Nobel Peace Center honors Nansen’s legacy

Photo: Gudrun Fossee
Norwegian Arctic explorer Fridtjof Nansen has been honored in the exhibiti “Compassion in action” at the Nobel Peace Prize Insitute in Oslo.

“Compassion in action” highlights humanitarian work

MARIT FOSSE
Geneva

This year, 2022, marks the hundred–year anniversary of Nansen’s Nobel Peace Prize, and the Nobel Peace Prize Institute in Oslo is using the occasion to pay tribute to his humanitarian activities. It is quite a paradox that today, 100 years later, people are fighting in the areas from which Nansen rescued prisoners of war who had been stuck there since the end of the First World War.

Fridtjof Nansen is perhaps best known among Norwegians as a polar explorer and scientist, but he was also a real pioneer of humanitarian work with refugees and victims of famine. Upon opening the exhibit, the Nobel Peace Center Executive Director Kjersti Fløgstad emphasized that they “wanted to show the enormous importance of Nansen’s humanitarian efforts and how he continues to inspire those who help displaced people”.

In the exhibition, “Compassion in action: The legacy of Fridtjof Nansen,” the Nobel Peace Center highlights Nansen’s humanitarian work using original documents and photographs, some of them Nansen’s own. The exhibition also tells the story of five winners of the Nansen Refugee Award, awarded by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to individuals or organizations that go above and beyond the call of duty to protect displaced people.

The exhibition was opened by Crown Prince Haakon on World Refugee Day on June 20, 2022, and will run until the end of the year. So, if you have a chance to visit Oslo, pass by the Nobel Peace Institute, close to the Aker Brygge, and visit the exhibit. It is definitely worth a visit.