Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen (Oslo, October 10, 1861 – Lysaker, May 13, 1930) was one of the world’s most famous polar explorer, politician and diplomat. He was the first who explored the Greenland inland on dog-sledges in 1882 and 1886, and from the 1893 till 1896 he explored the North Sea. He gained the worldwide fame with his expeditions across Greenland and on the ship Fram across Arctic Ocean he reached at the northernmost point of the Arctic.
In 1918 Nansen became the president of Norwegian delegation to the League of Nations in Geneva. The big problem with which he met was the desperate state of war prisoners in Siberia where thousands of them died from cold and hunger. In order to avoid an even greater tragedy, the prisoners had to be acquitted before winter 1920 – 1921. What followed was one of the greatest disasters in the human history – the hunger that was raged through Europe in 1921 and which took more than 30 million human lives. Nansen has launched a humanitarian program against hunger which gradually spread to all groups and individuals regardless of nationality in Europe.
The Council of the League of Nations founded the High Commission for Refugees in 1921 headed by Nansen. For stateless persons which were entrusted to him, Nansen issued the passport, identification document which was eventually recognized by 52 governments in the world. In the nine year of the office, Nansen took care of thousands of refugees using methods that will become a classic: custody, repatriation, rehabilitation, immigration, integration. In recognition for his work with refugees and people affected with hunger Nansen received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922. The League of Nations opened Nansen International Office for Refugees in 1931 that is awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1938 for its humanitarian work around the world.
Thanks to the works of this Nobel Prize winner, have been launched the Nansen Dialogue Centers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which promote dialogue between different groups, ethnic, national, religious, political and interest to resolve the conflict peacefully and peace building. All of this was the reason for the joint release of the three postal operators in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Authors of the stamp: Bozidar Dosenovic and Nebojsa Djumic
Publisher: Poste Srpske a.d. Banjaluka
