List of Nansen Refugee Award recipients

Not to be confused with Fram Committee Nansen Award.

The Nansen Refugee Award is a medal issued annually by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to an individual, group or organisation in recognition of outstanding service to the cause of refugees, displaced or stateless people.^[1] The award was established by UNHCR the organisation's first High Commissioner, Gerrit Jan van Heuven Goedhart, in 1954 as a tribute to Fridtjof Nansen.^[2] Fridtjof Nansen was a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, explorer and League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees^[3] and the award was established in honour of his work to support refugees.^[4] Van Heuven Goedhart felt that creating an award would increase the world's attention to the needs of refugees and increase global refugee aid.^[2]

Nansen Refugee Award
Logo
Awarded for	Outstanding service to the cause of refugees
Location	Geneva
Presented by	United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Reward(s)	US$150,000
First award	1954
Website	www.unhcr.org/nansen
The top of the Nansen Medal reads: "Nestekjærlighet er Realpolitik" (English: Altruism is Practical Politics)

The inaugural awardee was Eleanor Roosevelt in 1954.^[5] Every year, the prize is presented at a ceremony in the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices, in Geneva.^[6][7] The medal is accompanied by a US$150,000 prize.^[3] The award was expanded in 2017 to include regional winners for Africa, Asia, the Americas, the Middle East and Europe.^[8]

In 2018, the award was described as the "other Nobel" prize by NPR.^[9]

List of annual laureates

List of annual laureates

Year	Image	Laureate	Country	Office held, or rationale[a]	Ref.
1954		Eleanor Roosevelt	USA	as "the first chair of the UN Human Rights Commission"	[10]
1955		Queen Juliana	Netherlands	as Queen of Netherlands	[11]
1956		Dorothy D. Houghton	USA	as "president of the Federation of Women's Clubs, delegate to the Geneva conferences of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration and director of the Office of Refugees Migration and Voluntary Assistance"	[12]
		Gerrit Jan van Heuven Goedhart	Netherlands	United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (1951 to 1956); awarded posthumously	[10]
1957		The League of Red Cross Societies	Switzerland	for its work on behalf of the Hungarian refugees	[13]
1958		David Hoggett	United Kingdom	for work with Hungarian refugees in Austria	[14]
		Pierre Jacobsen	France	Deputy Director of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration; awarded posthumously	[10]
1959		Oskar Helmer	Austria	outstanding work on behalf of refuges...was Austrian Minister of the Interior in 1956 when 180,000 Hungarians took refuge in Austria	[15]
1960		Christopher Chataway, Colin Jones, Trevor Philpott, Timothy Raison	United Kingdom	For their roles in creating World Refugee Year, raising £9 million	[16]
1961		King Olav V	Norway	King of Norway	[10]
1962		Tasman Heyes	Australia	a tribute not only to an able and far-sighted friend of refugees, but also to the generosity of his countrymen	[17]
1963		The International Council for Voluntary Agencies	Switzerland	for support to refugees in Africa	[10][18]
1964		May Curwen	United Kingdom	her "whole life had been devoted to the service of those in need"	[19]
		Francois Preziosi & Jean Plicque	France	For their refugee-support work in eastern Congo; awarded posthumously	[20]
1965		Lucie Chevalley	France	for "exceptional service she has rendered to the cause of refugees in France and in a number of other European countries during the past forty-five years"	[21]
		Ana Rosa Schlieper de Martínez Guerrero	Argentina	for being "associated with many charitable societies and institutions and was a staunch supporter of human rights"; awarded posthumously	[21]
		Jørgen Nørredam	Denmark	for "dedicated service to refugees in Europe, North, Central and East Africa for many years"; awarded posthumously	[21]
1967		Prince Bernhard	Netherlands		[10]
1968		Bernard Arcens	Senegal		[10]
		Charles H. Jordan	USA	awarded posthumously	[10]
1969		Princess Princep Shah	Nepal		[10]
1971		Louise Holborn	USA		[10]
1972		Swana Friðriksdóttir	Iceland		[10]
1974		Helmut Frenz	Germany		[10]
1975		James J. Norris	USA		[10]
1976		Olav Hodne	Norway		[10]
		Marie-Louise Bertschinger	Switzerland	awarded posthumously	[10]
1977		The Malaysian Red Crescent Society	Malaysia	MRC efforts in aiding thousands of refugees who arrived in Malaysia as a result of the conflict in Indo-China	[10]
1978		Seretse Khama	Botswana		[10]
1979		Valéry Giscard d'Estaing	France		[10]
1980		Maryluz Schloeter Paredes	Venezuela		[10]
1981		Paul Cullen	Australia		[10]
1982		Crown Princess Sonja	Norway		[10]
1983		Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere	Tanzania		[10]
1984		Lewis M. Hiller, Jeff Kass, and Gregg Turay	USA		[10]
1985		Paulo Evaristo Arns	Brazil		[10]
1986		The People of Canada (accepted by Governor General Jeanne Sauvé)	Canada		[10]
1987		Juan Carlos I	Spain		[10]
1988		Syed Munir Husain	Pakistan		[10]
1991		Libertina Appolus Amathila	Namibia		[10]
		Paul Weis	Austria	awarded posthumously	[10]
1992		Richard von Weizsäcker	Germany		[10]
1993		Médecins Sans Frontières	Switzerland		[10]
1995		Graça Machel	Mozambique		[10]
1996		Handicap International	France		[10]
1997		Joannes Klas	USA		[10]
1998		Mustafa Dzhemilev	Ukraine		[10]
2000		Jelena Silajdžić	Bosnia and Herzegovina		[10]
		Abune Paulos	Ethiopia		[10]
		Lao Mong Hay	Cambodia		[10]
		Miguel Angel Estrella	Argentina		[10]
		United Nations volunteers	United Nations		[10]
2001		Luciano Pavarotti	Italy		[10]
2002		Arne Rinnan and the crew of the MV Tampa	Norway		[10]
2003		Annalena Tonelli	Italy		[10]
2004		Memorial Human Rights Centre	Russia		[10]
2005		Marguerite Barankitse	Burundi		[10]
2006		Akio Kanai	Japan		[10]
2007		Katrine Camilleri	Malta		[10]
2008		Chris Clark & United Nations Mine Action Service	United Kingdom		[10]
2009		Edward Kennedy	USA		[10]
2010		Alixandra Fazzina	United Kingdom		[10]
2011		Society for Humanitarian Solidarity	Yemen		[10]
2012		Hawa Aden Mohamed	Somalia		[22]
2013		Angélique Namaika	Democratic Republic of the Congo		[23]
2014		Butterflies with New Wings Building a Future	Colombia		[24]
2015		Aqeela Asifi	Afghanistan		[25]
2016		Efi Latsoudi & Konstantinos Mitragas	Greece		[26]
2017		Zannah Mustapha	Nigeria		[27]
2018		Evan Atar Adaha	South Sudan		[28][29]
2019		Azizbek Ashurov	Kyrgyzstan		[30]
2020		Mayerlín Vergara Pérez	Colombia		[31]
2021		Jeel Albena Association for Humanitarian Development	Yemen		[32]
2022		Angela Merkel	Germany		[33]
2024		Rosita Milesi	Brazil		[34]

