Manuela Ramin Osmundsen

Early life and education

Born in the French overseas department Martinique, she later relocated to France and lived there until 1991 after which she finally settled in Norway with her Norwegian husband. She received a law-degree from the Panthéon-Assas University specializing in European Union law. She later received a degree in Special Education from the Oslo University College.

Political career

In 1995 she was employed as a lawyer for the Ministry of Justice and the Police, this lasted until 1998 when she became the head of the official Center Against Ethnic Discrimination (SMED), a governmental agency which was to provide free legal-aid to people who were discriminated against. After which she returned to work for the Justice department before switching to work as a political aide in the Ministry of Foreign affairs. In the autumn of 2005 she joined the Labour Party.

She was appointed as Minister of Children and Equality Affairs in the second cabinet Stoltenberg on 18 October 2007, replacing outgoing minister Karita Bekkemellem and thus becoming the first ever non-white member of the Norwegian Cabinet.

The "Ombudsman-affair"

Only four months into her new position she was forced to resign due to the controversy surrounding the appointment of the new Ombudsman for Children in Norway. The incumbent, Reidar Hjermann was expecting to be appointed to a new four-year term as was customary for all ombudsmen at the time. However Ramin-Osmundsen decided to instead award the position to the lawyer Ida Hjort Kraby. Speculations soon arose regarding if this was due to Hjermann being too bothersome for the government (he had publicly criticized the government at numerous occasions). As this story was dying down, a new one erupted when the media discovered that Hjort Kraby and Ramin-Osmundsen were very close friends and had known each other since law-school, and regularly attending each other's parties.

This was in clear violation of government rules, as she was required to recuse herself from the appointment process, when dealing with close relations. After these stories emerged, the Storting opened a formal inquiry into the matter.

Although she initially denied these reports, when confronted with further details she later acknowledged that they were indeed close friends and belonged to the same very small clique of female lawyers living in Oslo's affluent west end. After prime minister Jens Stoltenberg reminded her of the severity of the situation, she resigned as minister on 14 February. Hjort Kraby resigned from her position before even commencing and Hjermann continued as ombudsman.

Personal life

Born a French citizen, Ramin-Osmundsen came to Norway in 1991 and became a Norwegian citizen early October 2007, 14 days before being appointed as Minister. She is married to the former Conservative Party politician and businessman Terje Osmundsen.