Past Laureates

Past Laureates

Visionaries. Pioneers. True heroes.

Meet some of the remarkable people and organizations that have won the Nansen Refugee Award.

Butterflies with New Wings

2014

Butterflies with New Wings Building a Future, is a group of courageous women that work tirelessly to help displaced survivors of sexual abuse reclaim their lives in Buenaventura, one of the most violent cities in Colombia.

Learn more about the Butterflies and their remarkable efforts.

Photo gallery

Sister Angélique Namaika

2013

Sister Angélique Namaika was awarded for her exceptional courage and unwavering support for survivors of brutal violence in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In this region, many Congolese women and girls have been kidnapped and terrorized in the campaign of terror waged by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Construction on her Nansen project – a cooperative bakery, was completed in 2015.

Photo gallery

More past laureates — gallery

2012
Hawa Aden Mohamed

Hawa Aden Mohamed, widely known as Mama Hawa, was awarded the 2012 Nansen Refugee Award for her extraordinary steps to empower thousands of displaced Somali women and girls, including many who have fled war, persecution or famine. In 2013, she began the construction of the Fridtjof Nansen dormitory in Puntland, Somalia. The dormitory will provide internally displaced youth travelling to Galkayo a safe place to stay while they attend vocational training and sporting activities.
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2011
Nasser Salim Ali Al Hamairy and SHS

Nasser Salim Ali Al-Hamairy, founder of the Society for Humanitarian Solidarity (SHS) in Yemen, and his dedicated staff were recognized for their service to refugees who have fled conflict and famine in the Horn of Africa and crossed the treacherous Gulf of Aden. SHS staff worked around the clock to monitor about a third of Yemen's 2,000 kilometre-long coastline, pick up survivors, provide emergency care and, all too often, bury those who die en route. With the prize money of the 2011 Nansen Refugee Award, SHS inaugurated the "Nansen" primary school in the Kharaz Refugee Camp in Yemen. In this way, SHS is helping refugee boys and girls - who remain at the heart of any society - to live in dignity and take hold of their futures once they leave the refugee camp space.
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2010
Alixandra Fazzina

British photojournalist Alixandra Fazzina received the Nansen Medal for her dedication to documenting and publicizing the consequences of war. Over a decade, Fazzina travelled around the world to portray the individual stories of uprooted people. The Nansen committee praised, in particular, her coverage of Somali refugees making the hazardous sea journey across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen; landmine victims in Kosovo; civilians stranded behind enemy lines in Angola; rape as a weapon of war in Sierra Leone; the abuse of children by militias in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda; and refugee situations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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2009
Senator Edward Kennedy

The late Senator Edward Kennedy was awarded the Nansen in 2009 in recognition of his achievements as an unparalleled champion of refugee protection and assistance for more than 45 years. From his election to the US Senate in 1962, Senator Kennedy's work in establishing US refugee admissions, resettlement and asylum programmes directly helped millions of persecuted individuals to find protection and start new lives in the United States. He was the chief sponsor of more than 70 refugee related legislative measures and was instrumental in codifying international refugee obligations into US law.
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2008
Chris Clark

Former British soldier Chris Clark and the 990 local and international staff of the United Nations Mine Action Programme in southern Lebanon, for their courageous work in removing tonnes of deadly munitions that had prevented the safe return home of almost 1 million Lebanese civilians displaced during Israel's short conflict with the Hezbollah militia. Clark and the team detected and destroyed large quantities of unexploded ordnance and tens of thousands of mines, including cluster bomblets. Their work allowed people to return home and humanitarian agencies like UNHCR to operate.
2007
Katrine Camilleri

A lawyer from Malta, Katrine Camilleri was recognized for her work with the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS). The Nansen Committee praised her exceptional dedication to the refugee cause and her outstanding contribution in protection and assistance to refugees and for lobbying on their behalf despite threats and personal risk
2006
Akio Kanai

Japanese optometrist Akio Kanai received the Nansen Medal for giving the gift of clear vision to tens of thousands of refugees around the world. He provided free eyesight tests and handed out more than 100,000 pairs of spectacles to forcibly displaced people. Kanai, head of Fuji Optical, started his humanitarian work in 1983 in Thailand with Indo-Chinese refugees, many of whom had lost their spectacles while fleeing their homes.
2005
Marguerite Barankitse

