A human rights advocate and film producer, Thor Halvorssen founded the Human Rights Foundation in the spring of 2005. Mr. Halvorssen began advocating for human rights in 1989 in London by organizing opposition to South African apartheid. After completing his secondary education in the United Kingdom, he attended the University of Pennsylvania; there he became a judicial advisor for students charged inside the college judicial system. Mr. Halvorssen’s advocacy of individual rights earned him an Ivy Day Award from the university president for “protecting freedom of speech on campus.” Having witnessed countless violations of freedom of speech and due process on United States college campuses, Mr. Halvorssen was instrumental in creating and developing the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, serving as its first executive director and then CEO from its founding in 1999 until 2004. Under his decisive leadership, FIRE became the nation's pre-eminent student rights organization.
Mr. Halvorssen personally understands the importance of protecting human rights. In 1993, his father, a diplomat with the rank of ambassador, was falsely imprisoned, tortured, and savagely beaten in a Venezuelan jail. A freshman at the University of Pennsylvania at the time, Mr. Halvorssen led a campaign for his father’s safety and release, enlisting the support of Amnesty International, the International Society for Human Rights, and numerous human rights advocates and public figures. Mr. Halvorssen’s father was freed on Christmas Eve of 1993 and all charges against him were dropped. In August of 2004, Mr. Halvorssen’s mother, a child psychologist, was brutally gunned down and wounded by members of the Venezuelan government security apparatus while attending a peaceful public gathering. The gunmen’s actions were broadcast on live television as they shot into the crowd, leaving twelve wounded and one dead.
He serves on numerous boards and councils, including the Armando Valladares Foundation and the Charter School Advocacy Program. He has lectured on freedom and human rights at universities across the country, and his opinions have been featured by National Public Radio, TIME, National Journal, and various television outlets such as Fox News Channel’s The O’Reilly Factor and Hannity & Colmes, MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, Jon Stewart's The Daily Show, The Today Show and many others. Mr. Halvorssen is the founder of the Moving Picture Institute and the producer of several feature films and documentaries that focus on human freedom, including Freedom's Fury (co-produced with Quentin Tarantino and Lucy Liu), Indoctrinate U, and Hammer & Tickle (2006 winner of the Zurich Film Festival). He is a contributing author to several books about freedom. Halvorssen graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with concurrent undergraduate and graduate degrees in Political Science and History.
Human Rights Foundation
350 Fifth Avenue, #809
New York, NY 10118
Phone: (212) 246-8486
Fax: (212) 643-4278 info@thehrf.org
www.thehrf.org