Dangers for international humanitarian workers increasing

19 August 2009

Humanitarian aid workers are increasingly coming under attack - and more and more it is local people working for humanitarian organisations that are being targeted, says the executive director of the Council for International Development, David Culverhouse.

Today is the first World Humanitarian Day. August the 19^th was designated by the United Nations in December last year as an annual day to acknowledge the work of humanitarian workers.

Statistics from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs show that the rate of attacks on local staff is increasing. Last year 122 humanitarian workers were killed - 104 of them local staff. Another 62 humanitarian workers - 44 of them locals - were kidnapped during 2008.

"Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) rely heavily on their local staff in carrying out humanitarian response work, and it is clearly these people who are most at risk. World Humanitarian Day should be a time when NGOs and the wider community acknowledge the work of local staff and the risk they place themselves under through helping others," says David Culverhouse Executive Director of the Council for International Development.

The 2008 fatality rate for international aid workers exceeded that of UN peacekeeping troops.

"A concern is that aid operations in war zones, and even those following natural disasters, are at times linked with governments' wider policy objectives, rather than solely serving those affected on the basis of greatest need. When aid workers neutrality from political objectives is questioned, they are more likely to suffer attacks," says Mr Culverhouse.

In 2008 New Zealand NGOs supported humanitarian projects in Bangladesh, China, DRC, Ethiopia, Fiji, Haiti, India, Kenya, Laos, Mozambique, Nepal, Pakistan, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, The Philippines, The Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Thailand, Timor Leste, Vanuatu and Zimbabwe.

For more information on World Humanitarian Day see http://ochaonline.un.org/News/WorldHumanitarianDay/tabid/5677/language/en-US/Default.aspx

For more information contact: