# Brazilian nun Rosita Milesi wins UN refugee prize after four decades of advocacy

Event date: 2024-10-09

Sister Rosita Milesi has won the Nansen Refugee Award, the annual UNHCR prize for people who have devoted their lives to protecting displaced people.

DW reported that Milesi, 79, has spent 40 years working with refugees and internally displaced people in Brazil. Her career spans legal advocacy, social work and practical support for people facing displacement, and the award recognizes that long record rather than a single campaign or project.

Milesi is a member of the Scalabrini nuns, a Catholic order known internationally for work with refugees. The source said she became a nun at 19 and later used training as both a lawyer and social worker to fight for the rights of displaced people. That combination of religious vocation and professional expertise gave her work a broad base across humanitarian, legal and community settings.

The award also places Milesi in a line of notable previous winners. DW said the Nansen Prize has been given to figures including Angela Merkel, Eleanor Roosevelt and Médecins Sans Frontières. That history underscores the standing of the recognition she received.

The Nansen Refugee Award dates back to 1954 and is named after Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian humanitarian and explorer associated with the early international refugee system. DW noted that the award honours those who have shown exceptional commitment to protecting displaced people, which fits Milesi’s long record in Brazil.

Milesi’s own comments, as quoted by DW, framed the award as part of a larger duty to welcome and integrate refugees. She said she was inspired by the growing need to help and was willing to act even if the work did not produce every desired outcome. The quote reflects a practical and persistent approach rather than a ceremonial one.

The story also highlights the scale of the issue she has worked on. Brazil is a country that has dealt with displacement and migration pressures over many years, and Milesi has spent most of her adult life in that space. Her role as director of the Migration and Human Rights Institute gives her an institutional platform for that work.

The award is a recognition of longevity as much as impact. Four decades of work in a field that often depends on quiet persistence can be hard to capture in a single ceremony, but the Nansen prize is meant for exactly that kind of service. Milesi’s selection brings that effort into view.

For the Catholic order she belongs to, the award also reflects a broader tradition of refugee support. For Brazil, it marks international recognition of a humanitarian figure whose work has unfolded largely out of the spotlight.