UNHCR Film Festival
“Arctic Hall” , Embassy of Norway, Tokyo, Japan
6 October 2011
”Only one life”
Introductory remarks by
Ambassador Arne Walther
“Only one life” is a film about a Norwegian, who had many lives. And he led these lives in the period from 1861 until 1930. I am referring to Dr. Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian hero, explorer, scientist, humanist, internationalist and diplomat. And not least, the first High Commissioner for Refugees of the League of Nations, the international body and hope for a better organized world that preceded the United Nations. It takes a lot of ambition and courage for a person to attempt to put all of these lives into one. And it takes a lot of merit to live them all with such distinction.
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you all to the Embassy of Norway to the screening of a film about the life and accomplishments of Fridtjof Nansen. We are honoured to contribute in this way to the 6th Refugee Film festival organised by the UNHCR in Japan. And even more so in a year, which also marks the world-wide celebration of the 60th anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 30th anniversary of Japan’s accession to this important convention. 2011 is the year that we can also celebrate an even older event – the 150th anniversary of the birth of Fridtjof Nansen.
Polar Passion
It is no accident that we have named the hall in which we are gathered this evening the “Arctic Hall”. It reflects the polar passion of Norwegians. Norway has long-standing tradition, presence and interests both in the Arctic North and Antarctic South. We are attracted to the Polar Regions. The largest wilderness areas in the world. Long protected by ice and cold from excessive human interference, these regions are unique. Their natural resources are as immense as their environment is vulnerable.
I do not know what it takes to become a national hero in Japan. But I do know that the most certain way to become a national hero in Norway, but perhaps not the easiest way, is to pursue the polar passion. We have many national polar heroes and national polar heroines as well.
Fridtjof Nansen was the first man to cross Greenland on skis in 1889. Six years later, he almost succeeded in his attempt to be the first man to reach the North Pole.
But Roald Amundsen, another Norwegian with polar passion, was the first man to reach the South Pole, planting the Norwegian flag there when he beat Britain’s Robert Scott in the epic dog-sled race in 1911. We are celebrating the 100th anniversary of that feat this year as well. He later reached the geographic North Pole more comfortably by air in a zeppelin in 1926, thus becoming the first man to have reached both poles.
As you know, we Norwegians take great pride in our gender equality. Also in terms of polar passion. It should be no surprise that a contemporary Norwegian explorer Liv Arnesen became the first woman to reach the South Pole on skis alone and unassisted in 1994.
Fridtjof Nansen achieved in his lifetime more than most people can reasonably dream of. His achievements have been significant for humanity, both in scientific and in humanitarian terms. His field of study was zoology. His love of nature and interest in outdoor life led in turn to an interest in oceanography - the movement of oceans – and other natural sciences, all fuelling his Polar Passion.
Being the first person to cross Greenland on skis made Fridtjof Nansen famous. He described the culture of the Inuit (Eskimo) population. Later he proved his theory that the North Pole consisted of floating ice on a sea, not ice on a landmass such as the Antarctic. Ice drifting from Siberia westwards over the North Pole. His expedition on the ship FRAM towards the North Pole started in June 1893 from the North of Norway to Siberia and then actually drifting westward with the Arctic ice. As we will see in the film, his ship froze and got stuck in the ice at 84 degrees latitude, and after almost two years on board Nansen left the ship to continue on skis until he had to turn back at 86 degrees north – mission unaccomplished - in order to survive. But no one before had ever come so close to the North Pole. To illustrate how close he was – it was a distance equal to that from Tokyo to Osaka on the Shinkansen. Fridtjof Nansen subsequently travelled far and wide and gave lectures about his expedition. Applauded, admired and given prestigious prizes.
Internationalist
The League of Nations was created after the First World War with the hope and objective of preventing future wars. We know that it did not manage that. But the League did manage to unite Nations in establishing a set of social and humanitarian principles and practices that inspired UN organizations such as the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization as well as the UNHCR.
Fridtjof Nansen led the life of a diplomat as well. Norway’s first Ambassador to the U.K. upon our independence in 1905. And after the World War, he was asked to head the High Commission for Refugees under the League of Nations. His fame and passion to help the vulnerable and the victims of poverty and war enabled him to collect funds for humanitarian causes. His persistency, courage and stubbornness saved the lives of millions of former prisoners of war, stateless people and refugees.
