Profiles of The First Two High Commissioners

• Published in: Journal of Refugee Studies
• Main Author: SKRAN, CLAUDENA M.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 1988
• Subjects: Articles; Fridtjof; Fridtjof Nansen
• Online Access: http://jrs.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/1/3-4/277; https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/1.3-4.277

Refugees are not new to the twentieth century. International refugee assistance programmes, however, have only been in existence since 1921. In that year, the League of Nations responded to an appeal from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to assist the more than one million Russian refugees then scattered throughout Europe. The League accepted this challenge by appointing a High Commissioner for Refugees, the first international civil servant to be concerned with refugees. It is the purpose of this article to examine the record of the first two High Commissioners for Refugees: Fridtjof Nansen (1921–1930) and James G. McDonald (1933–1935). Other distinguished names are associated with the history of the League's refugee work, but Nansen and McDonald stand out as the two people who made the greatest contribution. Furthermore, the problems that they faced as High Commissioners have great relevance to contemporary refugee assistance. Both men grappled with the root causes of refugee movements and searched for durable solutions to refugee problems. Although Nansen and McDonald had very different styles, they both maintained their compassion in the face of great human suffering and set precedents worthy of emulation by current and future administrators involved in refugee work.