World Humanitarian Day 2015 Commemoration

Dear Families and Friends of the Colleagues Lost in Humanitarian
Service and Survivors of those Tragic Events
Dear Annie, Laurent and Adrien Vieira de Mello,
Distinguished laureates,
Distinguished Ambassadors
Dear Colleagues:


We just heard during the panel discussion how the 17 Sustainable Development Goals will impact humanitarian responses and how the humanitarian responses have a role to play in achieving the ambitious new development agenda.

Humanitarian crises have become more frequent, more complex and they last longer than ever before. The number of people affected by humanitarian crises has almost doubled over the past decade, and is expected to keep rising. These people are the most vulnerable. Whether or not we are successful in addressing their needs will be our measure of success of a people-centred and transformative agenda for development over the coming 15 years.

Providing humanitarian help requires outstanding people, who are ready to board a plane on short notice, who face danger to help people in need and who put their own lives at risk.

Security remains one of the greatest challenges to humanitarian action.

In 2014, 190 major attacks against aid operations occurred, affecting 329 aid workers in 27 countries; 163 of those were killed, 121 were seriously wounded and 145 were kidnapped. In 2015, 43 humanitarian staff have already been killed so far, 33 have been wounded and 24 kidnapped.

To acknowledge the efforts of our extraordinarily dedicated colleagues, this year’s World Humanitarian Day is dedicated to humanitarian heroes. By tweeting with the hashtag #humanitarianheroes you can honour humanitarian workers, raise awareness and share their stories.

For example, there is Azad Al-Mamun from Bangladesh who during the floods in 2000 was forced to spend two weeks living on a school rooftop, together with his family. After the waters cleared, he and his family had lost everything. Despite this setback he continued his education and dedicated his life to helping others affected by humanitarian crises, working with organizations such as the World Food Programme, Oxfam, the National Alliance for Risk Reduction and Response Initiative and Concern Worldwide. He is a humanitarian hero.

Earlier, we heard the stories of His Excellency Mgr Dieudonné Nzapalainga, of Imam Oumar Kobine Layama and Pastor Guerekoyame-Gbangou, the laureates for the 2015 award of the Sergio Vieira de Mello Foundation. They are humanitarian heroes. They will go back home and continue to work side by side with many other humanitarians in their communities, under difficult and unpredictable circumstances and out of the media’s limelight.

Sergio [Viera de Mello] and his co-workers in Bagdad were humanitarian heroes. Our colleagues who died in Algiers in 2007 were humanitarian heroes. They paid the ultimate price for their commitment to making a difference for the people on the ground. Many more were wounded. Their courage and commitment remain a great source of inspiration for us to this day and the plaques behind me remind us daily of their ultimate sacrifice.

Heroic were also the people who tried to rescue the victims from the rubble as are those who lost loved ones in the bombings. Our hearts and solidarity go out to all of them today as we remember what happened.

We have gathered today to pay tribute to all humanitarian heroes, both those who have been taken from us and those who continue to toil selflessly for their fellow human beings in need. Their ideals and energy motivate us to carry on in pursuing our joint mission.


Every one of us can be a humanitarian hero. There are those on the front lines, negotiating and mediating between parties. There are those involved in the logistics from packaging deliveries to bringing them through ports and road blocks to ensure that they reach the people in need and those handing out aid in refugee camps. There are also those here in Geneva, the humanitarian capital, working to prevent conflict, coordinating the responses, raising funds and informing the public.

Obligation de mieux faire .

Mesdames, et Messieurs, le système humanitaire a un impact important : quelques 450’000 travailleurs humanitaires déployés mondialement ont, entre autre, fourni de l'aide alimentaire à 1.8 million de réfugiés et personnes vulnérables en Syrie ; ils ont vacciné 5.4 million d’enfants contre la polio en Irak et ils ont traité 127’000 enfants touchés par la malnutrition sévère au Soudan.
Pour honorer et soutenir leur travail, nous devons aux héros humanitaires de faire mieux : nous devons améliorer la prévention pour éviter les crises avant qu’elles n’arrivent. Nous devons apprendre à mieux les gérer et développer des instruments plus efficaces pour résoudre les conflits afin de réduire à zéro l’impact sur les populations civiles. Nous devons aussi faire mieux pour protéger les travailleurs humanitaires qui sont en première ligne.

Nous devons continuer nos efforts dans les nombreux endroits affectés par ces crises et catastrophes. Nous aurons besoin de la passion, du savoir-faire et de la créativité de toute la communauté humanitaire pour encore mieux réussir l’aide d’urgence. Ceci déterminera aussi en grande partie si on peut atteindre les buts fixés pour le développement durable pour l’année 2030.

Je vous remercie beaucoup. Bonne soirée.