List of Nansen Refugee Award recipients facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Nansen Refugee Award
Logo
Presented by	United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Location	Geneva
Reward	US$150,000
First awarded	1954

The Nansen Refugee Award is a special medal given out every year. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) presents it. This award honors people, groups, or organizations. They receive it for doing amazing work to help refugees, people who are displaced from their homes, or those who are stateless.

The UNHCR started this award in 1954. It was created by the first High Commissioner, Gerrit Jan van Heuven Goedhart. He wanted to honor Fridtjof Nansen, a famous explorer and Nobel Peace Prize winner. Nansen worked hard to support refugees. Van Heuven Goedhart believed the award would make more people notice the needs of refugees. It would also encourage more global aid.

The first person to receive the award was Eleanor Roosevelt in 1954. Each year, the award ceremony takes place in Geneva, Switzerland. Along with the medal, winners receive $150,000 US dollars. In 2017, the award grew to include regional winners. These winners come from Africa, Asia, the Americas, the Middle East, and Europe. In 2018, the award was even called the "other Nobel" prize by NPR.

Who Has Won the Nansen Refugee Award?

This award has been given to many inspiring people and groups. They all worked hard to help refugees around the world.

List of annual laureates

Year	Image	Winner	Country	What they did	Ref.
1954	Eleanor Roosevelt	Eleanor Roosevelt	USA	First chair of the UN Human Rights Commission
1955	Queen Juliana	Queen Juliana	Netherlands	Queen of the Netherlands
1956		Dorothy D. Houghton	USA	Helped refugees as president of the Federation of Women's Clubs
	Gerrit Jan van Heuven Goedhart	Gerrit Jan van Heuven Goedhart	Netherlands	First UN High Commissioner for Refugees; awarded after his death
1957		The League of Red Cross Societies	Switzerland	Helped Hungarian refugees
1958		David Hoggett	United Kingdom	Worked with Hungarian refugees in Austria
	Pierre Jacobsen	Pierre Jacobsen	France	Deputy Director of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration; awarded after his death
1959		Oskar Helmer	Austria	Helped 180,000 Hungarian refugees in Austria as Minister of the Interior
1960	Christopher Chataway	Christopher Chataway, Colin Jones, Trevor Philpott, Timothy Raison	United Kingdom	Created World Refugee Year and raised money for refugees
1961	King Olav V	King Olav V	Norway	King of Norway
1962		Tasman Heyes	Australia	A strong supporter of refugees
1963		The International Council for Voluntary Agencies	Switzerland	Supported refugees in Africa
1964		May Curwen	United Kingdom	Dedicated her life to helping those in need
		Francois Preziosi & Jean Plicque	France	Helped refugees in eastern Congo; awarded after their deaths
1965		Lucie Chevalley	France	Provided exceptional service to refugees in Europe for 45 years
		Ana Rosa Schlieper de Martínez Guerrero	Argentina	Supported human rights and many charities; awarded after her death
		Jørgen Nørredam	Denmark	Dedicated service to refugees in Europe and Africa for many years; awarded after his death
1967	Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld	Prince Bernhard	Netherlands
1968		Bernard Arcens	Senegal
		Charles H. Jordan	USA	Awarded after his death
1969		Princess Princep Shah	Nepal
1971		Louise Holborn	USA
1972		Swana Friðriksdóttir	Iceland
1974		Helmut Frenz	Germany
1975		James J. Norris	USA
1976	Olav Hodne	Olav Hodne	Norway
		Marie-Louise Bertschinger	Switzerland	Awarded after her death
1977	Malaysian Red Crescent Society logo	The Malaysian Red Crescent Society	Malaysia	Helped thousands of refugees from Indo-China
1978		Seretse Khama	Botswana
1979	Valéry Giscard d'Estaing	Valéry Giscard d'Estaing	France
1980		Maryluz Schloeter Paredes	Venezuela
1981		Paul Cullen	Australia
1982	Crown Princess Sonja	Crown Princess Sonja	Norway
1983	Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere	Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere	Tanzania
1984		Lewis M. Hiller, Jeff Kass, and Gregg Turay	USA
1985	Paulo Evaristo Arns	Paulo Evaristo Arns	Brazil
1986	Governor General Jeanne Sauvé	The People of Canada (accepted by Governor General Jeanne Sauvé)	Canada
1987	Juan Carlos I of Spain	Juan Carlos I	Spain
1988		Syed Munir Husain	Pakistan
1991	Libertina Appolus Amathila	Libertina Appolus Amathila	Namibia
		Paul Weis	Austria	Awarded after his death
1992	Richard von Weizsäcker	Richard von Weizsäcker	Germany
1993	Médecins Sans Frontières logo	Médecins Sans Frontières	Switzerland
1995	Graça Machel	Graça Machel	Mozambique
1996	Handicap International logo	Handicap International	France
1997		Joannes Klas	USA
1998	Mustafa Dzhemilev	Mustafa Dzhemilev	Ukraine
2000		Jelena Silajdžić	Bosnia and Herzegovina
	Abune Paulos	Abune Paulos	Ethiopia
	Lao Mong Hay	Lao Mong Hay	Cambodia
	Miguel Angel Estrella	Miguel Angel Estrella	Argentina
	United Nations Volunteers logo	United Nations volunteers	United Nations
2001	Luciano Pavarotti	Luciano Pavarotti	Italy
2002	MV Tampa vessel	Arne Rinnan and the crew of the MV Tampa	Norway
2003		Annalena Tonelli	Italy
2004		Memorial Human Rights Centre	Russia
2005	Marguerite Barankitse	Marguerite Barankitse	Burundi
2006		Akio Kanai	Japan
2007		Katrine Camilleri	Malta
2008		Chris Clark & United Nations Mine Action Service	United Kingdom
2009	Edward Kennedy	Edward Kennedy	USA
2010		Alixandra Fazzina	United Kingdom
2011		Society for Humanitarian Solidarity	Yemen
2012	Hawa Aden Mohamed	Hawa Aden Mohamed	Somalia
2013	Angélique Namaika	Angélique Namaika	Democratic Republic of the Congo
2014		Butterflies with New Wings Building a Future	Colombia
2015	Aqeela Asifi	Aqeela Asifi	Afghanistan
2016	Hellenic Rescue Team crest	Efi Latsoudi & Konstantinos Mitragas	Greece
2017		Zannah Mustapha	Nigeria
2018		Evan Atar Adaha	South Sudan
2019	Azizbek Ashurov	Azizbek Ashurov	Kyrgyzstan
2020		Mayerlín Vergara Pérez	Colombia
2021		Jeel Albena Association for Humanitarian Development	Yemen
2022	Angela Merkel	Angela Merkel	Germany
2023
2024		Rosita Milesi	Brazil

