Past laureates
THE UNHCR NANSEN REFUGEE AWARD
Past laureates
© UNHCR/John Wessels
More than 60 Nansen Refugee Award laureates
The first person to win the Nansen Refugee Award, in 1954, was Eleanor Roosevelt, first chair of the UN Human Rights Commission and former First Lady of the United States.
Since then, more than 60 individuals, groups or organizations have received the Award for their extraordinary service to refugees, internally displaced and stateless people. Since 2017, we have also recognized several Regional Winners each year for their humanitarian efforts.
Chief Martin Azia Sodea, the 2025 laureate, has redefined what it means to lead. Today, over 36,000 refugees call Gado-Badzéré home, thanks to Chief Martin’s unwavering commitment to humanity. His family allocated land for farming and settlement expansion, transforming the village into a hub of agricultural productivity and self-reliance. Their initiatives have not only fed families but restored dignity and hope.
Global laureates
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2025
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Chief Martin Azia Sodea
Chief Martin Azia Sodea is the Chief of Gado-Badzéré village in eastern Cameroon. He has shown exceptional dedication and leadership. When thousands of refugees from the Central African Republic arrived, the people of Gado-Badzéré did not turn them away.
Chief Martin and his family allocated land for farming and settlement expansion, transforming the village into a hub of agricultural productivity and self-reliance. He has established support networks for refugee women and youth, regularly resolves disputes, and has created a safe, thriving community.
Chief Martin and his family allocated land for farming and settlement expansion, transforming the village into a hub of agricultural productivity and self-reliance. He has established support networks for refugee women and youth, regularly resolves disputes, and has created a safe, thriving community.
2024
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Sister Rosita Milesi
Sister Rosita Milesi has championed the rights of refugees and migrants in Brazil for nearly 40 years. Her impact is evident in the legislation and public policies she has helped shape, in her leadership of the Institute for Migration and Human Rights, and in her coordination of a national solidarity network that supports and protects people forced to flee.
2023
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Abdullahi Mire
Abdullahi Mire is a journalist and former refugee from Somalia who has championed the right to education while putting 100,000 books in the hands of displaced children and youth in Kenya.
2022
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Angela Merkel
Under Dr. Angela Merkel's leadership, Germany welcomed more than 1.2 million refugees and asylum seekers in 2015 and 2016, at the height of the conflict in Syria and amid deadly violence in other places.
2021
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Jeel Albena Association for Humanitarian Development
The Jeel Albena aid organization stayed on the ground during the worst of Yemen's six-year conflict to provide shelter and hope to thousands of internally displaced people.
2020
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Mayerlín Vergara Pérez
Mayerlín Vergara Pérez, Maye, has dedicated her life to defending children. As the Caribbean Regional Coordinator for the Renacer Foundation she has devoted more than two decades to helping the Colombian non-profit reach its goal of eradicating sexual exploitation and abuse of children and adolescents.
2019
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Azizbek Ashurov
Azizbek Ashurov, through his organization Ferghana Valley Lawyers Without Borders (FVLWB), has helped well over 10,000 people to gain Kyrgyz nationality after they became stateless following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Among them, some 2,000 children will now have the right to an education and a future with the freedom to travel, marry and work.
2018
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Dr. Evan Atar
South Sudanese surgeon Dr. Evan Atar Adaha has been honoured for his outstanding 20-year commitment in providing medical services to people forced to flee conflict and persecution in Sudan and South Sudan, as well as to the communities that welcome them.
2017
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Zannah Mustapha
Nigerian lawyer and property developer Zannah Mustapha was named the winner of the UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award for providing orphans of Nigeria’s Boko Haram insurgency with an education. Mustapha’s Future Prowess School provides free education, free meals, uniforms and health care to children affected by the violence.
2016
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Konstantinos Mitragas and Efi Latsoudi
Greek volunteers Efi Latsoudi and Konstantinos Mitragas, member of the Hellenic Rescue Team (HRT), helped thousands of refugees arriving on Greek shores during the 2015 refugee and migrant crisis – saving lives during treacherous sea crossings and providing a safe haven for the most vulnerable after they reached land.
