World Humanitarian Day 2026 A Message from Michael VanRooyen, Director, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative

On World Humanitarian Day, we recognize the extraordinary commitment of humanitarian workers around the world—and particularly the doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, ambulance drivers, community health workers and others who continue to provide care in some of the most dangerous places on earth.

In conflict areas around the world, doctors and nurses are working in hospitals destroyed by bombing. Surgeons are operating in the dark with sparse supplies, ambulance drivers are passing through checkpoints with the fear of being shot, medical staff are working in clinics with no water, no electricity and no resources, most of the time with little or no payment.  They work because they see the overwhelming need. They work because there is no one else to help. 

We should remember that humanitarian health workers are not simply people working in a crisis. The overwhelming majority are national and local staff living through the same crisis as the people they serve. Their families face the same insecurity, displacement and deprivation. Yet they continue to show up for their communities.

The danger they face has reached an appalling level. The Aid Worker Security Database recorded 568 major incidents of violence against aid workers in 2024, affecting 816 people; 383 were killed, 308 seriously wounded and 125 kidnapped. In 2025, at least 326 humanitarian workers were killed across 21 countries. Over the three years from 2023 through 2025, more than 1,010 humanitarian workers were killed—nearly three times the number recorded during the preceding three-year period.

These numbers represent far more than statistics. Behind every death is a family waiting for someone who will never come home. Behind every attack is a community that may lose access to essential medical care.

And violence takes forms beyond bullets and bombs. Health workers are threatened, intimidated, detained, harassed and prevented from reaching their patients. Hospitals and clinics are damaged or destroyed. Ambulances and medical convoys are obstructed. These actions progressively shrink humanitarian space and undermine the fundamental principle that the sick and wounded must be able to receive care.

Attacks on health workers are attacks on families, communities and the right to healthcare.

We must be unequivocal about this. The intimidation, obstruction, detention, injury or killing of humanitarian health workers can never be tolerated, normalized or accepted as an inevitable consequence of war. International humanitarian law requires the protection of medical personnel, facilities, patients and medical transport. Those protections are not optional, and violations demand investigation and accountability.

As an emergency physician, I have had the privilege of working alongside humanitarian professionals and local organizations in crises around the world. Again and again, I have witnessed their courage, professionalism and humanity.

On this World Humanitarian Day, we honor those who continue this work, remember those who have been killed or injured in its service, and stand with the families who share in their sacrifice.

Our responsibility must extend beyond remembrance. We must defend the humanitarian space that allows them to do their work, and insist that those who care for others are themselves protected.

Michael VanRooyen, MD, MPH
Director, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative
Harvard University