But after he hung up his skis and handed over his boat, Fram, to his protégé, Roald Amundsen, Nansen moved on to another career, that of humanitarian.
In 1921 he was appointed the League of Nations’ High Commissioner for Refugees, and in 1922 he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work helping refugees, many of whom had been displaced by World War I.
In commemoration of Nansen’s humanitarian work, and close to the 150th anniversary of his birth, on Wed., Oct. 26 the Women’s Refugee Commission and the Embassy of Norway presented “Commemorating the Legacy of Fridtjof Nansen and Reflecting on the Humanitarian Challenges of Our Time” at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill.
The event was a collaboration with the House Friends of Norway Caucus, whose co-chairs, Reps. Rick Larsen and Betty McCollum, made opening remarks before Berit Enge, Minister Counselor for Political Affairs from the Norwegian Embassy spoke about Nansen’s legacy.
Enge described Nansen’s work with the League of Nations, where he helped repatriate perhaps as many as 500,000 former prisoners of war. She also discussed his invention of the so-called “Nansen passport,” identity papers that helped those without other forms of identification cross borders and return home. “Fridtjof Nansen was a man I think all of us would have loved to meet,” said Enge.
The keynote speaker, António Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, talked about new types of refugees created by changing global conditions. Global population growth, urbanization, climate change and food insecurity are all contributing to increasing refugee populations around the world. Because many of these classes of refugees are new or growing, they fall into “protection gaps,” Guterres said, and the international community needs to develop ways to care for them.
He highlighted areas of the world in which humanitarian efforts are increasingly hampered and overtaken by issues of national sovereignty, with each nation having its own migration policy.
Further, in parts of the world where it’s difficult to figure out who’s in charge, it’s not always possible to deliver humanitarian aid safely and effectively. Better separation among the military, civilian and humanitarian spheres would help, he said.
Guterres called on the international community to increase its protection for a broad range of refugees. He asked the United States in particular to review its own asylum system and to increase its efforts in diplomacy and humanitarian aid. He commended Norway and the United States for their shared, welcoming attitude toward refugees and other types of victims. He mentioned that the Nordic countries have created “regimes of temporary protection” for victims, e.g. of natural disasters, an idea he hopes other countries will adopt.
The Norwegian Embassy’s Enge said she was pleased with the event. “This was an important opportunity to bring together key decision makers and humanitarians in Washington, to highlight both the Nansen legacy and the challenges of today. The High Commissioner gave us a sobering reminder that neither humanitarian work nor refugee assistance has become any easier over the past century – quite the opposite.
"This event was a call to all of us to do whatever is in our power to alleviate the plight of an ever-growing number of displaced persons. I am especially pleased that the event could take place on Capitol Hill, thanks to the Friends of Norway Caucus in the House of Representatives,” said Enge.