Remembering and honouring humanitarian aid workers

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OTTAWA, 19 August 2016 – Today marks World Humanitarian Day, established by the United Nations to acknowledge the work and immense sacrifices of humanitarian workers around the world who bring assistance and relief to populations affected by disasters, and to honour the lives of workers who died in the line of duty.

Today, the Humanitarian Coalition and other humanitarian aid workers will join together at the Memorial to Canadian Aid Workers and remember colleagues and friends who died, were involved in serious attacks or have otherwise been physically or mentally scarred in their work to assist others.

Already in 2016, more than 82 aid workers have been involved in 62 attacks, 34 of whom were killed.

Aid workers are often the first on the scenes following disasters and providing life-saving assistance to the most vulnerable. They’re safety and security is essential in ensuring innocent civilians receive support.

“Over the last couple of years, we witnessed deadly and intentional attacks on aid workers and hospitals,” says Nicolas Moyer, executive director of the Humanitarian Coalition. “Today we celebrate their lives and the contributions they have made to improve the lives of the most vulnerable.” 

“With recent multiplication of attacks on humanitarian workers, today we also call on the international community to ensure the protection of humanitarian workers is always a top priority, whatever the crisis.”

World Humanitarian Day was created by the UN General Assembly in 2008 in memory of UN Special Envoy to Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 other people killed in a terrorist attack on UN headquarters in Baghdad, in 2003.

We also take this time to thank humanitarian aid workers everywhere for their efforts. Around the globe, humanitarian aid workers put the interests of others ahead of their own and make daily personal sacrifices to save lives and preserve human dignity.  They make the world a better place.

Humanitarian Aid Workers

There an estimated 450,000¹ humanitarian aid workers globally.

2015 in Numbers²

·        148 attacks

·        287 aid workers attacked

·        109 killed

·        110 wounded

·        68 kidnapped

¹The State of the Humanitarian System, 2015 Edition, ALNAP https://www.alnap.org/help-library/the-state-of-the-humanitarian-system-report-2015

²Humanitarian Outcomes (2015), Aid Worker Security Database, https://aidworkersecurity.org/

Further reading

New findings related to attacks on humanitarian aid workers