Act for Humanity

World Humanitarian Day Statement by Education Cannot Wait Executive Director Yasmine Sherif

On this year’s World Humanitarian Day, we are calling on people everywhere to #ActForHumanity.

We must act for humanity in Gaza for the 40,000 fatalities – including at least 10,627 children killed – according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. We must act for humanity for the innocent victims killed and the hostages taken in the attacks by Hamas. We must act for humanity for the 270 aid workers killed so far in Gaza, including 207 UNRWA staff, according to the United Nations. Every human life is precious – not matter who, when or where.

Nothing can justify the killing, maiming and abduction of civilians, nor the launching of rockets at civilian targets. Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people, including children. Nothing can justify the killing of humanitarian aid workers.

We must act for humanity for the hundreds of millions of crisis-affected girls and boys whose human dignity and human rights – including their right to education – have been stripped away by armed conflicts, forced displacement, climate change and other protracted crises both in Ukraine and across many countries in the Global South. Every human life makes up our shared humanity.

In all, more than 224 million crisis-impacted children urgently need quality education. Our investment in their education is an investment in peace and stability, an investment in human rights, and an investment in equality and economic prosperity the world over.

We must act for humanity on the frontlines of the world’s forgotten crises in countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti and Nigeria, where millions of children are out of school, and millions more face grave risks including child marriage and other forms of gender-based violence, recruitment into armed groups, killing, maiming, abduction, and other atrocities.  

We must act for humanity in Afghanistan, where an entire generation of girls and women are systematically denied their rights, including the upcoming three-year mark of the ban on Afghan girls’ education. We must act for humanity for the girls and boys living in fear and under attack in Ethiopia, Sudan, Ukraine, and other armed conflicts. We must act for humanity for the Rohingya people and refugees and other repressed groups who face violence, discrimination and hate on a daily basis.

We must act for humanity to mobilize more funding resources, ethically guided political will and solid support for the United Nations and other organizations that continue to deliver life-saving humanitarian aid across the globe.

2023 was the deadliest year on record for humanitarian workers. Yet, 2024 could be even worse; so far this year, 333 aid workers have already been killed, kidnapped or wounded according to the Aid Worker Security Database.

These facts lay bare a glaring truth: the world is failing both humanitarian workers and the people they serve. This is why we must act for humanity. Now.

In honor of all human beings suffering inhumanity – irrespective of race, ethnicity, religion, political opinion or gender – on this World Humanitarian Day I conclude with an eternal and universal truth once spoken by Martin Luther King Jr:

“Every person must decide, at some point, whether they will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness….An individual has not begun to live until he/she can rise above the narrow horizons of his/her particular individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”