A dedicated Secretary General, Hans will be remembered for his lobbying of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) in October 1993 together with Hosi-Wien activist Kurt Krickler.
On occasion of its Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw, and on behalf of ILGA, Hans gave one of the two NGO statements in favor of non discriminationunequal or unfair treatment which can be based on a range of grounds - such as age, ethnic background, disability, and diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions or sex characteristics, amongst others. More. Ultimately, the classification of discrimination based on sexual orientationrefers to a person’s capacity for profound emotional, affectional and sexual attraction to - and intimate and sexual relations with - individuals of a different gender or the same gender or more than one gender. More as a human right violation found entry in the text which was adopted in the plenary: “Participants pointed out to groups which were not “national minorities but which none the less suffered discrimination, including women, homosexuals, migrant workers, and conscientious objectors. It was pointed out that CSCE commitments in the area of non discrimination cover homosexuals as well. Suggestions were made that discriminatory State policies against homosexuals and criminalizing legislation should be eliminated”. This was the first time ever that the 53 participating States of the CSCE, later to become Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE, acknowledged this.
As reported in ILGA’s bulletin then, Hans commented “It is a major step forward in our lobbying for lesbianadjective/noun to describe a woman whose enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction is to other women. Women and non-binary people may use this term to describe themselves. More and gayadjective to describe people whose enduring physical, romantic, and/ or emotional
attractions are to people of the same gender. Men, women and non-binary people may use this
term to describe themselves. More rights within the CSCE process. Although this report is not a binding document, it is an important statement approved without opposition, to which we can refer in our future work to improve the situation for lesbians and gays in the CSCE States”.
In 1994, Hans had to face the UN ECOSOC committee’s demands regarding ILGA’s ECOSOC status together with his co-Secretary general Rebecca Sevilla.
Hans was born in December 1944 and had his university degree in history. He was teaching history at a teacher training college in Norway. Together with a colleague, he had just embarked in a Nordic project about LGBT issues in education and teaching material. He recently visited Sweden and Denmark November 2011 to collect information for this project.
Hans was most of his adult life involved in mainstream Norwegian politics. He was a very active member of the Norwegian Labor Party and held several political positions. He represented his party in the Regional Council of Vestfold, where he also was chairman of the committee of cultural affairs.
His engagement to improve our world and his good spirit will remain with us.