct Reykjavík constituency, he first represented the People's Alliance and Non-Aligned. Later he partook in the foundation of the

Left-Green Movement The Left-Green Movement (, ), also known by its short-form name Vinstri græn (VG), is an eco-socialist political party in Iceland. Since the 2024 Icelandic parliamentary election, the party has had no members in the Althing. The party chairper ...

and served as its Chairperson of the Parliamentary group from 1999-2009. Ögmundur became Iceland's

in February 2009, but resigned at the end of September in connection with the

Icesave dispute The Icesave dispute was a diplomatic dispute among Iceland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. It began after the privately owned Icelandic bank Landsbanki was placed in receivership on 7 October 2008. As Landsbanki was one of three syst ...

. He returned to the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

in September 2010 and from January 2011 he headed the newly created Ministry of the Interior and stayed as minister until a new government came to power in 2013.

Personal life

Family

Ögmundur is married to Valgerður Andrésdóttir, a geneticist, with whom he has three children.

Political Beliefs

Ögmundur has been outspoken on foreign policy issues. He is critical of Iceland's

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

membership and a strong supporter of

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

and national minority rights. He is also a supporter of the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, an organisation which campaigns for democratic reformation of the United Nations. He has gained international attention in connection with three issues. First, he proposed measures designed to protect children from the harms of violent pornography as part of his broader support for human rights and

women’s rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries ...

. It was a step criticized by some free speech activists, but welcomed by human rights advocates and feminists. Second, his decision in 2011 to reject a plan by a Chinese business tycoon, Mr. Huang Nubo, to purchase a huge tract of land in the North East of Iceland attracted much geopolitical and media attention. It raised suspicions that the plan was part of Chinese efforts to gain a strategic foothold in Iceland. Third, Ögmundur Jónasson refused all cooperation with

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

agents who had come to Iceland in 2011 to question Sigurdur Thordarson—on the pretext of investigating an impending hacking attack on Icelandic government computers—and directed them to leave the country because he believed that they were, in fact, engaged in a broader swoop to gather intelligence on

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is a non-profit media organisation and publisher of leaked documents. It is funded by donations and media partnerships. It has published classified documents and other media provided by anonymous sources. It was founded in 2006 by ...

and in trying to frame its founder

Julian Assange Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. He came to international attention in 2010 after WikiLeaks published a series of News leak, leaks from Chels ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jonasson, Ogmundur Ogmundur Jonasson Ogmundur Jonasson 1948 births Living people Ogmundur Jonasson Ogmundur Jonasson Alumni of the University of Edinburgh