World Humanitarian Day on August 19th marks the anniversary of the UN Headquarters bombing in Baghdad, where 22 people lost their lives. It was established on the global calendar as a day dedicated to celebrating the spirit of humanitarian work around the world and raising awareness of its utmost significance.

In year 2002, popular figures such as Beyoncé, who wrote and produced a unique song for the event called ‘’I Was Here,” supported World Humanitarian Day. The humanitarian community reached the support of more than 1 billion people globally in one day. Yet, further steps were taken in year 2013, when more than $700,000 was raised from the private and public sector for underfunded emergencies.

This year, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is emphasizing the importance of informing and maintaining the attention of audiences. The focus will be brought back on the humanitarian workers who risk their lives everyday to bring relief to communities in need of assistance. The main highlight of this year’s World Humanitarian Day will be “The World Needs More Humanitarian Heroes” campaign, which is currently advocated by a global online community called the Messengers of Humanity. The long term goal of this campaign is to marshal the community of advocates in service of the entire humanitarian community and provide a forum for partners to share messages. In addition, the World Humanitarian Day website will highlight a number of humanitarian crises and will profile individual humanitarians around the world.

Meeting Title: Plans for the Upcoming 2014 World Humanitarian Day

Speakers: Mr. Kieran Dwyer, Chief of the Communications Services Branch (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs)

Location: Conference Room 6, United Nations Headquarters, New York

Date: 21 July 2014

Written by WIT Representative: Samantha Kong

Edited by: Suzy Hallak