HUMANITARIAN DAY TO RAISE PUBLIC AWARENESS

Wednesday, 19 August . The first World Humanitarian Day was  observed at United Nations Headquarters with a ceremony remembering the victims of the 2003 attack on the United Nations in Baghdad.  

The Secretary-General made a statement to launch the first World Humanitarian Day. The date, designated by the General Assembly in December 2008, marks the day of the Canal Hotel bombing in Baghdad.  The truck bomb attack of 19 August 2003 took the lives of 22 staff members, including the top United Nations envoy in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and wounded more than 150.
            "Five years have passed since the terrorist attack on our UN headquarters in Baghdad, killing 22 people, including Sergio Vieira de Mello. We lost some of our best and bravest staff...They were heroes. They faced danger to help people in need. They did their job in its largest and most noble sense." Remarked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the 6th anniversary observance of the Baghdad bombing.
In 2007 alone, 42 staff members of the United Nations system were killed around the world.  Since the first United Nations peacekeeping operation was established in 1948, 709 peacekeeping personnel have been killed in malicious acts, such as attacks, bombings and landmine explosions.