NEW YORK, Aug. 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- On this year's
World Humanitarian Day, we are calling on people everywhere to
#ActForHumanity.
We must act for humanity in Gaza for the 40,000 fatalities – including at
least 10,627 children killed – according to the Palestinian
Ministry of Health. We must act for humanity for the innocent
victims killed and the hostages taken in the attacks by Hamas. We
must act for humanity for the 270 aid workers killed so far in
Gaza, including 207 UNRWA staff,
according to the United Nations. Every human life is precious – not
matter who, when or where.
Nothing can justify the killing, maiming and abduction of
civilians, nor the launching of rockets at civilian targets.
Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian
people, including children. Nothing can justify the killing of
humanitarian aid workers.
We must act for humanity for the hundreds of millions of
crisis-affected girls and boys whose human dignity and human rights
– including their right to education – have been stripped away by
armed conflicts, forced displacement, climate change and other
protracted crises both in Ukraine
and across many countries in the Global South. Every human life
makes up our shared humanity.
In all, more than 224 million crisis-impacted children urgently
need quality education. Our investment in their education is an
investment in peace and stability, an investment in human rights,
and an investment in equality and economic prosperity the world
over.
We must act for humanity on the frontlines of the world's
forgotten crises in countries such as the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Haiti and
Nigeria, where millions of
children are out of school, and millions more face grave risks
including child marriage and other forms of gender-based violence,
recruitment into armed groups, killing, maiming, abduction, and
other atrocities.
We must act for humanity in Afghanistan, where an entire generation of
girls and women are systematically denied their rights, including
the upcoming three-year mark of the ban on Afghan girls' education.
We must act for humanity for the girls and boys living in fear and
under attack in Ethiopia, Sudan, Ukraine, and other armed conflicts. We must
act for humanity for the Rohingya people and refugees and
other repressed groups who face violence, discrimination and hate
on a daily basis.
We must act for humanity to mobilize more funding resources,
ethically guided political will and solid support for the United
Nations and other organizations that continue to deliver
life-saving humanitarian aid across the globe.
2023 was the deadliest year on record for humanitarian workers.
Yet, 2024 could be even worse; so far this year, 333 aid workers
have already been killed, kidnapped or wounded according to the Aid
Worker Security Database.
These facts lay bare a glaring truth: the world is failing both
humanitarian workers and the people they serve. This is why we must
act for humanity. Now.
In honor of all human beings suffering inhumanity – irrespective
of race, ethnicity, religion, political opinion or gender – on this
World Humanitarian Day I conclude with these eternal and universal
truths once spoken by Martin Luther King
Jr:
"Every person must decide, at some point, whether they will walk
in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive
selfishness… An individual has not begun to live until he/she can
rise above the narrow horizons of his/her particular
individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all
humanity."
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