Winner of UNHCR’s Nansen Refugee Award 2019 announced
8162 Mins Read
Kyrgyzstan’s Azizibek Ashurov, winner of UNHCR’s Nansen Refugee Award 2019, at the announcing and introducing the winner of UNHCR’s Nansen Refugee Award 2019, during a press conference, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, 02 October 2019.
Ashurov , a lawyer, whose work has supported the efforts of the Kyrgyz Republic in becoming the first country in the world to end statelessness.
Ashurov, through his organization Ferghana Valley Lawyers Without Borders (FVLWB), has helped well over 10,000 people to gain Kyrgyz nationality after they became stateless following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Among them, some 2,000 children will now have the right to an education and a future with the freedom to travel, marry and work.
UNHCR’s Nansen Refugee Award honours extraordinary service to the forcibly displaced.
The award includes a commemorative medal and a US$150,000 monetary prize generously donated by the governments of Switzerland and Norway. In close consultation with UNHCR, the laureate uses the monetary prize to fund a project that complements their existing work.
The Nansen Refugee Award program is funded in partnership with the Swiss Government, The Norwegian Government, the State Council of the Republic and Canton of Geneva, the Administrative Council of the City of Geneva and the IKEA Foundation.
The 2019 Award ceremony will take place on October 7 at the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices in Geneva.