2015
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Aqeela Asifi
Aqeela Asifi has been recognized for her brave and tireless dedication to education for Afghan refugee girls in the Kot Chandana refugee village in Mianwali, Pakistan - while herself overcoming the struggles of life in exile. Despite minimal resources and significant cultural challenges, Asifi has guided a thousand refugee girls through their primary education.
2014
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Butterflies with New Wings Building a Future
Established in 2010 by a group of forcibly displaced and local women, this network provides counsel and support for victims of abuse and reaches out into communities to educate women and put pressure on local authorities to uphold women's rights.
2013
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Sister Angélique Namaika
Sister Angélique Namaika has helped hundreds of women and girls – as well as a few boys – who were forcibly displaced and abused by armed groups in the DRC. Over the past decade, she has helped them to overcome their trauma, counter the stigma attached to rape and rebuild their lives with newly learned trades.
2012
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Hawa Aden Mohamed
Somali humanitarian, educator and women's rights advocate Hawa Aden Mohamed has been recognized for her work, as founder and director of the Galkayo Education Centre for Peace and Development in Somalia's Puntland region, in helping to empower thousands of displaced Somali women and girls.
2011
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Nasser Salim Ali Al-Hamairy
Al-Hamairy founded the Society for Humanitarian Solidarity (SHS) in 1995 with the aim of providing relief to the needy for the benefit of society as a whole. Under difficult conditions and despite heavy security constraints, SHS has consistently provided essential and life-saving support to refugees in Yemen's southern governorates.
2010
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Alixandra Fazzina
British photo-journalist Alixandra Fazzina. Ms. Fazzina was chosen for her tireless dedication to uncovering and portraying the overlooked human consequences of war. Over the last ten years, she has tirelessly documented the plight of the uprooted through distinctive and moving photo reportages.
2009
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Senator Edward Kennedy
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.
2008
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Chris Clark
An expert in humanitarian mine action, he has notably run the UN's Mine Action Programme in the south of Lebanon. His team of Lebanese and international mine clearers and supervisors have since cleared villages and agricultural land of tens of thousands of mines.
Regional winners
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2024
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Africa - Maimouna Ba
Maimouna Ba is a grassroots activist in Burkina Faso who has helped more than 100 displaced children return to the classroom and put over 400 displaced women on a path to financial independence.
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Asia-Pacific - Deepti Gurung
Deepti Gurung is a Nepali activist who campaigned to reform her country’s citizenship laws after learning that her two daughters had become stateless.
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Europe - Jin Davod
Jin Davod is a young social entrepreneur who drew on her own experience as a Syrian refugee to create an online platform that provides mental health support to trauma survivors.
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Middle East and North Africa - Nada Fadol
Nada Fadol is a Sudanese refugee who has mobilized essential aid for hundreds of families fleeing to Egypt in search of safety.
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Honorary Mention - The People of Moldova
The commitment of the Moldovan people goes beyond emergency response. It is a long-term project of inclusion and community building, where refugees are not just welcomed but also given the tools and opportunities to contribute to their new society.
2023
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Americas – Elizabeth Moreno Barco
This human rights defender and peace builder has spent decades advocating for communities affected by armed internal conflict in Colombia – especially women and children, Afro-descendants, indigenous groups, and internally displaced people.
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Asia-Pacific – Rohingya Storytellers
These four content creators – Abdullah Habib, Sahat Zia Hero, Salim Khan, and Shahida Win – use photography, video, and poetry to share vital information, document the experiences of stateless Rohingya refugees, and share their perspectives with the world.
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Europe – Lena Grochowska and Władysław Grochowski
This Polish couple have marshalled their hotel chain and private foundation to provide shelter and livelihoods training to refugees, including many living with disabilities, and leveraged their influence in the business community to rally support for people forced to flee.
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Middle East and North Africa – Asia Al-Mashreqi
This female leader is the founder and CEO of the Sustainable Development Foundation, which has provided humanitarian assistance to nearly 2 million individuals in Yemen, including refugees, returnees, internally displaced people, and host communities.
