World Humanitarian Day 2019: Spread the word on #WomenHumanitarians

By Harrish Thirukumaran

On August 19, 2019, the world plans to commemorate World Humanitarian Day. In 2008, the General Assembly designated the day, marking when Special Representative of the Secretary General to Iraq, Sergio Viera de Mello and 21 of his colleagues were killed in the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad. It is held every year to pay tribute to aid workers who risk their lives in humanitarian service. This day is also meant to rally support for people affected by crises around the globe.

Emergencies cause immense suffering for millions of people — usually the world’s poorest, most marginalized and vulnerable individuals. Humanitarian aid workers, including health care 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.

This day continues to recognize the suffering of millions of civilians caught in conflict. People in cities and towns struggle to find food, water, and safe shelter while fighting drives millions from their homes. Schools are destroyed and children are recruited and forced to fight. Women are abused and used as tools of war. As humanitarian workers deliver aid, and medical workers help the wounded and sick, they are directly targeted, treated as threats, and prevented from bringing relief and care to those in desperate need.

As Tedro Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization, noted in a past campaign, “Health is a fundamental human right, and attacks on health care are a blatant violation of that right.” The Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations acts as the primary advocate of the entire humanitarian community.

In the past 2018 campaign, the United Nations developed the #NotaTarget petition. It demands that world leaders take action to prevent civilians from being caught in conflict. Selfies taken by participants became part of a living petition, a sculpture powered by social media that would be presented to world leaders at the 2018 General Assembly that civilians are #NotaTarget.

For World Humanitarian Day 2019, the work of women in crises throughout the world is honoured. It focuses on the unsung heroes who have long been working on the front lines in their own communities in some of the most difficult terrains, from the war-wounded in Afghanistan, to the food insecure in the Sahel, to those who have lost their homes and livelihoods in places such as Central African Republic, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen. And we salute the efforts of women aid workers from across the world, who rally to people in need.

Women make up a large number of those who risk their own lives to save others. They are often the first to respond and the last to leave. These women deserve to be celebrated. They are needed today as much as ever to strengthen the global humanitarian response. And world leaders as well as non-state actors must ensure that they — and all humanitarians — are guaranteed the protection afforded to them under international law.

Spread the word of the dedication of #WomenHumanitarians and the work that they do to help people affected by crises.