Editing Nansen passport

{{Short description|Travel documents for stateless persons}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox Identity document
| document_name       = Nansen passport
| image               = No-nb bldsa 6e001.jpg
| image_caption       = The front cover of a Nansen passport (green stripe), written in French, the diplomatic language
| date_first_issued   = 1922
| using_jurisdiction  = [[League of Nations]]
| valid_jurisdictions = 
| document_type       = Passport
| purpose             = Identification
| eligibility         = [[Stateless person|Stateless]] [[refugees]]
| expiration          = 1938
}}
'''Nansen passports''', originally and officially '''stateless persons passports''', were internationally recognized [[refugee travel document]]s from 1922 to 1938, first issued by the [[League of Nations]]'s Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees to [[stateless person|stateless]] [[refugees]].<ref>[http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/nansen-passport-refugees "The Little-Known Passport That Protected 450,000 Refugees"] Atlas Obscura. Retrieved October 10, 2017</ref> They quickly became known as "Nansen passports" for their promoter, the Norwegian statesman and polar explorer [[Fridtjof Nansen]].

==History==

The end of [[World War I]] saw [[Aftermath of World War I|significant turmoil]], leading to a refugee crisis. Numerous governments were toppled, and national borders were redrawn, often along generally ethnic lines. Civil war broke out in some countries. Many people left their homes because of war or persecution or fear thereof. The upheaval resulted in many people being without passports, or even nations to issue them, which prevented much international travel, often trapping refugees.

The precipitating event for the Nansen passport was the 1921 announcement by the new government of the [[Soviet Union]] revoking the citizenship of Russians living abroad, including some 800,000 refugees from the [[Russian Civil War]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150801081938/http://www.arkivverket.no/eng/Using-the-Archives/Online-Exhibitions/The-Nansen-Passport/Nansen-the-humanist Nansen the humanist]. Retrieved December 11, 2012</ref> The first Nansen passports were issued following an international agreement reached at the Intergovernmental Conference on Identity Certificates for Russian Refugees, convened by [[Fridtjof Nansen]] in Geneva from July 3, 1922, to July 5, 1922,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.refworld.org/docid/3dd8b4864.html|title=Refworld – Arrangement with respect to the issue of certificates of identity to Russian Refugees|publisher=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees|access-date=April 9, 2018}}</ref> in his role as High Commissioner for Refugees for the [[League of Nations]].<ref>{{Cite journal|year=2003|title=Documents from the League of Nations Archives|journal=Refugee Survey Quarterly|volume=22|issue=1|pages=71–73|doi=10.1093/rsq/22.1.71}}</ref> By 1942, they were honoured by governments in 52 countries.

In 1924, the Nansen arrangement was broadened to also include [[Armenians|Armenian]], and in 1928 to [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]], [[Bulgarian people|Bulgarian]], and Turkish refugees.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/3dd8b5802.pdf|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/3dd8b5802.pdf|archive-date=October 9, 2022|url-status=live|title=Arrangement of 12 May 1926 relating to the Issue of Identity Certificates to Russian and Armenian Refugees League of Nations, Treaty Series Vol. LXXXIX, No. 2004|website=refworld.org|access-date=April 9, 2018}}</ref> Approximately 450,000 Nansen passports were provided<ref>[http://snl.no/Nansen-pass Nansen-pass] [[Store Norske Leksikon]]. Retrieved December 11, 2012</ref> to stateless people and refugees who needed travel documents, but could not obtain one from a national authority.

Following Nansen's death in 1930, the passport was handled by the [[Nansen International Office for Refugees]] within the League of Nations. At that point the passport no longer included a reference to the 1922 conference, but were issued in the name of the League. The office was closed in 1938; passports were thereafter issued by a new agency, the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees under the Protection of the League of Nations in London.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uia.org/s/or/en/1100044612|title=Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees under the Protection of the League – Yearbook Profile – Union of International Associations|website=uia.org|access-date=April 9, 2018}}</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150923194953/https://www.arkivverket.no/eng/Using-the-Archives/Online-Exhibitions/The-Nansen-Passport/The-Nansen-Office The Nansen Office] Arkivverket. Retrieved December 2, 2014</ref>

==Image gallery==
<gallery heights="200" widths="200">
File:Nansen cs cover.jpg|Nansen passport cover;<br/>Police office, [[Prague]], [[Czechoslovakia]], 1930
File:Nansen cs stamp.jpg|Nansen passport renewal stamp;<br/>[[Nansen International Office for Refugees]], 1930
File:Oslo Nansen.JPG|Memorial plaque (partial view);<br/>outside wall, [[Oslo City Hall|City Hall]], [[Oslo]], [[Norway]], 2007
</gallery>

[[File:1929 Bulgarian issued Nansen passport.jpg|thumb|1929 Bulgarian-issued Nansen passport.]]

