The first person to win the Nansen Refugee Award, in 1954, was Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and first chair of the UN Human Rights Commission.
Over the years, more than 60 individuals, groups or organisations have received the Award for their extraordinary service to refugees and outstanding work on behalf of the displaced.
Since 1979, Nansen Laureates started to receive a cash prize of USD 50,000 which has increased over time. In 2017, the winner received USD 150,000. The prize is generously donated by the governments of Norway and Switzerland.
The Nansen Refugee Award monetary prize aims at enabling its annual recipient to pursue a project to assist displaced people, developed in close consultation with UNHCR.
Since 2017, regional runners-up are also recognised for their humanitarian efforts.
2022 - Dr. Angela Merkel
Under the former Chancellor’s leadership, Germany welcomed more than 1.2 million refugees and asylum-seekers at the height of the conflict in Syria and amid violence elsewhere, overseeing efforts to integrate them into society.
2021- Jeel Albena Association
The Jeel Albena Association for humanitarian development, a Yemeni humanitarian organization founded in 2017 by Ameen Jubran has provided a lifeline to tens of thousands of people displaced by the country’s conflict is the winner of the 2021 UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award. © UNHCR/Ahmed Haleem
2020- Mayerlín Vergara Pérez
Mayerlín Vergara Pérez, Maye, a human rights activist, campaigner, and the Caribbean Regional Coordinator for the Renacer Foundationa non-governmental organization in Colombia, has spent the last 20 years working to identify and rescue sexually exploited and trafficked children, many of whom are refugees. She has helped hundreds of the approximately 22,000 children and teenagers served by the organization since its inception 32 years ago. © UNHCR/Nicolo Filippo Rosso
2019- Azizbek Ashurov
Azizbek Ashurov, a lawyer, whose work has supported the efforts of the Kyrgyz Republic in becoming the first country in the world to end statelessness, is the 2019 UN Refugee Agency’s Nansen Refugee Award winner. He assisted more than 10,000 stateless people to get their citizenship in Kyrgyzstan© UNHCR/Chris de Bode
2018 – Dr. Evan Atar Adaha
Evan Atar Adaha, a surgeon and medical director at a hospital in north-eastern South Sudan, was named the 2018 winner of the Nansen Refugee Award, in honour of his outstanding 20-year commitment in providing medical services to people forced to flee conflict. © UNHCR/Will Swanson
2017 – Zannah Mustapha
Zannah Mustapha is a lawyer, school-founder and peace-maker from north east Nigeria. Mustapha was honoured during the Nansen Refugee Award ceremony on 2 October 2017 for his dedication and commitment to ensuring children and orphans affected by the conflict in Borno State can attend school.
2016 – Efi Latsoudi
Efi Latsoudi plays is pictured at “PIKPA village” on the Greek island of Lesvos. Latsoudi is a human rights activist behind PIKPA, where vulnerable refugees such as children, pregnant women and the disabled have been finding sanctuary since 2012. © UNHCR/Gordon Welters
2016 – Konstantinos Mitragas
Konstantinos Mitragas on behalf of the Hellenic Rescue Team and Efi Latsoudi, a human rights activist behind “PIKPA village” on the Greek island of Lesvos, are joint winners of UNHCR’s Nansen Award 2016. The award recognizes their tireless efforts to aid refugee arrivals in Greece during 2015. © UNHCR/Gordon Welters
2015 – Aqeela Asifi
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2014 – Butterflies with New Wings Building a Future
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. © UNHCR /J. Arredondo
2013 – Sister Angélique Namaika
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. © UNHCR/ B. Sokol
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. © UNHCR/F.Juez
2011 – Nasser Salim Ali Al-Hamairy
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. © SHS/A.S.Hussein
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. © UNHCR/Nilo photographes
2009 – 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. © AP Photo/Robert Dear
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. © UNHCR/ P. Taggart
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. © UNHCR/ A. Pace
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. © FujiOptical Co Ltd
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. © UNHCR