By Janet Ekstract
ISTANBUL (TURKISH JOURNAL) – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on World Humanitarian Day that humanitarian aid workers “face growing threats.” Guterres commented: “In the past 20 years, shootings, kidnappings, and other attacks on humanitarian organizations have increased tenfold. The secretary-general said in 2021, at least 72 humanitarian workers were killed in conflict zones.” He warned that the climate crisis emergency “is a race we are losing, but it’s a race we can and must win.” Guterres emphasized that this year’s campaign for World Humanitarian Day highlights just how devastating climate extremes are throughout the world and how they are overwhelming those on the frontlines. The UN commemorated this day with support for the families of aid workers injured or killed while assisting others around the world.
In Switzerland, UN Geneva Director-General Tatiana Valovaya and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet laid a wreath in memory of the victims where 22 UN staff lost their lives in the 2003 suicide bombing of the Canal Hotel in Baghdad. Valovaya stressed that aid workers would “remain faithful to their mission of providing vital services to affected communities” in Afghanistan since the fall of Kabul. Bachelet paid tribute to the “courage and commitment” to all those who were killed in the service of human rights, commenting that “our work breaks down hatred and violence. We are creating better, more resourceful societies where fewer tragedies occur – but when they do, we equip people to surmount them.”
The UN Migration Agency (IOM) reiterated that climate change crisis is the “defining issue of our times.” On the occasion of World Humanitarian Day 2021, IOM Director -General Antonio Vitorino is pushing the international community to place their focus on vulnerable populations worst-affected by climate change and the many “climate migrants” that will be forced to move out of their regions because of the effects of extreme climate changes. Vitorino pointed out: “Last year, more than half of all new displacements worldwide were due to weather-related disasters.” He added: “Millions lost their homes, access to food and water and their entire livelihoods due to worsening and more frequent climate hazards.” He said frontline workers have more pressure on them to deliver humanitarian aid during the COVID-19 pandemic than ever before. The IOM chief said: “The climate emergency is a race against time” and urged governments, the private sector, and all those concerned to help boost emergency preparedness and resiliency building as well as climate change adaptation and mitigation.
