Berit Reiss-Andersen
 Berit Reiss-Andersen    (Lawyer) | |
|---|---|
 Awarding the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize to ICAN | |
| Born | 1954-07-11 Drøbak, Norway |
| Nationality | Norway |
| Alma mater | University of Oslo |
| Party | Norwegian Labour Party |
Berit Reiss-Andersen (born 11 July 1954) is a Norwegian lawyer, author and former politician for the Norwegian Labour Party. She is chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, the 5-member committee that awards the Nobel Peace Prize. She is also a board member of the Nobel Foundation, which has the overall responsibility for all the five Nobel Prizes. She was Norway's Minister of Justice and the Police from 1996 to 1997 and as President of the Norwegian Bar Association from 2008 to 2012.[1]
In October 2017, in awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Berit Reiss-Andersen said:
- "ICAN has been a driving force in prevailing upon the world's nations to pledge to cooperate … in efforts to stigmatise, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons. The organisation is receiving the award for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons, and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition on such weapons."[2]
Legal career
Reiss Andersen earned her law degree in 1981 at the University of Oslo, Norway's preeminent university. She was an executive officer at the Norwegian Office of Immigration 1981–1982 and legal adviser at the Royal Ministry of Justice and the Police 1982–1984. She was a prosecutor with the Oslo Police District 1984–1987. From 1987 to 2016 she had her own law practice in Oslo, and she obtained the right to appear before the Supreme Court of Norway in 1995. In 1997 she was appointed as one of the regular defence counsels at Oslo District Court and Borgarting Court of Appeal. In 2016 she became a partner at DLA Piper's Oslo office. She was President of the Norwegian Bar Association from 2008 to 2012.[3]
She was state secretary for the Minister of Justice and Police from 1996 to 1997, in the Labour Party government of Thorbjørn Jagland.[3]