2022
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Africa – Mbera Fire Brigade
Founded by refugees, this all-volunteer firefighting group in Mauritania has extinguished more than 100 bushfires and planted thousands of trees to preserve lives, livelihoods and the local environment.
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Americas – Vicenta González
Doña Vicenta, a former midwife, has provided nearly 50 years of service to displaced and other vulnerable people in Costa Rica.
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Asia – Meikswe Myanmar
This humanitarian organization assists communities in need with emergency items, health care, education, and livelihoods opportunities – while striving to build the capacity of local organizations.
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Middle East and North Africa – Dr. Nagham Hasan
This Iraqi gynaecologist provides medical and psychosocial care to girls and women who survived persecution, enslavement and gender-based violence at the hands of extremist groups in northern Iraq.
2021
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Africa – Roukiatou Maiga and Diambendi Madiega
In Burkina Faso, community mobilizer Roukiatou Maiga and Chief Diambendi Madiega host and look after thousands of people who had been forced to flee their homes.
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Americas – Santiago Ávila
Honduran social worker Jorge Santiago Ávila Corrales has made it his life’s work to empower youth and enable them to escape forced recruitment by criminal organizations.
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Asia – Dr. Saleema Rehman
Dr. Saleema Rehman is the first-ever female Afghan refugee doctor of Turkmen origin. She lives and practises medicine in Pakistan.
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Europe – Nikola Kovačević
Human rights lawyer Nikola Kovačević has spent years advocating for the human rights of refugees and asylum-seekers in Serbia.
2020
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Africa – Sabuni Francoise Chikunda
Congolese refugee Sabuni Francoise Chikunda is a schoolteacher and community leader, counselling women and survivors of sexual and gender-based violence at the women’s centre she founded.
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Asia – Rozma Ghafouri
Afghan football player and coach Rozma Ghafouri founded the Youth Initiative Fund, identifying vulnerable children who are forced to work.
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Europe – Tetiana Barantsova
Tetiana has been helping people with disabilities escape conflict areas and restart their lives in safety since 2014 when she was forced to flee her home city of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
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Middle East and North Africa – Rana Dajani
Molecular biologist Rana Dajani founded the We Love Reading project, a grassroots movement that encourages local volunteers to read aloud to children and that is now active in 56 countries worldwide.
2019
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Africa – Evariste Mfaume
Congolese human rights activist Evariste Mfaume helps Burundian refugees and internally displaced Congolese persons acquire land to empower themselves through agricultural development.
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Americas – Bianka Rodriguez
Transgender activist Bianka Rodriguez is the director of a Salvadoran non-profit organization that advocates for the rights of LGBT and HIV-positive people.
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Asia – Alberto Cairo
Physiotherapist Alberto Cairo provides prosthetic limbs and helps find jobs for injured Afghans.
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Europe – Humanitarian Corridors
Humanitarian Corridors is an Italian reception programme for refugees and migrants in particularly vulnerable conditions.
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Middle East and North Africa – Abeer Khreisha
Jordanian activist Abeer Khreisha has worked tirelessly to welcome refugees and rally the local community to donate food, clothes and furniture, and provide accommodation, training and jobs to the most vulnerable.
2018
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Americas – Samira Harnish
Founder of Women of the World and Iraqi refugee Samira Harnish has helped more than 1,000 refugee women in Salt Lake City to learn English and find jobs, enabling them to become self-reliant and contribute to their new communities.
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Asia – Tuenjai Deetes
Tuenjai Deetes has spent 40 years helping stateless people in Thailand, living with communities and advocating for citizenship. She played a prominent role in changing the law in Thailand, opening the path for hundreds of thousands of stateless people to apply for nationality.
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Europe – Andreas Hollstein
German mayor Andreas Hollstein and the town of Altena have welcomed 450 asylum-seekers since 2018, enabling them to have access to the labour market and providing them with long-term opportunities.
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Middle East and North Africa – Reclaim Childhood
A non-profit programme for refugee and local girls in Jordan, Reclaim Childhood promotes leadership skills and interaction between different refugee and local communities through participation in sports.
2017
Each year, the UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award recognizes several individuals, groups or organizations that have shown exceptional dedication in protecting and assisting refugees, internally displaced or stateless people.