Lists of regional laureates

List of regional laureates

Year	Region	Image	Laureate	Rationale	Country	Ref.
2017	Africa		CIYOTA		Uganda	[35]
2017	Asia		Bernard Wirth		Thailand	[35]
2017	Americas		Friar Tomas		Mexico	[35]
2017	Europe		Hej Främling!		Sweden	[35]
2017	Middle East		Ihsan Ezedeen		Syria	[36]
2018	Asia		Tuenjai Deetes		Thailand	[37]
2018	Americas		Samira Harnish		USA	[38]
2018	Europe		Andreas Hollstein and the town of Altena		Germany	[39]
2018	Middle East		Reclaim Childhood		Jordan	[40]
2019	Africa		Evariste Mfaume		Democratic Republic of the Congo	[41]
2019	Asia		Alberto Cairo		Afghanistan	[42]
2019	Americas		Bianka Rodriguez		El Salvador	[41]
2019	Europe		Humanitarian Corridors		Italy	[43]
2019	Middle East		Abeer Khreisha		Jordan	[41]
2020	Africa		Sabuni Francoise Chikunda		Democratic Republic of the Congo	[44]
2020	Asia		Rozma Ghafouri		Afghanistan	[45]
2020	Europe		Tetiana Barantsova		Ukraine	[44]
2020	Middle East		Rana Dajani		Jordan	[44]
2021	Africa		Roukiatou  Maiga		Burkina Faso	[46]
			Diambendi  Madiega
2021	Asia		Saleema Rehman		Afghanistan	[46]
2021	Americas		Santiago Ávila		Honduras	[46]
2021	Europe		Nikola Kovačević		Serbia	[46]
2022	Africa		Ahmedou Ag Albohary		Mauritania	[47]
2022	Asia		Naw Bway Khu		Myanmar	[47]
2022	Americas		Vicenta González		Nicaragua	[47]
2022	Middle East		Nagham Hasan		Iraq	[47]
2023	Americas		Elizabeth Moreno Barco		Colombia	[48]
2023	Asia-Pacific		Abdullah Habib, Shahida Win, Sahat Zia, and Salim Khan		Bangladesh	[49]
2023	Europe		Lena Grochowska and Władysław Grochowski		Poland	[50]
2023	Middle East & North Africa		Asia Al-Mashreqi		Yemen	[51]
2024	Africa		Maimouna Ba		Burkina Faso	[52]
2024	Asia-Pacific		Deepti Gurung		Nepal	[52]
2024	Europe		Jin Davod		Turkey	[52]
2024	Middle East & North Africa		Nada Fadol		Egypt	[52]

See also

• Nansen International Office for Refugees

Notes

1. Official rationale for the award are not always provided by UNHCR. In such circumstances, this column broadly outlines the relevant work of the recipient.