UNHCR’s Nansen Refugee Award
Once a year, we honour extraordinary service to the forcibly displaced.
The Nansen Refugee Award, through its recipients, aims to showcase his values of perseverance and conviction in the face of adversity.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of UNHCR’s Nansen Refugee Award. Since Eleanor Roosevelt became the first winner in 1954, more than 60 individuals, groups and organizations have been recognized for outstanding and dedicated work on behalf of displaced people.
The award is named after Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian polar explorer and humanitarian who served in the 1920s as the first High Commissioner for Refugees for the League of Nations. Nansen was awarded the 1922 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his courageous and unfaltering work on behalf of World War I refugees.
Read more about past winners.