Current Position (s) | Member of Parliament |
Party | GroenLinks |
Previous Position | |
Birth Date | 9/22/1954 |
Location | Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands |
Website | https://groenlinks.nl/mensen/bram-van-ojik |
https://www.facebook.com/bramvanojik/ | |
https://twitter.com/BramvanOjikGL | |
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YouTube | |
Biography
Abraham “Bram” van Ojik (born 22 September 1954) is Dutch politician and diplomat of the GreenLeft (GL) party and activist. Since 23 March 2017 he has been a member of the House of Representatives. He previously served in the House from 1993 to 1994, and from 2012 to 2015. In the latter three years he also served as leader of GroenLinks. He had also been an Envoy of the Netherlands for human migration since 20 October 2015.
Van Ojik comes from the Political Party of Radicals, one of the four parties that merged to form GroenLinks in 1989. Van Ojik had been member of the PPR since 1973. Between 1972 and 1980 Van Ojik studied economics at the Free University. He specialized in development economics. Between 1978 and 1981, he served on the board for radical education. As a conscientious objector, Van Ojik did his alternative service at the development organization NIO. After that he worked for the scientific bureau of the PPR until 1983. Here he wrote a book on basic income. In 1986 he co-authored the PPR’s election program. Between 1985 and 1988, he was editor-in-chief of the PPR party paper. Between 1988 and 1990 he was party chair of the PPR. As chair of the PPR, he was involved in the negotiations over the formation of GroenLinks, a new political party formed by the merger of the Pacifist Socialist Party, Communist Party of Netherlands, and Evangelical People’s Party. Van Ojik had always favoured cooperation between the four parties, but the PPR party board soon wanted to abandon negotiations. Van Ojik had to defend this, although he did not support it. The formal PPR delegation was replaced by an informal delegation by former party chair Wim de Boer. In 1989 the talks led to the formation of a new party. Van Ojik became a member of the first party board. In addition to these activities, Van Ojik freelance journalist and advisor on the subject of development cooperation. Between 1990 and 1993 Van Ojik worked for Oxfam NOVIB.