Established in 1954 by G.H. Van Heuven Goedhart (link), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees at the time, the Nansen Prize is awarded annually to an individual or group of persons/organization in recognition of their humanitarian services dedicated to refugees.
Formerly known as the Nansen Medal, the Award pays tribute to Fridtjof Nansen (link), the first High Commissioner for Refugees of the League of Nations. G.H. Van Heuven Goedhart was a great admirer of Nansen and hoped to encourage international assistance and cooperation and to ensure more visibility to the cause of refuge through the Prize.
Anyone can nominate someone or a group of people/organization to run. UNHCR staff and volunteers are not eligible and self-reporting is strongly discouraged. The winner is selected by a special committee composed of a member appointed by the Norwegian government, a member appointed by the Swiss government, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, the chairman of the Standing Conference of Voluntary Agencies, the UNHCR High Commissioner, the Chair of the Executive Committee (ExCom) and a guest rotating member.
The committee selects the winner regardless of creed, skin color, age or profession. The criteria for the choice are: the work of the laureate must go beyond mere duty and must stand out from the regular professional obligations; must show courage, possibly facing personal risk; should directly and positively impact the lives of the displaced or stateless; should bring awareness to the cause of the refuge and reflect the values of UNHCR.
The winner’s announcement comes in September and the awards ceremony takes place the following month in Geneva (Switzerland) the humanitarian capital of the world. The prize, the most important award granted by UNHCR, consists of a commemorative medal and $ 100,000 donated by the governments of Norway and Switzerland, which the winner can donate to the cause of his choice.
For more information, visit the official website of the Nansen Refugee Award: http://www.unhcr.org/nansen
Laureates
2013 | Sister Angélique Namaika
Through the Center for Reintegration and Development, of which she is a co-founder, Angélique Namaika has already helped more than 2,000 women and girls forced to move because of violence by rebel armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Many of them were abducted and subjected to forced labor, sexual abuse, physical and psychological aggression. Since 2008, the Center has been helping victims overcome trauma and stigma and to rebuild their lives, restoring their confidence and providing them with the means to become self-reliant.
2012 | Hawa Aden Mohamed (Somalia)
The work of Hawa Aden Mohamed, founder and director of the Educational Center for Peace and Development of Galkayo (GECPD), is inspired by the conviction that education is the foundation of everything, especially for girls.
Through the GECPD, Hawa has helped over 215,000 people, including displaced people, victims and survivors of violence, to recover and rebuild their lives in Somalia. Founded in 1999, GECPD offers secondary education and vocational training for displaced women and girls, as well as counseling for those circumcised or victims of gender-based violence.
2011 | Nasser Salim Ali Al-Hamairy & the Society for Humanitarian Solidarity (SHS) (Yemen)
Founded in 1995 by Nasser Salim Ali Al-Hamairy, the non-governmental organization Society for Humanitarian Solidarity (SHS) patrols 600 of the 2,000 kilometers of the Yemen coast, providing rescue services to thousands of refugees and migrants from the Horn of Africa. The SHS team rescues people at sea, performs first aid for the wounded, secures survivors meal and transport to reception centers. Often, they bury the bodies of those who died in the crossing of the Gulf of Aden. SHS also supports the local community to mitigate the impact of the influx of refugees on the Yemeni population and contributes to the maintenance of refugee camps and shelters. The NGO is funded by the international humanitarian community and by public donations and is the first winner of Nansen Refugee Award from an Arab. With the money of the Award, the SHS inaugurated the primary school “Nansen” in the Kharaz refugee camp.
2010 | Alixandra Fazzina (United Kingdom)
British photojournalist Alixandra Fazzina was honored for her dedication to documenting and publicizing the human consequences of war and misery. Much of her work depicts the suffering of refugees and internally displaced people in Eastern Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia. The Nansen Refugee Award Committee highlighted Fazzina’s testimonies of child abuse by militias in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, Somali refugees crossing the Gulf of Aden into Yemen, landmine victims in Kosovo, civilians arrested behind enemy lines in Angola, rape as a weapon of war in Sierra Leone, among others.
