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THE ALUMNi INTERVIEW
Hanne Sophie Greve
Q: Do you ever miss your international work? A: «I don’t miss the misfortune, misery, and death of others. But I occasionally think about those parts of my expertise I don’t get to use.»
The human rights advocate She has been threatened with death and seen street justice prevail. But Judge Hanne Sophie Greve has never lost faith in humanity. Text
SI L JE K AT HRI NE SV I GGUM photo E IVIND SE NNE SE T
16 April 2012. A chilly spring breeze blows across Gulating Square. A Roma man plays the accordion by Lille Lungegaardsvann in the city centre of Bergen. People are rushing home from work; a skateboarder drops his bag in front of the new courthouse before showing off his tricks. It’s business as usual on this afternoon as Judge Hanne Sophie Greve leaves work. But this is also the first day of the trial against mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik in Norway’s capital Oslo. 22 July 2011. Breivik carries out a terrorist attack against the cabinet building in Oslo before going on a killing spree at the Norwegian Labour Party’s youth camp on Utøya. He kills
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77 people, the majority in their teens and early twenties. Some relatives have wished him dead. But what does Greve – who is best known internationally for her human rights work through the United Nations and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg – think of the human rights of this mass murderer? – The rights of one individual cannot come at the expense of the rights of others. And the greatest right of all is the right to life. This applies to him as well, despite his disdain for the lives of others. I’m glad we have a legal system that addresses his outrageous crimes, and where decisions about guilt and punishment
are not made based on strong emotions alone. Anders Behring Breivik is first and foremost a human being, regardless of the abysses of suffering he has caused, says Greve.
Damaging procrastination She believes that Breivik’s is «a life of missed opportunities». She is glad that Norway does not have capital punishment, but is critical of the long-overdue update needed in Norwegian legislation, and the fact that a contemporary criminal law that addresses the issues raised by the 22 July terror attacks is not yet in place. – We have worked to establish provisions on genocide since 1948, but our politicians have been extraordi-