Tomorrow, we mark World Humanitarian Day to celebrate the indispensable and tireless life-saving efforts of aid workers worldwide.
When disasters strike, crises erupt and conflicts arise, humanitarians are among the first ones on the spot delivering emergency assistance to those affected. This selfless calling to bring relief – but also hope – to the most vulnerable must be honoured and protected.
Yet we cannot forget the acute danger facing humanitarian workers as they carry out their duties in war zones and environments where their own security is not ensured. Tragically, 2023 was the deadliest year on record for aid workers, and 2024 is likely to follow the same harrowing trend.
We have stated year after year that humanitarian workers must be protected at all costs, without exceptions. But in this increasingly volatile world, words alone are not enough.
It is time for action.
This is why the EU has established the Protect Aid Workers initiative to help local aid workers who have fallen victim to attacks or other security incidents while on duty with legal aid and rapid financial grants. The first of its kind, the mechanism has distributed 25 grants to humanitarian workers in need of support, worth over €240,000, since February 2024.
While attacks on international aid workers often make the headlines, it is national staff who are most at risk of being killed, kidnapped or wounded while on duty. Through this mechanism, we aim to create a safety net for local aid workers who often have limited resources and cannot rely on the protection of large international organisations.
The majority of the applications received through the platform are from the Occupied Palestinian West Bank and Gaza, where a humanitarian catastrophe has been unfolding before our eyes over the past 10 months. In places such as these, where every day is a struggle for survival for every civilian, the life-saving work of the humanitarian community makes a huge difference.
While 'Protect Aid Workers' fills an important gap in the humanitarian space, a lot remains to be done. We have seen a devastating trend by a number of States in recent years towards blatant disrespect for the basic norms of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) in the conflicts they are engaged in. This calls for decisive action by the international community as a whole in defence of IHL as part of the bedrock of the rules-based international order.
World Humanitarian Day is a reminder to each and every one of us that protecting aid workers is not only the right thing to do, but a legal obligation under IHL. And a reminder that the alternative to upholding IHL is impunity and a worsening spiral of abuse for which civilians and aid workers will pay the highest price.
