World Humanitarian Day 2019 – History, Significance and Theme of Humanitarian Day

World Humanitarian Day (WHD) is observed every year on August 19 as a tribute to help laborers and the individuals who lost their lives in humanitarian service. It denotes the day on which Special Representative of the Secretary-General to Iraq, Sérgio Vieira de Mello and 21 of his associates lost their lives in the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad.

The main purpose of celebrating World Humanitarian Day is to improve the individuals’ awareness about humanitarian help activities around the world and the significance of worldwide cooperation.

World Humanitarian Day: History, Significance

Monday is World Humanitarian Day. World Humanitarian Day was set up by the United Nations General Assembly in 2008 and first celebrated in 2009. The motivation behind World Humanitarian Day is to raise awareness of the plight of civilians around the world who have become caught up in clashes, and furthermore honor and raise support for the humanitarian laborers who hazard, and sometimes lose, their lives to help.

This day was picked to honor the passing of Sérgio Vieira de Mello and 21 of his fellow humanitarians in a bombing of the Baghdad headquarters of the UN. Vieira de Mello had worked at incredible length endeavoring to pull together the draft for the official designation of World Humanitarian Day.

A national of Brazil, Vieira de Mello devoted a lifetime spanning more than 30 years in the United Nations, serving in some of the most challenging humanitarian situations in the world to reach the voiceless casualties of armed clash, alleviate their suffering and draw attention to their predicament. His demise together with 21 associates on Aug. 19, 2003, denied the casualties of armed clash worldwide of a one of a kind humanitarian leader of unrivaled fearlessness, drive, and sympathy who championed their cause bravely and scratched their situation on the world map. The awful occasion likewise ransacked the humanitarian community of an exceptional humanitarian leader and intellectual whose thinking, philosophy, dynamism, and courage inspired all and remains a timeless legacy for coming generations to imitate.

More than 130 million individuals all through the world are as of now in an emergency, either through war or natural disasters and are needing a humanitarian guide. Consistently, a large number of men and women the world over put their lives in threat working in Humanitarian causes everywhere throughout the world. Working in the most neediness and ailment stricken underdeveloped nations the world over, often in regions of incredible social violence, these dedicated, unrecognized, heroes put their lives on the line, and now and then lose them in the quest for their goals. World Humanitarian Day is the day at which everyone recalls these legends and their sacrifices.

In Christianity, in John 15:13 Jesus says, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” In Judaism, life is esteemed above almost all else. The Talmud takes note of that since all humanity is descended from a single individual, taking a life is like decimating a whole world while sparing a life is like sparing a whole world.

World Humanitarian Day 2019 Theme

The campaign for the 2019 World Humanitarian Day is ‘Women Humanitarians’. This year, the day will respect women who had work in emergency all through the world, be it from the war-injured in Afghanistan to the nourishment insecure in the Sahel.

As referenced in the OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) website, ‘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.’