World Humanitarian Day 2025
Date/Time
Date(s) - 19/08/2025
All Day
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World Humanitarian Day is celebrated annually on 19 August as a way to honor the memory of those who have died while serving others and to encourage continued support for humanitarian causes.
According the Aid Worker Security Database, 388 aid workers were killed in 2024, the latest year for which complete figures are available, 112 were kidnapped and 281 were wounded. Of those killed, 168 were members of UN staff and 126 of these were killed in Gaza. All but one of these worked for UNRWA, the UN agency that assists Palestine refugees.
In early June 2025 the UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that those who had been killed last year were extraordinary individuals – each one a story of courage, compassion, and service.
They were driven by the pursuit of peace. By the urgency to ease human suffering. And by the conviction that every person, everywhere, deserves dignity and protection…More than one in every 50 UNRWA staff in Gaza has been killed in this atrocious conflict. This is the highest staff death toll in United Nations history.
The Secretary-General said the sacrifice of all 168 fallen colleagues is a tragedy but also a reminder of the responsibility carried by every UN staff member every day. It is important for the world to see this, he added, “because as we mourn those lost, we must also recognize the living.”
Mr. Guterres saluted staff members still serving in crisis zones across the globe for their courage and resilience.
And to the world, I say: We will not grow numb to suffering. We will not accept the killing of UN personnel. We will not accept the killing of humanitarians, journalists, medical workers, or civilians as the new normal anywhere and under any circumstances. There must be no room for impunity.
A more detailed report of his speech can be found here.
World Humanitarian Day was created following the 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq, which claimed the lives of 22 humanitarian workers. The official day was established by the UN General Assembly in 2008.