Nobel Peace Prize

UNHCR has earned two Nobel Peace Prizes, the first time only some years after its founding. UNHCR was awarded the 1954 Nobel Peace Prize for its work on behalf of refugees and displaced people in postwar Europe.

Upon receiving the second award in 1981, the High Commissioner at the time, Poul Hartling, called the award “a statement to the world’s refugees that you are not forgotten.” The Nobel Committee has also presented the award on five occasions to individual refugees who rose above their personal tragedies to make exceptional contributions towards peace, one of them being Willy Brandt who fled from Germany to escape the Gestapo and who later became Chancellor of West Germany.  

In 1921, thirty years before UNHCR was established, the Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen was appointed the first High Commissioner for Refugees. The position was created by the League of Nations, the predecessor of the United Nations. In 1922 Nansen created the first international identity and travel document for refugees, the Nansen passport. Nansen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize the very same year.