Humanitarian workers operate in some of the world’s most difficult and dangerous
environments to help people affected by conflict, displacement and disaster.
World Humanitarian Day is an opportunity to honour aid workers who continue to serve communities in crisis
Every day, humanitarian workers step into some of the world’s most difficult and dangerous environments to help people affected by conflict, displacement and disaster. They deliver food and medicine, provide shelter and protection, support children and families, ensure education continuity during conflict, and help communities preserve dignity and hope in circumstances of extraordinary hardship.
Yet those providing humanitarian assistance are increasingly working under threat. World Humanitarian Day (Aug 19) is an opportunity to honour humanitarian workers who continue to serve communities in crisis, remember those who have been killed or injured in the course of their work, and reaffirm a fundamental principle: humanitarian workers and the civilians they serve must be protected. But protection cannot be separated from access.
When humanitarian workers are attacked, obstructed or prevented from reaching communities, the consequences extend far beyond the immediate humanitarian response. Food does not reach families. Medical care is interrupted. Protection services become harder to deliver. And children can lose one of the most important sources of stability, protection and hope available to them during conflict: education.
Children pay the price
For children living through armed conflict, humanitarian access can determine whether they are able to continue learning at all. The denial of humanitarian access for children is recognised under the United Nations Children and Armed Conflict framework as one of the six grave violations against children in situations of armed conflict.
Restrictions on humanitarian access can prevent essential assistance, services and personnel from reaching children precisely when they need them most. Education is deeply affected by these restrictions. In emergencies, humanitarian action can help establish temporary learning spaces, rehabilitate damaged education facilities, provide learning materials, support teachers, offer psychosocial assistance, and reconnect children with structured learning.
Humanitarian actors can also help ensure that children who have been displaced, or whose schools have been damaged or destroyed, are not entirely cut off from education. When humanitarian access is obstructed, these interventions become significantly more difficult. A classroom may remain closed. A teacher may be unable to reach students. Learning materials may not arrive. Children can spend months or even years outside education, increasing their exposure to exploitation, child labour, recruitment, early marriage and other forms of harm. Protecting humanitarian access is therefore also essential to protecting children’s futures.
Education must be able to survive attack
Schools and universities should be places of safety, learning and opportunity. Yet in many conflicts, education itself comes under attack. Schools are damaged or destroyed. Students, teachers and education personnel are killed or injured. Educational facilities may be occupied or used for military purposes. Fear and insecurity can prevent families from sending children to school.
Humanitarian and education personnel attempting to keep learning going may themselves face restrictions, threats and violence. Attacks against civilians and civilian objects, including schools and universities that retain their civilian character, are prohibited under international humanitarian law. Beyond their immediate physical consequences, such attacks can weaken or dismantle education systems that communities will depend upon long after a conflict ends.
This is why protecting humanitarian workers and protecting education must be understood as
interconnected responsibilities. Humanitarian action helps sustain education during crises. It keeps children connected to learning when formal systems are disrupted and supports communities as they begin the long process of education recovery.
Education must be able to survive attack. That means protecting students, teachers, schools
and universities. It also means protecting the humanitarian workers and partners who help
ensure that education can continue when communities and national systems are under extraordinary pressure. From emergency response to long-term recoverythe impact of conflict on education does not end when the immediate emergency subsides.
Every prolonged interruption to learning can deepen educational loss and make it more difficult for children and young people to return to school. When disruption continues for years, the consequences can affect an entire generation, limiting future opportunities and weakening the capacity of communities to recover.
Education must therefore be recognised as an essential component of humanitarian response and recovery rather than something that can simply wait until a crisis is over.
Governments, humanitarian organisations, education partners, civil society and affected communities all have a role in maintaining education continuity. This includes creating safer learning environments, restoring damaged infrastructure, supporting teachers, expandingflexible and alternative learning opportunities, and ensuring that displaced and conflict-affected children and young people are not left behind.
It also requires respect for international humanitarian law and sustained action to protect civilians and humanitarian personnel. Without safe and sustained humanitarian access, these efforts become considerably harder to deliver.
A shared responsibility to choose humanity World Humanitarian Day reminds us that behind every humanitarian operation are people: the aid worker travelling to an isolated community, the teacher keeping a temporary classroom open, the health worker supporting displaced families, and the children who continue trying to learn despite everything happening around them.
Protecting them is not solely the responsibility of humanitarian organisations. Parties to conflict have obligations under international humanitarian law. Governments, international institutions, donors, civil society and the wider international community also have an important role to play in advocating for the protection of civilians and humanitarian personnel, enable humanitarian access, and supporting accountability when international law is violated.
Solidarity must therefore extend beyond recognition. It should translate into action: protecting humanitarian space, enabling safe and sustained humanitarian access, protecting education from attack, and ensuring that communities affected by crisis can continue accessing the services on which their lives and futures depend. As World Humanitarian Day focuses global attention on the protection of humanitarian workers, the international community should also look ahead to September 9, the International Day to
Protect Education from Attack. The establishment of September 9 as the International Day to Protect Education from Attack was presented by the State of Qatar, spearheaded by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, and adopted unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly in a resolution in 2020.
The day draws attention to the plight of millions of children and young people whose education is affected by war and conflict, and to the urgent need to end attacks on education, protect students and educators, and provide support so that learning can continue even where conflict is endemic. Together, World Humanitarian Day and the
International Day to Protect Education from Attack reinforce a shared imperative: humanitarian workers must be protected, humanitarian access must be preserved, and schools, teachers and students must never be targeted. Protecting them is essential to ensuring that children and young people can continue to learn, recover and build their futures, even amid crisis and conflict.
(Siraj Khan is Law and Policy Manager at PEIC Programme and Ghalia Seifo, senior humanitarian communications and advocacy specialist at United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA))