Lest we forget to be humanitarians!

• #NOTATARGET

• THE LIVING PETITION

• PROTECTING CIVILIANS

• WHD 15 YEARS

• • ENG

  • ESP

  • FRA

  • ARA

  • RUS

  • ZHO

Join the #NotATarget movement to demand that world leaders take action to protect all civilians caught in conflict.

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This World Humanitarian Day, we continue 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.

THE LIVING PETITION

JOIN THE MOVEMENT

Your selfie will become part of the first-ever living petition, a sculpture powered by social media that will confront world leaders at the UN General Assembly this September with a powerful reminder: Civilians are #NotATarget. By coming together, we will face world leaders and demand protection for the millions of people caught in the middle of conflicts and whose lives are on the line.

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CIVILIANS ARE

#NOTATARGET

This World Humanitarian Day, we’re shining a light on the millions of people whose lives are being destroyed by wars. Explore their stories, then join the movement to demand action from world leaders. Civilians are #NotATarget.

WATCH THE FILM

• 

  FORCIBLY DISPLACED PEOPLE

  Over 68 million people around the world have been forced from their homes due to war, violence and persecution. Escaping hostilities and seeking of the basics to survive, civilians often have little hope of returning home. During their displacement, they face new dangers, including sexual violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, forced recruitment, and trafficking.

  WATCH THE FILM
• 

  AID WORKERS

  Aid workers make it their mission to provide life-saving support, but their efforts are often impeded by warring parties. From looting and deliberate obstructions to attacks and kidnapping, impediments to humanitarian efforts create ripple effects with dire consequence for people who need help.

  WATCH THE FILM
• 

  MEDICAL WORKERS

  For people who are wounded and sick due to conflict, medical workers are often their only hope for survival. But when those medical workers are attacked, unable to treat patients, or left with no choice but to flee, the result is immediate death and suffering, and a permanent loss of essential medical care.

  WATCH THE FILM

• CIVILIANS IN URBAN AREAS

  During conflict, cities often become grounds of destruction and death. The use of explosives results in vast damage to homes, schools, hospitals and commercial spaces. Without this essential infrastructure, civilians face long-term, profound, and often catastrophic outcomes.

• CHILDREN

  When children are caught in conflict, their layers of protection are stripped away. Family is lost, essentials such as safety, food and water become inaccessible, and schools and playgrounds are destroyed. When this happens, children in conflict become vulnerable to recruitment into fighting and to dangers such as sex and labor trafficking.

• TARGETS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE

  Sexual violence is used as a horrific tactic of war. It is often women and girls who are exploited, but rape, forced prostitution and other unspeakable acts are committed against people of all genders and ages. In addition to such extreme physical and mental trauma, victims often endure societal stigma in response to their plight, leading to rejection or discrimination. 

WHAT ISWORLD HUMANITARIAN DAY

15 YEARS AGO, ON 19 AUGUST, 22 HUMANITARIAN AID WORKERS WERE KILLED IN A BOMB ATTACK ON THE CANAL HOTEL IN BAGHDAD, IRAQ

• In 2008, the General Assembly designated 19 August as World Humanitarian Day, in recognition of and to pay tribute to humanitarian workers who have risked and lost their lives in humanitarian service.
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  CANAL HOTEL BOMBING

  BAGHDAD, IRAQ

  19 AUGUST 2003

  On 19 August 2003, a bomb attack on the Canal Hotel in Baghdad killed 22 humanitarian aid workers, including the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. Five years later, the General Assembly adopted a resolution designating 19 August as World Humanitarian Day.

  The Canal Hotel bombing was a massive loss for the United Nations and the humanitarian community, and it marked a turning point for the need to increase the protection of humanitarian operations in Iraq and worldwide.

  Each year, World Humanitarian Day focuses on a theme, bringing together partners from across the humanitarian system to advocate for the survival, well-being, and dignity of people affected by crises, and for the safety and security of aid workers.

• World leaders have the power to ensure the protection of the millions of civilians caught in conflict around the globe. We must come together to remind leaders that civilians are #NotATarget.
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  SAFETY AND SECURITY OF HUMANITARIAN WORKERS

  Around the world, humanitarian aid workers operate in dangerous and difficult environments.

  SINCE THE CANAL HOTEL BOMBING IN 2003

  4,076

  AID WORKERS HAVE BEEN KILLED, WOUNDED OR KIDNAPPED.

  IN 2017 ALONE,

  119

  AID WORKERS WERE KILLED,

  64

  WERE INJURED, AND

  52

  WERE KIDNAPPED IN THE LINE OF DUTY.

  THE MAJORITY OF THESE ATTACKS TOOK PLACE IN

  5

  COUNTRIES

  South Sudan

  Afghanistan

  Syria

  The Democratic Republic of the Congo

  Somalia

  Aid workers must be protected under international humanitarian law. Violence against aid workers jeopardizes humanitarian operations and the lives of millions of people who rely on humanitarian assistance for their survival.

  1. Humanitarian Outcomes. Aid Worker Security Database. Available from:https://aidworkersecurity.org/incidents
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  ANDREW CLAPHAM

  At the time of the Canal Hotel Bombing, Andrew Clapham served as advisor on International Humanitarian Law to Special Representative for Iraq Sergio Vieria de Mello, who died in the attack. Here is Clapham’s harrowing account of that tragic day.
  READ ANDREW'S STORY ›
  

  ANDREW CLAPHAM

  “There was a general sense that things were turning more violent. It was also extremely hot. I do remember that. It was about 50 degrees and there was not much electricity to make the air conditioner work and water was not always easy to come by. So, there was a general mounting tension both climatic and also political at the time…

  “When the explosion happened, I was extremely fortunate because I was on my own in the bathroom but there was no flying glass and no flying structures because I was in this solid bathroom structure. I can remember the biggest sort of noise I’ve ever heard in my life. And then the lights went out so I was completely in the dark. And then I remember being sort of trapped a bit but being able to free myself, finding in the dark some stairs, and then seeing a lot of what I suppose can only be described as walking wounded people. Really wounded trying to find the daylight.