It was difficult for governments to say no to someone like Nansen. The League of Nations’ High Commission for Refugees managed under his leadership to repatriate some 450,000 prisoners of war from Russia. He alleviated severe famine in parts of what later became the Soviet Union, in particular in today’s Ukraine managing to collect funds for food, in spite of the unwillingness of European governments to support Soviet communism.
Fridtjof Nansen was also instrumental in exchanges of refugees between Greece and Turkey, and he helped settle the Armenian crisis. He is in fact a national hero in Armenia. I have myself seen how prominently he is displayed in Armenia’s national museum in Yerevan. I have meet Armenians whose first name is Nansen, so named by thankful parents in his honour.
Fridtjof Nansen created the so-called “Nansen passport” a travel document for stateless people recognised by 52 governments. The predecessor to the “1954 Convention travel document for stateless persons” that exists even today.
No wonder that Fridtjof Nansen received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922. Tomorrow the Norwegian Nobel Committee will announce the winner of this year’s Peace Prize. I would like to tell you now, in strictest confidence in this room before the official announcement is made tomorrow and when the rest of Japan will know, who the winner is.
I would like too... But, I cannot. Because, I do not know. But I can remind you of the fact that the UNHCR itself has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize twice – in 1954 and again in 1981.
Let me also mention that the UNHCR instituted in 1954 the “Nansen Refugee Award”, a USD 100 000 prize given annually to a person or group for outstanding service in supporting refugees. Dr. Akio Kanai received it in 2006. Several Norwegians, among them our former King and our present Queen, have also received it.
Over the last two decades, our Tokyo Embassy has hosted the series of “Fridtjof Nansen Memorial Lectures” on issues of human security, most of them in co-operation with the United Nations University. Dr. Sadako Ogata held the Memorial Lecture in 2001. The most recent one by Minister of Environment and International Development Erik Solheim last year. Fridtjof Nansen Memorial Lectures have also been given here by other distinguished personalities such as H.M. King of Norway, our former Prime Minister Dr. Gro Harlem Brundland as Director General of the World Health Organization, former Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik and present Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre on their visits to Japan.
UNHCR achievements and challenges
Since Fridtjof Nansen’s time, Norway has been a strong supporter of the rights of refugees. We have contributed considerably to the work done by the League of Nations and later by the United Nations in general and the UNHCR in particular. Last year, Norway was the 5th biggest contributor to UNHCR last year, after the US, Japan, the EU and Sweden. Per capita, however, Norway is the second largest contributor. Norway and Japan have both contributed to alleviating the plight of refugees by our distinguished former serving High Commissioners. Dr. Sadako Ogata succeeded Norwegian former Foreign Minister Thorvald Stoltenberg as High Commissioner for Refugees in 1990.
We are looking forward to the visit to Tokyo next month of the present United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Mr Antonio Guterres. And to the High-level symposium here on the past achievements and future challenges of the UNHCR and Japan’s 30 years of active engagement on behalf of refugees upon accession to the 1951 Convention. Of particular concern as we look ahead are the plight of internally displaced persons, resulting not from wars between countries, but within countries, and the plight of environmental refugees resulting from the man-made clash of modern civilization with nature. In June this year, Norway hosted the Nansen Conference on Climate Change and Displacement establishing the Nansen Principles that should underpin actions to prevent or manage displacement and protect displaced people in the face of climate change.
But let us now view “Only one Life”. A film about the many lives in one of Fridtjof Nansen made in 1968 and depicting the world situation as it was a Century ago. Seeing it will remind us that human solidarity and helping those in need is as important today as it has always been. As we have seen here in Japan after disaster struck your shores on 11 March causing so much death, displacement,human pain and material destruction.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I hope you will enjoy this evening’s film and your meeting with a remarkable and charismatic Norwegian. And let me welcome you back to the Arctic Hall tomorrow evening to view another film at this year’s UNHCR Film Festival – a Thai documentary revealing the struggles of Rohingya Muslims in Thailand and Bangladesh forced to flee from Burma and fighting for survival and a decent life.