Regional Winners of the Nansen Refugee Award

Since 2017, the Nansen Refugee Award also recognizes regional winners. These are people or groups who have made a big difference in specific parts of the world.

List of regional laureates

Year	Region	Image	Winner	What they did	Country	Ref.
2017	Africa		CIYOTA		Uganda
2017	Asia		Bernard Wirth		Thailand
2017	Americas		Friar Tomas		Mexico
2017	Europe		Hej Främling!		Sweden
2017	Middle East		Ihsan Ezedeen		Syria
2018	Asia	Tuenjai Deetes	Tuenjai Deetes		Thailand
2018	Americas		Samira Harnish		USA
2018	Europe		Andreas Hollstein and the town of Altena		Germany
2018	Middle East		Reclaim Childhood		Jordan
2019	Africa		Evariste Mfaume		Democratic Republic of the Congo
2019	Asia		Alberto Cairo		Afghanistan
2019	Americas		Bianka Rodriguez		El Salvador
2019	Europe		Humanitarian Corridors		Italy
2019	Middle East		Abeer Khreisha		Jordan
2020	Africa		Sabuni Francoise Chikunda		Democratic Republic of the Congo
2020	Asia		Rozma Ghafouri		Afghanistan
2020	Europe		Tetiana Barantsova		Ukraine
2020	Middle East	Rana Dajani	Rana Dajani		Jordan
2021	Africa		Roukiatou Maiga		Burkina Faso
			Diambendi Madiega
2021	Asia		Saleema Rehman		Afghanistan
2021	Americas		Santiago Ávila		Honduras
2021	Europe		Nikola Kovačević		Serbia
2022	Africa		Ahmedou Ag Albohary		Mauritania
2022	Asia		Naw Bway Khu		Myanmar
2022	Americas		Vicenta González		Nicaragua
2022	Middle East		Nagham Hasan		Iraq

See also

In Spanish: Premio Nansen para niños

• Nansen International Office for Refugees