Nansen passport

E4199

The Nansen passport was an internationally recognized identity document issued by the League of Nations in the interwar period to stateless refugees, enabling them to cross borders and rebuild their lives.


Statements (48)
Predicate Object
instanceOf League of Nations document
identity document
refugee document
travel document
administeredBy Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees under the League of Nations
alsoKnownAs Nansen certificate
appliesTo Armenian refugees
Assyrian refugees
Turkish refugees
displaced persons
refugees from the Russian Empire
stateless refugees
associatedWith League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Nansen International Office for Refugees
beneficiaries Armenian genocide survivors
Assyrian and other minority refugees
Russian refugees after the Russian Civil War
hundreds of thousands of refugees
countryOfOrigin Switzerland
documentType non-national passport
substitute for national passport
endTime 1940s
grantedRights ability to obtain visas
permission to cross borders
right to reside temporarily in host countries
headquartersLocation Geneva
historicalPeriod interwar period
inception 1922
influenced 1951 Convention Travel Document for refugees
later international refugee travel documents
introducedBy Fridtjof Nansen
League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
issuedBy League of Nations
language multiple languages depending on issuing authority
legalStatus internationally recognized identity document
namedAfter Fridtjof Nansen
notableFor being one of the first international mechanisms to protect stateless persons
pioneering international refugee protection
purpose to enable international travel for stateless persons
to facilitate border crossing for refugees
to help refugees rebuild their lives
to provide identity papers for stateless refugees
recognizedBy many European states
numerous League of Nations member states
some non-European countries
replacedBy Convention Travel Document under the 1951 Refugee Convention
startTime 1922
status defunct

Referenced by (6)
Subject (surface form when different) Predicate
Nansen Medal
Nansen Refugee Award
relatedTo
Nansen passport ("Nansen certificate")
alsoKnownAs
Fridtjof Nansen ("Nansen passport for stateless refugees")
knownFor
League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ("Nansen passport system")
notableWork
League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
uses

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