Career
Gunaratnam was elected as a representative to Oslo City Council for the first time in 2007 and took office as the deputy mayor of Oslo on 21 October 2015. In Workers" Youth League (Labour Party Youth Organisation (Norwegian)) she has had both local and central key positions and has been editor of the nationwide membership magazine, Praksis
We need as many people as possible to be involved to realise the best solutions for our city and our country. Speaking to Guardian journalist Lauren Razavi in December 2015, Gunaratnam said: "I believe every country should take their responsibility.
There was a time when Norwegian people flew over the Atlantic to the United States because of the situation in Norway.
Today people see Norway as a great place to be, and we should feel honoured by that."
Gunaratnam was born in Sri Lanka and moved to Norway when she was three years old. After joining the Tamil Youth Organisation in Oslo, Gunaratnam met governing mayor Raymond Johansen who encouraged her to get involved with politics, which she did.
She was subsequently banned from Sri Lanka as a result of her engagement with politics in Norway. She later studied social geography at the University of Oslo.
In 2011, when Gunaratnam was aged 23, she attended a Workers" Youth League Camp on the island of Utøya, where Anders Breivik committed a massacre that killed 69 people.
Gunaratnam swam 500 metres across the Tyifjorden Lake to survive as bullets struck the water around her.