The International Rescue Committee (IRC) bestows its Freedom Award for extraordinary contributions to the cause of refugees and human freedom. According to the IRC, "The Freedom Award reveals the remarkable ability of an individual to shape history and change for the better a world moving toward freedom for all."^[1]

The IRC was founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein,^[2] and made its first Freedom Award in 1957, to German politician Willy Brandt, who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize.^[3] The following year, the award was presented to Winston Churchill, British prime minister during the Second World War, for his "dedicated and devoted service to the cause of human liberty".^[4] The first joint recipients of the award were Lane Kirkland and his wife Irena who won the prize in 1981.^[5] Lane was honored for his "long devotion to the cause of refugees" while Irena was described as "very much a human rights activist".^[5] Chinese dissidents Li Shuxian and Fang Lizhi were jointly honored in 1991;^[1][6] two American Presidents, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton took the prize as a pair in 2005, and film actress Angelina Jolie and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees High Commissioner António Guterres received the award together in 2007.^[7]

Since the first award presentation in 1957, the IRC has made it to 46 recipients, 24 of which were American; the majority of awards have been to politicians. The 1995 presentation was made in absentia to Burmese pro-democracy campaigner and leader of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party, Aung San Suu Kyi.^[8][9] The 2011 award ceremony was held in New York City, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in November, where the presentation was made to the Brokaw family.^[10] In 2012, John C. Whitehead received the prize for a second time, the only person to do so.^[1]

Recipients

Year	Image	Recipient	Nationality	References
1957		Willy Brandt	German	[5]
1958		Winston Churchill	British	[4]
1959		William Joseph Donovan	American	[1]
1960		Richard Evelyn Byrd	American	[1]
1965		George Meany	American	[11]
1966		David Dubinsky	American	[1]
1967		David Sarnoff	American	[12]
1969		Lucius D. Clay	American	[1]
1970		Jacob K. Javits	American	[12]
1975		Bruno Kreisky	Austrian	[13]
1976	—	Leo Cherne	American	[1]
1977		Hubert Humphrey	American	[11]
1978	—	Joseph Buttinger	Austrian	[1]
1979	—	Mary Pillsbury Lord[A]	American	[1]
1981		Lane Kirkland Irena Kirkland	American  American	[5]
1987		Elie Wiesel	Romanian	[11]
1987	—	John C. Whitehead	American	[14]
1989		Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan	French  Iranian   Swiss	[1]
1989		Lech Wałęsa	Polish	[11]
1990		Violeta Chamorro	Nicaraguan	[1]
1991	—	Fang Lizhi Li Shuxian	Chinese  Chinese	[1]
1991		Javier Pérez de Cuéllar	Peruvian	[15]
1992		Cyrus Vance	American	[12]
1993		George Soros[B]	Hungarian	[7]
1993	—	Dwayne Andreas[C]	American	[1]
1994	—	Theodore J. Forstmann[B]	American	[16]
1994	—	Felix Rohatyn[C]	Austrian	[16]
1995		Aung San Suu Kyi[D]	Burmese	[9]
1995		Sadako Ogata	Japanese	[9]
1995		Richard Holbrooke	American	[1]
1997	—	Robert P. De Vecchi	American	[12]
1999		Madeleine Albright	American	[12]
2001		John McCain	American	[17]
2002	—	Reynold Levy	American	[18]
2002		Hamid Karzai	Afghan	[19]
2003		Václav Havel	Czech	[9]
2004		Roméo Dallaire[B]	Canadian	[20]
2005		George H.W. Bush Bill Clinton	American  American	[21]
2006		Ellen Johnson Sirleaf	Liberian	[22]
2007		António Guterres Angelina Jolie	Portuguese  American	[9]
2008		Kofi Annan	Ghanaian	[23]
2011		Brokaw family	American	[10]
2012	—	John C. Whitehead	American	[24]
2013		George Soros[B]	Hungarian	[7][25]
2014		The humanitarian aid worker		[26]
2015		Shimon Peres	Israeli
2016		Spyros Galinos	Greek	[27]
2017		Leopoldo López	Venezuelan	[28][29]