World Humanitarian Day is celebrated annually on 19 August as a way to honour the memory of those who have died while serving others and to encourage continued support for humanitarian causes.

On this day in 2026 Mr Tom Fletcher, who is the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, appeared in the Daily Press Briefing hosted by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson of the Secretary-General, to deliver a briefing on World Humanitarian Day. He appeared via video because he was visiting Ukraine on that day.

The video below is taken from UN Web TV’s coverage of these press briefings. Below the video we give more information relevant to his briefing.

Tom Fletcher: https://www.unocha.org/tom-fletcher

Aid workers under fire: https://www.unocha.org/news/world-humanitarian-day-2026-aid-workers-under-fire-armed-drones-transform-war-making

For more about World Humanitarian Day:
https://www.un.org/en/observances/humanitarian-day

World Humanitarian Day Website: https://www.worldhumanitarianday.org/

For the background to this video see the article World Humanitarian Day, Ukraine, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Lebanon, Venezuela, Somalia:
https://www.unocha.org/news/todays-top-news-world-humanitarian-day-ukraine-occupied-palestinian-territory-lebanon

For more about OCHA:
https://www.unocha.org/