The International Rescue Committee first bestowed its Freedom Award for extraordinary contributions to the cause of refugees and human freedom to Willy Brandt. The year was 1957. The list of those who have received 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.
1957 Willy Brandt
1958 Winston Churchill
1959 William Donovan
1960 Richard E. Byrd
1965 George Meany
1966 David Dubinsky
1967 David Sarnoff
1969 Lucius D. Clay
1970 Jacob K. Javits
1975 Bruno Kreisky
1976 Leo Cherne
1977 Hubert H. Humphrey
1978 Joseph Buttinger
1979 Mary Pillsbury Lord (postumously)
1981 Lane Kirkland and Irena Kirkland
1987 Elie Wiesel
John C. Whitehead
1989 Sadruddin Aga Khan
Lech Walesa
1990 Violetta Barrios de Chammorro
1991 Fang Lizhi and Li Shuxian
Javier Perez de Cuellar
1992 Cyrus Vance
1993 George Soros - Distinguished Humanitarian Award
Dwayne O. Andreas - Distinguished Public Service Award
1994 Theodore J. Forstmann - Distinguished Humanitarian Award
Felix G. Rohatyn - Distinguished Public Service Award
1995 Daw Aung San Suu Kyi - Special Freedom Award Recipent, in absentia
Sadako Ogata
Richard Holbrooke
1997 Robert P. DeVecchi
1998 Madeleine Albright
2001 John McCain
2002 Reynold Levy
Hamid Karzai
2003 Vaclav Havel
2004 Romeo Dallaire - Distinguished Humanitarian Award
2005 George H.W. Bush and William J.Clinton
2006 Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf
2007 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Antonio Guterres and Angelina Jolie
2008 Kofi Annan
2011 The Brokaw Family: Tom and Meredith Brokaw;
Dr. Jennifer Brokaw; Andrea Brokaw Simon;
Sarah Brokaw
2012 John C. Whitehead
2013 George Soros
2014 The Humanitarian Aid Worker
2015 Strive Masiyiwa
2016 Spyros Galinos
2017 Michael Bloomberg
Liv Ullman - John C. Whitehead Humanitarian Award