WORLD HUMANITARIAN DAY

August 19, 2012

 
In December 2008, the sixty-third session of the UN General Assembly decided to designate 19 August as World Humanitarian Day.

19 August is the date on which a brutal terrorist attack on UN headquarters in Baghdad in 2003 killed 22 people, including UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.

World Humanitarian Day honours those, who have lost their lives in humanitarian service and those, who continue to bring assistance and relief to millions.

The Day also seeks to draw attention to humanitarian needs worldwide and the importance of international cooperation in meeting these needs.

Every year, disasters cause immense suffering for millions of people – usually the world’s poorest, most marginalized and vulnerable individuals.

Humanitarian aid workers strive to provide life-saving assistance and long term rehabilitation to disaster-affected communities, regardless of where they are in the world and without discrimination based on nationality, social group, religion, sex, race or any other factor.

Humanitarian aid is based on a number of founding principles, including humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence. Humanitarian aid workers should be respected, and be able to access those in need in order to provide vital assistance.

Humanitarian aid workers can be international, but most come from the country in which they work. They reflect all cultures, ideologies and backgrounds and they are united by their commitment to humanitarianism.
Everyone can be a humanitarian. People affected by disasters are often the first to help their own communities following a disaster.

Responding to emergencies is only one aspect of humanitarian work. Humanitarian workers also support communities to rebuild their lives after disasters, to become more resilient to future crises, to advocate for their voices to be heard, and to build lasting and sustainable peace in areas of conflict.

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO, AS A HUMANITARIAN TODAY?

World Humanitarian Day is a time to recognize those who face danger and adversity in order to help others. The day was designated by the General Assembly to coincide with the anniversary of the 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq, which killed 22 UN staff.

Every day humanitarian aid workers help millions of people around the world, regardless of who they are and where they are. World Humanitarian Day is a global celebration of people helping people.
 
WHAT YOU CAN DO: To show your support for World Humanitarian Day visit www.whd-iwashere.org
 

This year’s campaign “I Was Here” is about making your mark by doing something good, somewhere, for someone else.

As we say here at A Celebration of Women™, ‘Pay-it-forward’, allowing your life to gift a lasting legacy; leaving this world in better shape than when you got here.

“This year’s World Humanitarian Day presents an historic opportunity to bring together one billion people from around the world to advance a powerful and proactive idea: People Helping People. That is the best way to honour the many fallen aid workers we mourn today, and to celebrate the efforts of others who carry on their noble mission by rushing assistance to those who are suffering.”
~ Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, United Nations

 

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