Guro Fjellanger

Career

Fjellanger was born in Bergen as the daughter of the gymnasium teacher Håkon Fjellanger and interior decorator Jorunn Carlsen, and grew up in Stokmarknes. She briefly studied to be a goldsmith, but left this career path in favor of politics. She was hired as a secretary in the Young Liberals, the youth wing of the Liberal Party in 1985, and from 1986 to 1988 she chaired the organization. From 1988 to 1991 she was vice president of the organization Nei til EU, which opposes Norwegian membership in the European Union. She was then secretary-general from 1991 to 1995; during this period the Norwegian people rejected membership in the 1994 referendum.

In 1994 Fjellanger became a member of the central committee of the Liberal Party. She served as her party's information director in 1995, and was vice president of the party from 1996 to 2000. In 1996 she also worked briefly as a manager in the Norwegian Society for the Conservation of Nature.

Following the 1997 general election, the first cabinet Bondevik was established, consisting of the Christian Democratic, Centre and Liberal parties. Fjellanger was appointed to serve as Minister of the Environment in this cabinet. She left the cabinet when the first cabinet Bondevik fell on a vote of confidence in March 2000. In the same year she stepped down as deputy leader of the Liberal Party. She signed the Kyoto Protocol on behalf of Norway in 1999.

From 2000 to 2002 Fjellanger was registered as self-employed. From 2003 to 2004 she was the director of the Norwegian Centre Against Ethnic Discrimination, a government agency. She was a member of the board of the Norwegian Organization for Asylum Seekers from 1996 to 1997, and was chair of the board of the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (2001–2007) and Ecolabelling Norway (2004–), a board member of the Norwegian Consumer Council (2008–2012) and a board member of Oslo University Hospital (until 2011). She has been President of the Forum for Women and Development (2014–2016). She was a member of the city council of Oslo from 2007 to 2015. She resides in Gamle Oslo.

She has been a member of two government-appointed commissions on the regulation of medical research and protection against discrimination of the disabled.

Disability

Guro Fjellanger was born with spina bifida, a dysfunction of the spinal cord which inhibits normal walking. She learned to walk to a certain degree, she later used a wheelchair exclusively. When she became Minister of the Environment she became the first Norwegian government minister with a disability.

In 2007 she notably won a lawsuit against the state, who in 2004 had refused to grant her industrial insurance.