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Archive of Past Nansen Winners
Past Winners of the Nansen Award
More than 60 individuals, groups or organizations have won the Nansen Refugee Award since it was inaugurated in 1954. The first winner was Eleanor Roosevelt, the first chairperson of the UN Human Rights Commission and wife of legendary US President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
She has been followed by an illustrious group of individuals, including French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Tanzania's President Julius Nyerere, King Juan Carlos I of Spain, Graça Machel and late Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti.
A number of humanitarian organizations, and partners of UNHCR, have won the award, which has included a cash prize since 1979. Among them are the League of Red Cross Societies. Médecins sans Frontières, Handicap International and the UN Volunteers. In 1986, the Nansen went to the people of Canada - the only country to have received the award as a nation.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.