Marguerite Barankitse, dubbed the "Angel of Burundi," for her tireless efforts on behalf of children affected by war, poverty and disease. Through her work with her organization, Maison Shalom, Barankitse sent a message of hope for the future. The Burundian Tutsi and her team ran four "children's villages" in Burundi as well as a centre for orphans and other vulnerable children in Bujumbura. She said her work was inspired by one goal: peace.
2004
Memorial Human Rights Centre

Russia's Memorial Human Rights Centre received the Nansen for helping tens of thousands of refugees and internally displaced people across the Russian Federation. The Nansen Committee was particularly impressed with the wide range of services carried out by Memorial on behalf of forced migrants and internally displaced people as well as refugees from as far afield as Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Memorial emerged during the former Soviet Union's "perestroika," or restructuring period of the 1980s.
2003
Annalena Tonelli

Annalena Tonelli received the Nansen Award for her commitment to refugees in the Horn of Africa. The 60-year-old Italian lawyer initiated programmes to tackle tuberculosis in Kenya and Somalia, worked in HIV/AIDS prevention and control, campaigned for the eradication of female genital mutilation in Africa and ran a school for hearing-impaired children. She was murdered in October 2003 at a TB hospital she set up in Somaliland.
2002
Captain Arne Rinnan and the crew and owners of the Norwegian container ship, MV Tampa

Captain Arne Rinnan and the crew and owners of the Norwegian container ship, MV Tampa, for demonstrating courage and a unique degree of commitment to refugee protection. Capt. Rinnan was in charge of the Tampa when it rescued 438 boat people in the Indian Ocean on August 26, 2001. Despite the risk of substantial delays and a large financial loss to the company, the huge container ship - unsuitable to carry a large number of passengers - altered its course to rescue the asylum-seekers.
2001
Luciano Pavarotti

Luciano Pavarotti, in recognition of his efforts to give visibility to the refugee cause and to help raise funds for refugees projects. The 2001 "Pavarotti and Friends" concert and related activities raised awareness about Afghan refugees and the conditions they were living in. Profits from the event went towards funding various projects benefitting Afghan refugee children in Pakistan. Pavarotti continued to support UNHCR until his death in 2007.
2000
Jelena Silajdzic / Miguel Angel Estrella / United Nations Volunteers / Lao Mong Hay / His Holiness Abune Paulos

Film maker Jelena Silajdzic fled with her husband and two children to the Czech Republic from her native Sarajevo in 1992 when the Bosnian city was under siege. In Prague, she organized cultural events to spread awareness about refugees, promote tolerance towards minorities and deepen relations between Czech society and the countries of the former Yugoslavia. In 1999, she established Slovo 21, which among other projects supports the integration of foreign nationals living in the Czech Republic.
1998
Mustafa Dzhemilev

Mustafa Dzhemilev, received the Nansen Medal in recognition of his outstanding efforts to help Crimean Tartars reintegrate in their native Ukraine. As President of the Association of Crimean Tartars and a member of the Ukrainian parliament, Dzhemilev worked tirelessly with UNHCR to help tens of thousands of Tartars recover their Ukrainian citizenship and their basic rights.
1997
Sister Joannes Klas

Sister Joannes Klas, a member of the Sisters of Saint Francis, for her work on behalf of Guatemalan refugees. She went to work in El Tesoro camp in Honduras in 1982, after almost three decades of teaching in primary and secondary schools in the United States. In 1991, she was asked by refugees to go back with them to the Yalpemech area of Guatemala, where she became involved in programmes to improve the lives of the returnees.
1996
Handicap International

Handicap International, in recognition of the organization's innovative contributions toward alleviating the suffering of anti-personnel mine victims by providing low cost artificial limbs to more than 150,000 amputees around the world, many of them refugees, internally displaced people or returnees. The Nansen Committee also recognized Handicap International's advocacy work to ban the production, sale and use of anti-personnel mines.
1995
Graça Machel

Graça Machel, a strong voice for peace and reconciliation in her native Mozambique, she was recognized for her long-term humanitarian work, especially on behalf of refugee children. Machel chaired the National Organization of Children and headed the Foundation of Community Development. Machel's first husband, President Samora Machel, died in a plane crash in 1986. She married former South African President Nelson Mandela in 1998.
1993
Médecins Sans Frontières

Médecins Sans Frontières has made a name for its efficiency and dedication to the alleviation of human suffering as well as for the positions it adopts on key issues of international concern. As a medical humanitarian organization, MSF has always defended the fundamental right of victims of war and oppression to receive protection and assistance. In Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe, MSF doctors and nurses regularly and without hesitation risk their lives to save others, including the forcibly displaced.
1992
Richard von Weizsäcker