==Legacy==
The [[Nansen International Office for Refugees]] was awarded the 1938 [[Nobel Peace Prize]] for its efforts to establish the Nansen passports.<ref>[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1922/nansen.html Fridtjof Nansen], Nobel Foundation, 1922. Retrieved February 22, 2011.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1938/nansen-lecture.html|title=The Nansen International Office for Refugees – Nobel Lecture|publisher=Nobel Foundation|access-date=April 9, 2018}}</ref>

While Nansen passports are no longer issued, existing national and supranational authorities, including the United Nations, issue travel documents for stateless people and refugees, including [[certificate of identity|certificates of identity]] (or "alien's passports") and [[refugee travel document]]s.{{citation needed|date = January 2018}}

==Notable bearers==
{{More citations needed section|date=February 2024}}
*[[Robert Capa]]
*[[Sergiu Celibidache]]
*[[Princess Vera Constantinovna of Russia]]
*[[Marc Chagall]]<ref name="Nansen-Office" /><ref name="Nansenkontoret" />
*[[Françoise Frenkel]]
*[[Alexander Galich (writer)|Alexander Galich]]
*[[Zuzanna Ginczanka]]
*[[Alexander Grothendieck]]<ref>
{{cite journal|author-link=David Mumford|last=Mumford|first=David|year=2015|title=(Obituary) Alexander Grothendieck (1928–2014) Mathematician who rebuilt algebraic geometry.|journal=Nature|volume=517|issue=7534|pages=272|doi=10.1038/517272a|pmid=25592527|s2cid=205083834|url=http://www.nature.com/articles/517272a.epdf|access-date=October 14, 2015|doi-access=free}}</ref>
*[[G. I. Gurdjieff]]
*[[Anatol Heintz]]<ref name="Nansen-Office" /><ref name="Nansenkontoret" />
*[[Ze'ev Jabotinsky]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://pdfs.jta.org/1940/1940-08-05_101.pdf?_ga=2.93366937.582027365.1547148239-680804804.1547148239|publisher=Jewish Telegraphic Agency|title=Vladimir Jabotinsky Dies of Heart Attack at Age 59; Was Visiting Youth Camp|access-date=January 10, 2019}}</ref>
*[[Vladimir Nabokov]]
*[[Aristotle Onassis]]
*[[Krikor Pambuccian]]
*[[Anna Pavlova]]<ref name="Nansen-Office" /><ref name="Nansenkontoret" />
*[[Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia (1890–1958)]]
* St. [[Grigol Peradze]]<ref>[http://www.golubinski.ru/russia/borovoy/Григорий%20(Перадзе%20Григол%20Раманозович).htm]. New martyrs and confessors of the Russian Orthodox Church of the 20th century (in Russian), [dostęp April 28, 2019]</ref>
*[[Jadwiga Piłsudska]]
*[[Sergey Rakhmaninov]]<ref name="Nansen-Office" /><ref name="Nansenkontoret" />
*[[Dimitri Riabouchinsky]]
*[[Rabbi]] [[Menachem Mendel Schneerson]]
*[[Otto Skorzeny]]
*[[I. S. K. Soboleff]]
*[[Victor Starffin]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/victor-starffin/|title=Victor Starffin – Society for American Baseball Research}}</ref>
*[[Igor Stravinsky]]<ref name="Nansenkontoret">[https://web.archive.org/web/20140228090928/http://www.arkivverket.no/arkivverket/Bruk-av-arkiv/Nettutstillinger/Nansen-passet/Nansenkontoret Nansenkontoret] Arkivverket.no (in Norwegian). Retrieved December 11, 2012</ref><ref name="Nansen-Office">[https://web.archive.org/web/20150723061812/http://www.arkivverket.no/eng/Using-the-Archives/Online-Exhibitions/The-Nansen-Passport/The-Nansen-Office The Nansen Office] Arkivverket.no. Retrieved December 11, 2012</ref>
*[[Dries Riphagen]]
* King [[Alfonso XIII]] of Spain

==See also==
*[[World Passport]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://archive.unu.edu/nansen/ Fridtjof Nansen Memorial Lecture Series] [[United Nations University]]
*[http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php/Nansen_Passport The Nansen Passport] New York University Department of Media, Culture, and Communication's Media Archaeology's Dead Media Archive

{{Passports}}

[[Category:Defunct passports]]
[[Category:Fridtjof Nansen|Passport]]
[[Category:League of Nations]]
[[Category:Identity documents]]
[[Category:Refugees]]
[[Category:Statelessness]]
[[Category:1922 introductions]]