On World
Humanitarian Day, we honor humanitarians across the globe for their
compassion and their courage. We remember the 22 UN and relief agency
staff who died in a Baghdad bombing on
this day 13 years ago as well as the nearly 4,000 other aid workers who
have been killed, wounded, or kidnapped in the past two decades.
Humanitarians deserve our support, respect, and praise not just for
their work, but for what they represent: our capacity
to help those who are suffering, regardless of where they come from,
what language they speak, or how they worship.
Humanitarian
crises are not distant tragedies. Today, there are a record 65 million
people displaced inside their own countries, living as refugees or
seeking asylum. More than 130 million
people across 40 countries are in need of humanitarian aid. The
scourges that many flee - political repression, chronic violence, and
natural disasters - cannot be defeated by building barriers but only by
building hope and compassion. These are global challenges
that demand collective action.
And as world
leaders gather at the 71st session of the UN General Assembly,
President Obama will convene a Leaders' Summit on Refugees, highlighting
the United States' continued leadership
on humanitarian assistance. The Summit aims to significantly increase
humanitarian funding, to double the number of refugees who benefit from
resettlement or other humanitarian admissions programs, and to help
empower refugees in countries of asylum - building
on our commitment for a stronger, more accountable international
humanitarian system capable of meeting today's unprecedented needs.
Source: The White House, Office of the Press Secretary
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