A politician of unusual popularity, Gro Harlem Brundtland was Norway's first woman prime minister. Born in Oslo, the daughter of a doctor who later became a cabinet minister, Gro Harlem studied medicine in Oslo and qualified as a physician. In 1960 she married Arne Olav Brundtland, a leader of the opposition Conservative Party; the couple have four children. She finished her medical studies at Oslo University in 1963 before getting a Master of Public Health degree at Harvard University in the US. Her particular interest in public health led her to take several appointments in the public medical service in Oslo in the 1960s. Becoming interested in politics from this experience, she joined the Labour Party in 1969. In 1974 she was appointed minister of the environment, a post she held until 1979, when she left the government to concentrate on party organization. In 1981, after the resignation of Prime Minister Nordli, Gro Harlem Brundtland became the first woman prime minister of Norway, leading a minority Labour government for nine months. At 41 she was also the youngest ever to be appointed prime minister in Norway since the office was created in 1814. Brundtland was out of power during the early 1980s but became a member of the UN Commission on Disarmament and Security. She later chaired the World Commission on the Environment and Development, which produced the report, 'Our Common Future'. Her international work considerably raised the profile of Norway in world affairs and in 1988 she was award ed the Third World Foundation Prize for leadership on environment issues. Brundtland became prime minister again in 1986, appointing a cabinet consisting of eight women and nine men, making it the most heavily female-dominated cabinet in history. She lost the 1989 election, but when the victorious centre-right coalition failed in 1990 she returned to power, winning another election in 1993. She remained prime minister until her resignation in 1996. After her resignation as prime-minister she was mentioned as a candidate for the post of secretary general of NATO. However, she instead returned to the field of medicine when in 1998 she was elected for a five-year term as Director General of the World Health Orginization.
Prime minister of Norway, 1981, 1986-1989, 1990-1996 (first woman to hold that post).Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), 1998-2003.Brundtland chose not to stand again as WHO's director-general, to be replaced by Dr Jong-Wook Lee on 21 July 2003.In Norway she is often called 'Landsmoderen'. This is a play on the word 'Landsfaderen' which was given to legendary Norwegian politician Einar Gerhardsen. 'Landsfaderen' means "Father of the Nation", 'Landsmoderen' - "Mother of the nation."Between Norwegians she is commonly just referred to as 'Gro' (her first name).In 2004 the British newspaper Financial Times listed her the 4th most influental European for the last 25 years, behind Pope John Paul II , Mikhail Gorbachev and Margaret Thatcher .
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Narrated by Morgan Freeman, this groundbreaking new documentary uncovers the UN sanctioned war on drugs, charting its origins and its devastating impact on countries like the USA, Colombia and Russia. Featuring prominent statesmen including Presidents Clinton and Carter, the film follows The Global Commission on Drug Policy on a mission to break the political taboo and expose the biggest failure of global policy in the last 50 years.