Richard von Weizsäcker, as President of the Federal Republic of Germany, sought to sensitize the German people to the causes underlying forced population displacement. He strived to make an affluent nation aware of its role and responsibility in alleviating the plight of the distressed and the dispossessed around the globe. He condemned attacks on asylum centres and demonstrated his solidarity with the victims of this violence. Weizsäcker also underlined the threat which xenophobia posed to the foundations of democratic society.
1991
Libertina Appolus Amathila / Paul Weis

Libertina Appolus Amathila, after fleeing her native Namibia in 1962, studied medicine in Warsaw, London and Stockholm. She provided medical care in refugee settlements for nearly 20 years before she was repatriated by UNHCR in 1989. She was sworn in as Minister of Local Government and Housing on March 21, 1990, the night of Namibian independence. Amathila became Deputy Prime Minister of Namibia in 2005.

Paul Weis, a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, shared the award posthumously. He escaped from Dachau and found asylum in Britain. As UNHCR's first Protection Director, he was called the "founding father of protection." The Vienna-born Weis was a strong advocate for refugees and worked constantly to remind the world of its responsibility towards them.
1988
Syed Munir Husain

Syed Munir Husain was recognized for his exceptional services to refugees in his capacity as Pakistan's States and Frontier Regions Minister from 1982-87. In this capacity, he headed his government's programme to aid Afghan refugees. This was the world's largest refugee assistance operation.
1987
King Juan Carlos I of Spain

King Juan Carlos I of Spain was awarded the Nansen Medal in recognition of his humanitarian spirit and for his personal contribution to the cause of refugees. Under his leadership, Spain became a country of refuge for thousands of asylum-seekers from around the world, especially Latin America.
1986
The People of Canada

The People of Canada, in recognition of their essential and constant contribution to the cause of refugees within their country and around the world. Canada is a leading contributor to international humanitarian and refugee aid programmes. Canada has, from the beginning, supported international efforts on behalf of refugees. It has one of the best records for resettlement of refugees and is a leading UNHCR donor.
1985
Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns

Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns, Archbishop of Sao Paolo, who set up commissions in Brazil and other South American countries that became instrumental in promoting the defence of victims of oppression and refugees. The Commission of Justice and Peace promoted the adoption of amnesty legislation in Bolivia and Uruguay. This facilitated the return of thousands of refugees to their homes, as also happened in Argentina.
1984
Lewis Hiller, Jeff Kass and Gregg Turay

Lewis Hiller, Jeff Kass and Gregg Turay of the merchant vessel USS Rose City, for their role in the rescue of 85 Indo-Chinese boat people drifting on the South China Sea during a storm in September 1983. Captain Hiller led and ordered the rescue operation. Kass and Turay dived into the sea to help some of the refugees who were in danger of drowning.
1983
President Julius Nyerere

President Julius Nyerere, under whose inspiring guidance the Tanzanian government constantly watched over the well-being of refugees and practised a liberal asylum policy, thereby providing a haven for thousands of uprooted people. His successors have continued an enlightened and generous policy towards refugees.
1982
Crown Princess Sonja of Norway

Crown Princess Sonja of Norway, who made exceptional efforts in raising awareness in Norway about refugees. The princess also visited reception and transit centres in areas where refugees were often facing life and death problems, such as on the Thai-Cambodian border. She became Queen in 1991, when her husband Crown Prince Harald succeeded King Olav V, who won the Nansen Award in 1961.
1981
Major-General Paul Cullen

Major-General Paul Cullen, for his work as head of the humanitarian aid and development organization, Austcare (Australian Care for Refugees). Maj-Gen Cullen gave vital encouragement to voluntary work for refugees in Australia and also promoted refugee aid in other areas, especially in Pakistan.
1980
Maryluz Schloeter Paredes

Social scientist Maryluz Schloeter Paredes won for her role as director general of the Venezuela branch of the International Social Service, a voluntary agency which assisted thousands of refugees from European and Latin American countries. Schloeter used her experience as a social scientist and her deep interest in youth problems, to help refugee children. She played a vital role in their rehabilitation at the Catia Community Centre in Caracas.
1979
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

The prize was awarded to recognize the action taken by France in favour of refugees under the leadership of then President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. It also paid tribute to the support that France has always given to humanitarian causes and to the generous policy of asylum practised by France.
1978
Sir Seretse Khama

