Jan Egeland

Egeland began working with Amnesty International while in high school, campaigning for the disappeared in Chile in the 1970s, and at age 19 spent a month working for Catholic relief organization Minuto de Dios with the Motilon tribe in Colombia.[4][5]

Egeland later served as Chair of Amnesty International in Norway, and Vice-Chair of the International Executive Committee of Amnesty International, which he was elected on to at the age of 23, the youngest ever to hold the position. He also worked as Director for the International Department of the Norwegian Red Cross, Head of Development Studies at the Henry Dunant Institute in Geneva and a radio and television international news reporter for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation.

Egeland first attracted attention as Secretary General of the Norwegian Red Cross when he pioneered the fight against the proliferation of small arms and joined the international campaign against landmines. With the onset of war in Iraq in 2003, Egeland alerted the international community to the worsening civilian conditions in Baghdad and Basra.[6]

Egeland's career also includes service to his government as State Secretary in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1990 to 1997. In that capacity, he initiated two Norwegian Emergency Preparedness Systems, which have provided more than 2,000 experts and humanitarian workers to international organizations.

During his time in office, Egeland actively participated in a number of peace processes. He co-initiated and co-organized the Norwegian channel between Israel and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1992, which led to the Oslo Accord (Declaration of Principles) of September 1993. He directed the Norwegian facilitation of the United Nations-led peace talks leading up to ceasefire agreement between the Government of Guatemala and the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG) guerrillas signed in Oslo in 1996. He also led the host delegation when the Ottawa Treaty to ban landmines was successfully negotiated and adopted in Oslo in 1997.

After stepping down from his government position, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Egeland as his Special Adviser to Colombia. Egeland served in this role from 1999 until 2002.

Egeland assumed his post as the Under-Secretary-General (USG) for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC) in August 2003. This position is the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). He was preceded in the post by Kenzo Oshima of Japan. During his time in office, he initiated the global humanitarian reforms that led to the successful Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) in 2005.

Egeland focused his efforts in alleviating the needs of this sector of the population in complex emergency situations like the Lord's Resistance Army insurgency in northern Uganda, the Darfur region in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where millions of displaced persons are affected. He has also campaigned for addressing the needs of those affected by natural disasters, like the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, as well as raising awareness in issues such as gender mainstreaming, sexual exploitation and violence, and internal displacement.

On 27 December 2004, during the initial phase of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake relief effort, Egeland said that "Christmas time should remind many Western countries how rich we have become, and if actually the foreign assistance of many countries now is 0.1 or 0.2 percent of their gross national income, I think that is stingy, really."[14] According to Egeland, in his memoir A Billion Lives (2008), this "stingy" quote was taken out of context by the press as directed at tsunami relief, when in fact Egeland was addressing the long and ongoing drive by the UN for all OECD nations to contribute 0.7% of GNP to humanitarian efforts.[15] Initial response by the White House to Egeland's quote, taken out of context by the press as a direct attack on the United States (which at the time had only donated $15 million), was very negative. However, Egeland subsequently clarified his remarks, and all was forgiven, although Egeland became the focus of a negative campaign online.[15] However the "stingy" quote did in fact help increase the number of donations. Egeland was later quoted as saying that the donations were so large and were coming in so fast that "We really have to confirm that we heard right, that the number of zeroes was right." When reviewing the tangible, if non-monetary, assistance of the militaries of the United States, Australia, and other nations in providing disaster relief, Egeland remarked, "Those helicopters are worth their weight in gold now." Time magazine would later call Egeland "the world's conscience."[16]

In July 2006, Egeland launched a US$150 million aid appeal for Lebanon, following the destruction of parts of Lebanon by Israeli forces and subsequent displacement of many thousands of refugees.

Egeland, though critical of Israel, lashed out against Hezbollah in terms that no UN official had dared yet, saying:

Consistently, from the Hezbollah heartland, my message was that Hezbollah must stop this cowardly blending ... among women and children. I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men. We need a cessation of hostilities because this is a war where civilians are paying the price.[17]

During a visit to Gaza to survey the damage, Egeland was quoted as saying that the bombing of a power plant would affect schools and hospitals more than the militants. "This is very clear, a disproportionate use [of power]," Egeland told reporters. "Civilian infrastructure is protected. The law is very clear. You cannot have any interpretation in any other way."[18]

Egeland has chaired the United Nations panel on humanitarian access in the lengthy war in Syria and is currently the UN Senior Advisor for Syria where he has advocated for simultaneous convoy exchanges and medical evacuations.[19][20]

• 2005 – Peer Gynt Prize
• 2008 – Four Freedoms Award

In 2006, Time magazine named Egeland one of the 100 "people who shape our world".[25]

In 2012, the Norwegian group Ylvis produced a parody/tribute rock song about Jan Egeland, hailing him as "the United Nations superhero man" and "a peacekeeping machine."[26] Egeland's response, in an e-mail to NPR, was "I think it is hilarious with its crazy text and great tune."[27] As of June 2020, the video has been viewed more than 18 million times, perhaps helped by people learning of Ylvis from their internet sensation "The Fox".