Possibilities in our time
President Tarja Halonen’s lecture will focus on the possibilities to protect the fragile earth in our time. Our world is facing multiple and interconnected crises which have had severe economic, social and environmental impacts around the world. Old, traditional challenges have not disappeared and new risks are rising. To tackle the polycrisis and to achieve sustainable and resilient development, we need to reduce the inequalities and vulnerabilities that risk leaving individuals, communities and whole countries behind.
Registration
About President Tarja Halonen
Tarja Halonen served two terms as President of Finland from 2000 to 2012. During her presidency, she was Co-Chair of the United Nations Millennium Summit, Co-Chair of the Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, Co-Chair of the UN High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability and Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders.
Over her political career, which began in 1974, President Halonen has paid close attention to promotion of democracy, human rights, and the role of civil society. Strengthening social justice and gender equality have been central themes. President Halonen has been actively engaged with non-governmental organizations and trade unions.
Prior to her election as the President, she served as Minister of Social Affairs and Health, Minister of Justice, and Minister for Foreign Affairs. After her exit from the office, the TH Global Sustainability Foundation was established in 2012 to promote President Halonen’s work in the field of sustainable development.
She is currently the Chair of the Board of the University of Helsinki. She continues to work closely with the UN and serves as an Alternate Co-Chair of the Every Woman Every Child Movement’s Steering Group and a member of the Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation. She is also UN Global Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction, UN Drylands Ambassador, a member of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) Group of Eminent Persons and a member of WHO Pan-European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development. President Halonen was the Chair of the recently published Lancet Commission on peaceful societies through health equity and gender equality.
Program
| Time | What | Who |
|---|---|---|
| 12.00-13.00 | Refreshments | Everybody is welcome! |
| 13.00-13.15 | Welcome and introduction | Rector at University of Oslo, Svein Stølen |
| 13.15-13.45 | Per Fugelli Lecture 2023 «Possibilities to protect the fragile earth in our time» |
Former President in Finland Tarja Halonen |
| 13.45-14.10 |
Comments: «Where are all the women? The need for gender perspectives at the negotiating table»
|
Comments by:
Mia Andersen Linnerud from UN Student Association |
| 14.15-15.00 | Panel discussion |
Participants: |
About Per Fugelli (1943- 2017)
As a general practitioner, Per Fugelli was an independent critic of his own profession for many years. He opposed the bureaucratisation of Norwegian health care institutions. Fugelli took a humanistic approach to health and social policy, focussing on the entire individual. He showed that the best "social medicine" is to build up and share dignity with vulnerable groups such as ethnic minorities, the poor and those who are physically challenged.
Through countless lectures and fearless participation in a large number of important debates, he was a prominent contributor to Norway's public space fora for a long time. He was awarded The Freedom of Expression Prize 2013.
Obituary by Barbara Casassus in The Lancet.
The Patient Earth
In 1993 Per Fugelli published an article In search of a global social medicine (pdf). This inspired Fugelli and a group of students to establish a forum called "The patient earth". The forum inspired students and researchers at the Faculty of Medicine to focus on global health.
"In each new generation of doctors, ..... this branch of medicine attracts not only analytical minds, but also people who feel a strong vocation to improve health in society by attacking plain injustice. They are impatient with the distant attitude of science." Jan P. Vandenbroucke.
Previous lectures
- 2014, Richard Horton: “The Seeress's Prophecy: a 21st century retelling”; and Anthony Costello: "The fundamental concept in social science is power" (Bertrand Russell). How can this idea help us build a global social medicine to tackle sustainable development challenges?
Comment to the 2014 arrangement by Richard Horton - Offline: Medicine's theory of relativity
- 2015, Sir Andrew Haines: "Planetary health - human health and global environmental change"
Comment to the 2015 lecture, 'Death and planetary health' by Per Fugelli - 2016, Paul Farmer: “Structural interventions to address structural violence: Global health equity in Haiti and Rwanda”
- 2017, Jennifer Leaning, Harvard University: “The Existential Vulnerability of the Rohingya: Stateless, Expelled, and Stranded in a Homogenizing World”
- 2019, Agnes Binagwaho: “Rwanda’s journey to an equitable health system”
- 2020, Vikram Patel: “Thrown Under the Bus: reimagining youth mental health in the pandemic era”
- 2021, Renzo R. Guinto: “The decolonizing power of planetary health”
- 2022, Iona Heath: The Patient Earth is sick, but the medical doctors are mainly absent.
Event Committee
- Espen Bjertness
- John-Arne Røttingen
- Anne Kveim Lie
- Sine Grude
- Kristin M. Heggen
- Ritika Sharma
Per Fugelli Lecture at Oslo Peace Days
For the first time Per Fugelli Lecture is part of Oslo Peace Days which is the arena of University of Oslo related to Nobel Peace Prize. The main focus is to make events where people meet to learn about and discuss important issues related to peace, democracy and human rights.