Sir Seretse Khama, the first President of Botswana, was awarded the Nansen Medal in recognition of his country's exceptional services to refugees. The people and government of Botswana gave shelter to thousands of victims of racial discrimination and other forms of persecution.
1977
The Malaysian Red Crescent

The Malaysian Red Crescent won the 1977 Nansen Award for its work in helping refugees from Indo-China, especially boat people who reached the Malaysian waters. The organization could not have done its work without the help of 40,000 volunteers around the country. In conjunction with the Muslim welfare organization, Pertubuhan Kebajikan Islam Malaysia, the Red Crescent played a pioneering role in the local settlement of displaced Cambodians.
1976
Olav Hodne / Marie-Louise Bertschinger

Olav Hodne, a Norwegian missionary with the Lutheran World Service, set up the Cooch-Behar Refugee Service to help people forcibly displaced during the 1971 war between Pakistan and India that led to the creation of Bangladesh. During his many years in the subcontinent, helped thousands of uprooted people become self-sufficient. He also made vital contributions towards solving the hunger crisis in parts of Asia.

Marie-Louise Bertschinger, who served with the International Committee of the Red Cross and UNHCR, is another posthumous winner of the Nansen Award. She served the refugee cause with great skill, dedication and distinction. She was tragically died after being attacked by a deranged refugee while working, during her retirement, as a volunteer in Ethiopia.
1975
James Norris

James Norris, who won the award posthumously, was European Director of Catholic Relief Services for more than two decades. In this role, he actively promoted aid programmes for hundreds of thousands of uprooted people around the world. As one close associate put it, Norris was a man of action who "expressed his love of God through the love and service of man."
1974
Bishop Helmut Frenz

Bishop Helmut Frenz of the Lutheran Evangelical Church in Chile, who was chairman of the Chilean National Committee for Aid to Refugees. Under his courageous and inspiring leadership, the committee established safe havens where thousands of civilians forced to flee persecution could receive shelter, protection and assistance until leaving for resettlement. He was expelled from the country in 1975, but continued working for refugees as head of Amnesty International in his native Germany.
1972
Svana Fridriksdottir

Svana Fridriksdottir, an Icelandic student who devoted her spare time to refugee issues. In early 1972, a day-long fund-raising campaign was held in five Nordic countries to raise money to help African refugees. Fridriksdottir organized a collection in her home town and other urban centres, including Reykjavik. The campaign raised US$6 million.
1969
Princess Princep Shah of Nepal

Princess Princep Shah of Nepal contributed greatly to the establishment of the Nepalese Red Cross in 1964 and became its president. In this capacity, the princess played a major part in promoting and coordinating aid to Tibetan refugees.
1968
Bernard Arcens / Charles Jordan

Bernard Arcens won the award in recognition of his efforts, together with those of the government of Senegal and the local authorities, to assist thousands of refugees from Guinea Bissau to establish themselves in the Casamance Region of Senegal. He was president of the Regional Committee for Casamance of the Senegalese Red Cross and head of the Senegal Diocesan Catholic Aid.

Charles Jordan, the founding president of the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA) and a leading figure in the field of assistance to refugees, shared the award posthumously. Dubbed the "father of refugees," Jordan was executive director of the American Joint Distribution Committee, the largest Jewish humanitarian organization in the world. He died under mysterious circumstances in Prague in 1967.
1967
Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands

Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, in keeping with the humanitarian tradition of the Dutch royal family and people of the Netherlands, was instrumental in launching an exceptionally successful fund-raising campaign in 20 European countries and Australia for the benefit of refugees in Asia and Africa. Prince Bernard, a German by birth, was husband of the 1955 Nansen winner, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands.
1966
Jørgen Nørredam

Jørgen Nørredam was the representative of the League of Red Cross Societies in various countries in Africa, where he worked tirelessly on behalf of the forcibly displaced. A posthumous winner of the Nansen Award, the Danish citizen was killed in a plane crash while on his way to Tanzania to organize a refugee settlement.
1965
Lucie Chevalley / Ana Rosa Schlipper de Martinez Guerrero

Lucie Chevalley spent decades helping refugees in France and other countries in Europe. In 1921, she founded the Service Social d'Aide aux Emigrants, which become one of the main centres in France for international aid to refugees. She was also member of the state council in France for refugees and stateless people.

