Secretary-General, in Message for World Humanitarian Day, Calls for Global Solidarity, Urging All to Join #ShareHumanity Campaign

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for World Humanitarian Day, observed on 19 August:

On World Humanitarian Day, we honour the selfless dedication and sacrifice of workers and volunteers from around the world who devote themselves — often at great personal risk — to assisting the world’s most vulnerable people.

This year, more than 100 million women, men and children need life-saving humanitarian assistance.  The amount of people affected by conflict has reached levels not seen since the Second World War, while the number of those affected by natural and human-induced disasters remains profound.

On this day we also celebrate our common humanity.  The families and communities struggling to survive in today’s emergencies do so with resilience and dignity.  They need and deserve our renewed commitment to do all we can to provide them with the means for a better future.

Each one of us can make a difference.  In a world that is ever more digitally connected, each of us has the power and responsibility to inspire our fellow human beings to act to help others and create a more humane world.

On this World Humanitarian Day I urge everyone to show solidarity as global citizens by signing up to the #ShareHumanity campaign.  By donating your social media feeds for just one day, you can promote humanitarian action and help to give a voice to the voiceless by sharing their stories of crisis, hope and resilience.

Next May, Istanbul, Turkey, will host the first World Humanitarian Summit.  The Summit will provide a platform for Heads of State and Government and leaders from civil society, the private sector, crisis-affected communities and multilateral organizations to announce bold new partnerships and initiatives that will vastly reduce suffering and at the same time reinforce the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.

I count on the support of all sectors of society to make the World Humanitarian Summit a success.  Together we can and must build a more humane world with a stronger commitment to life-saving humanitarian action.