  “My wife was also working for the UN. She was the human rights and gender adviser to Sergio [Vieira de Mello], so at that point, my thought was to see if she was ok. And I heard her voice fairly early on calling my name, so we found each other quite quickly. Then of course there was a lot of chaos as to first of all trying to treat the very badly wounded people. Secondly, I remember there was quite a lot of concern that there could be a second bomb and it was important to get people to a place of safety. My wife was quite badly injured, she was bleeding a lot and needed stiches so we had a helicopter eventually with the US army to a sort-of field hospital where I watched her stitched up, and unfortunately, I had to identify some of the colleagues who had been taken there and who had died, and nobody knew who they were. And then next I remember after the successful surgery on my wife them telling us that Sergio de Mello had been killed. Which of course we didn’t believe at first. Thought it was just a rumor but as you know, it was unfortunately true… that was all quite intense period.

  “We were extremely lucky. Other people as you know lost their limbs and were extremely injured. We’ve always been very grateful to how lucky we were. It was just a question of chance. She was supposed to be in the meeting with Sergio and I should have been in my office which was destroyed…

  “The UN should not be a target, civilians should not be a target. But the UN doesn’t always look like a civilian… The message should go out that you should not attack the UN. It’s an international crime. It could be a war crime. And you should be prosecuted for that.”

  Professor Andrew Clapham (United Kingdom) is Professor of Public International Law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. He was the first Director of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights (June 2006 - July 2014). He teaches international human rights law and public international law. Prior to joining the Institute in 1997, he was the Representative of Amnesty International at the United Nations in New York. Andrew Clapham has worked as Special Adviser on Corporate Responsibility to High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, and Adviser on International Humanitarian Law to Sergio Vieira de Mello, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Iraq. He is an Associate Member of Matrix Chambers.

  
  
• 

  ELPIDA ROUKA

  Elpida Rouka has been with the UN for over 15 years and was stationed at the Canal Hotel in Baghdad during the 2003 bombing. With her office directly below the area of the attack, read her account of how she narrowly escaped catastrophe.
  READ ELPIDA'S STORY ›
  

  ELPIDA ROUKA

  “I remember photographing the UN flag as we entered the compound around 3:45pm that day, on what was to be my last day on mission in Baghdad. That’s the one picture – eerily blurred – that has survived among all my belongings in the attack, and my laissez-passer [UN passport] which came scorched and shrapneled to me several months after the attack to New York.

  “I went to my office which was exactly below Sergio’s [Vieira de Mello] in that part of the building which is now the famous picture of the collapsed three floors in the ground. I was not supposed to be attending the meeting that my boss was having with [UN Humanitarian coordinator in Iraq] Ramiro Lopes da Silva across the corridor but exactly at 4:05, the attack was at 4:15, [my supervisor] Benon Sevan came back across the hallway and said – I think you should attend this meeting. And literally 10 minutes later, I was sitting across from [head of UN World Health Organization in Iraq] David Nabarro’s assistant when I saw the diluting pupils, this light flashed first before we heard the thud and then felt the impact. And the next thing I knew was Benon grabbing me and Ramiro and crashing us to the floor to protect us from the flying shattered glass. Beyond that I have a huge gap, a blackout, in how I exited the room which was literally on the precipice where the second floor had collapsed and where Sergio, Arthur Helton and Gil Loescher were trapped. And when I came out onto the lawn, it was a scene of a massacre. 

  “I was soon told I was a non-essential despite my protestation at not wanting to leave the scene and sent to one of the US barracks which had become a triage hospital. I remember the moment that the news came through the walkie talkie to say that Sergio was gone. I remember I was the last one to be stitched up and wearing a t-shirt with “Operation Iraqi Freedom”; it was after the Baghdad curfew and the Americans suggested I stay overnight but I would have none of it…I happened to stay at the by now haunted Cedar Hotel because it was the hotel where Sergio and his team were staying. So three floors were all rooms of ghosts. And I remember Ghassan Salameh putting a shashlik and a stiff drink in front of me, and saying – drink up and go to bed. 

  “…I got my closure when I went back to Iraq four years later. Why I think it’s important to remember August 2003 Baghdad is simply because Baghdad was and is bigger than Baghdad: it has essentially changed everything for the UN. How we do things. Who we are. What the world thinks of us. What we think of us. And that doesn’t necessarily reflect only of those who we lost in Baghdad, but we have a responsibility I think to those friends and colleagues, and locals, lost in other places to this day – in Afghanistan, Mali, Somalia, Algeria, Libya, the list is endless.  

  “I often think about the colleagues we lost that day and the age they had many in their early 30s – there was a certain buzz around that dream team, and they embodied exactly the spirit of the UN flag – defying risk, rising above politics, speaking up for those whose voices were silenced, pushing against all odds and keep going back. It’s been 15 years later and I often think they would now be around their 40s and 50s, and the loss of potential, of people who believed in what they were doing, finding the sense of possible where no-one else could or would, the “UN blue” recruits as I call them.” 

  Elpida Rouka is currently a Maurice R. Greenberg World Fellow at Yale University. She most recently served as Chief of Staff for Staffan de Mistura, the UN Special Envoy on Syria, and remains part of the UN’s “good offices” team to that country. She has spent over 15 years with the UN, and returned to Iraq in 2007.