Ana Rosa Schlipper de Martinez Guerrero, founder of the Argentine Women's Association and head of the Association for the Protection of Refugees in Argentina, launched refugee aid in her country and set up the Santa Rita home for older refugees and those living with disabilities. She was a posthumous winner.
1964
Dame Anne May Curwen, François Preziosi / Jean Plicque

Dame Anne May Curwen, founder and president of the British Council for Aid to Refugees whose whole life was devoted to serving those in need of help from their fellow men, especially refugees. She was the British delegate to the UN Refugee Fund from 1954 to 1958.

Italian UNHCR worker François Preziosi and Jean Plicque of the International Labour Office died in August 1964 trying to protect and help Rwandan refugees in the Kivu region of eastern Congo, which remains volatile to this day. Preziosi's death highlighted the extremely fragile and contradictory environment that international relief officials were working in, even in those early years.
1963
The International Council of Voluntary Agencies

The International Council of Voluntary Agencies, or ICVA, received the Nansen Medal in recognition of the unremitting efforts of voluntary agencies and individual voluntary workers to help refugees in the field on a day-to-day basis.
1962
Sir Tasman Heyes

Sir Tasman Heyes was honoured for his work as head of the Australian Commonwealth Department of Immigration from 1946 until 1961. Under Sir Tasman's leadership, more than 270,000 refugees entered Australia, including hundreds of people with disabilities and many refugees of European origin from China.
1961
King Olav V of Norway

King Olav V of Norway gave inspiring leadership to Norway's relentless efforts to find durable solutions for refugee problems. He was the first Norwegian awarded the prize named after his illustrious compatriot
1960
Christopher Chataway, Colin Jones, Trevor Philpott and Tim Raison

Four young Englishmen, Christopher Chataway, Colin Jones, Trevor Philpott and Tim Raison were recognized for their work in the World Refugee Year (WRY) of 1959, a little remembered but vastly successful campaign to help the world's refugees. WRY, which involved 45 countries and raised tens of millions of dollars, is said to have helped inspire later campaigns such as Live Aid in 1985. Chataway, also a noted athlete, and Raison later became Conservative government ministers.
1959
Oskar Hellmer

Oskar Hellmer, as Austrian Interior Minister, was instrumental in persuading his country to throw open its doors to refugees from Hungary in 1956 without knowing how many would come and how long they would stay. It was the first movement in which refugees were recognized en masse.
1958
David Hoggett / Pierre Jacobsen

The British pacifist and humanitarian, David Hoggett, was paralysed from the waist down while building homes for refugees in Austria in 1956. When he was awarded the Nansen for his work with refugees, Hoggett accepted it on behalf of all volunteers who did such work.

Pierre Jacobsen was announced posthumously as co-winner of the 1958 Nansen Award for his work as one of the principal architects of internationally planned migration of refugees and migrants. Jacobsen, who made his mark while Deputy Director of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration and assistant Director General of the International Refugee Organization, died in a motor accident in 1957.
1957
The League of Red Cross Societies

The League of Red Cross Societies has gained a huge reputation for helping the victims of natural and man-made disasters. It demonstrated the impact of international solidarity through its immediate response to the exceptional demands made in 1956 during the Hungarian refugee crisis. The award also honoured its member societies.
1956
Dorothy Houghton / Gerrit Jan van Heuven Goedhart

Dorothy Houghton, the third Nansen Medal winner, worked tirelessly to enhance the interest of voluntary agencies in the plight of refugees. She also played a leading role in encouraging the admission of refugees to her country and in carrying out the United States Escapee Programme, launched in 1952 to assist those fleeing Eastern Bloc countries.

Gerrit Jan van Heuven Goedhart won the award posthumously for his valuable work on behalf of refugees as the first United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He put much of his energy into securing funds to help the hundreds of thousands of people still displaced after World War II. UNHCR won the Nobel Peace Prize under his watch in 1954.
1955
Queen Juliana of the Netherlands

Queen Juliana of the Netherlands left no stone unturned to promote international aid to refugees and lobbied for support from US Presidents Truman and Eisenhower. In her own country, she gave guidance to the most effective fund-raising campaigns for refugees.
1954
Eleanor Roosevelt

Legendary humanitarian Eleanor Roosevelt won the first Nansen Award for her long fight for universal freedom of speech and religion, freedom from fear and want. She chaired the committee that drafted and approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The award was also to honour her late husband, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who in 1938 promoted the setting up of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees.