Edward M Kennedy visiting Bengali refugee camps in Kolkata in India in 1971. Image: AFP PHOTO/AFP/Getty Images

Edward M Kennedy speaks to a meeting of student leaders in 1966 - he called for participation in humanitarian relief programmes in South Vietnam. Image: AP Photo/Bob Daugherty

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Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The 2009 Fridtjof  Nansen award will go to the late US Senator Edward Kennedy in recognition of his work in favour of refugees and asylum-seekers, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced 15 September. The ceremony takes place in the US, in Washington, DC 28 October.

Antonio Guterres, High Commissioner for Refugees, said in the announcement, “Kennedy stood out as a forceful advocate for those who suddenly found themselves with no voice and no rights. Year after year, conflict after conflict, he put the plight of refugees on the agenda and drove through policies that saved and shaped countless lives.” He noted that Kennedy’s work for refugees was not limited to the US and that most recently he had fought to draw attention to the needs of Iraqi refugees.

He added that Kennedy was informed of the Nansen committee’s decision in June before he died.

Senator Edward Kennedy, center left, has a smile and a handshake for an unidentified young refugee in the Tuki-Baab famine refugee camp during a visit, Tuesday, Dec. 27, 1984, Tuki-Baab, Eastern Sudan. Many of the refugees had walked for a week to reach the camp from Eritrea. Kennedy toured a number of refugee camps in the African drought area over Christmas week. The woman on the left is unidentified. Image: AP Photo/Robert Dear

Former winners of the award include the first recipient, Eleonor Roosevelt, and Medecins sans Frontieres and Luciano Pavarotti.

The award is named in honour of Fridtjof Nansen, a Norwegian explorer and scientist, who was named the first High Commissioner for Refugees in 1921 by the League of Nations. He organized relief work in favour of the millions of Russians who fled the Russian Revolution, and the victims of the Russian famine of 1921-1922. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922.

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