We need to restore respect for the norms that safeguard us all by UN OCHA, ICRC, Oxfam, WHO, agencies   Aug. 2026   World Humanitarian Day 2026: The time for consequence is now. (UN OCHA)   On World Humanitarian Day we remember and honour our colleagues who have dedicated their lives to helping people caught up in crises around the world, including those who lost their lives while doing so.   When the worst happens and lives are at risk, the people who come to help should never be targets. Yet every day, humanitarians are being killed, injured, kidnapped, detained and prevented from reaching people who need them.   In 2025, 1,187 aid workers faced major security incidents. 350 were killed. 322 were wounded. 235 were kidnapped. 280 were detained or arrested. Most were national staff serving their own communities. By August 2026, more than 80 humanitarians had already been killed, with at least another 90 injured or abducted.   Health workers are also coming under attack at an unacceptable scale. This year alone, more than 900 attacks on health care have resulted in the deaths of more than 900 health workers and patients.   Behind every person killed is a family grieving. A community with one less person to help them. A health system already under immense pressure losing another skilled pair of hands.   Flags flew at half-mast on 19 August across UN offices worldwide to remember humanitarian workers killed while helping others and stand with those who continue to serve despite the danger.   Those with power and influence must act. To protect civilians and humanitarians. Enable humanitarian access. Investigate violations. Hold those responsible to account. The time for concern is over. The time for consequence is now. The laws exist. The commitments exist. What is missing is consequence. Concern is not protection. Condemnation is not accountability.   Humanity is capable of extraordinary things. So why can we not ensure that humanitarians can reach people in need safely? When aid workers are attacked, threatened or blocked from doing their jobs, the consequences extend far beyond the individuals targeted.   Clinics close. Food deliveries stop. Protection disappears. Families are left without the support they depend on. And when hospitals, schools, water systems and other civilian infrastructure are destroyed, the damage can shape communities for generations.   This year, humanitarian organizations are working to reach 87 million people facing the most severe needs around the world. Despite insecurity, obstruction and chronic underfunding, humanitarians continue to show up and do everything they can to reach people in need. They should not have to risk their lives to do it.   The problem is not the absence of rules. It is the failure to uphold them. Parties to armed conflict are obligated to uphold international humanitarian law. All States must use their influence to prevent and bring an end to violations. Alleged violations must be investigated. Those responsible must be held to account.   Protecting humanitarians is not optional. Protecting civilians is not optional. The rules of war are not optional. What is needed now is the political will and courage to uphold them.   For the colleagues we have lost. For those doing this work every day. And for the millions of people whose lives depend on them. #ActForHumanity   Aug. 2026   We need to restore respect for the norms that safeguard us all, by Amitabh Behar - Executive Director of Oxfam international.   Today, as we mark World Humanitarian Day, we must reflect on the state of humanitarianism. Humanitarian work has always been framed upon the collective assumption that there are lines that should never be crossed, even in wars.   For a generation, we had binding international agreements that treated the act of protecting a child in need of food or a medic treating the sick and wounded as a fundamental legal right.   Today, the consensus and meaning behind these laws are gone.   Too many governments are no longer consistently defending the rules-based order that they helped create. When it suits them, some are openly disregarding international law. Others are applying it selectively, condemning their adversaries for violations while tolerating the same behaviours by their allies. Many more are simply remaining silent at times when condemnation and action are required.   When governments feel that their own geopolitical and domestic interests are more important than their legal obligations, our rules-based humanitarian system becomes diminished and corrupted.   Enforcement becomes inconsistent. Tolerance of excessive civilian casualties becomes routine. And anything becomes permissible, including the unthinkable.   Today, impunity is being allowed to flourish. Bad actors feel more empowered to break the laws that exist to make us all safer because they know they won’t be held to account.   This matters because humanitarian crises do not emerge in a vacuum. Instead, they are the direct results of these kinds of transactional political choices.   In this worldview, the protection of civilians and aid workers is no longer understood as a universal obligation as much as a commodity – something that can be bargained, withheld or selectively applied. Protection becomes a political investment that demands a political return.   We can measure the consequences of this in people’s lives. At least 1,000 aid workers have been killed in the past three years, nearly triple the toll of the previous three. In 2025, there were hundreds of attacks on humanitarian operations and 350 aid workers killed, 322 injured, 235 kidnapped, and 280 detained, according to the UN.   At Oxfam, we have lost five colleagues and partner staff in eight years and had more than 1,300 of our people caught up in at least 1,200 security incidents.   The killing of aid workers often happens in places where the belligerents are armed, funded or shielded by the same governments that are actually funding a humanitarian response.   But failing protection is not the only challenge humanitarian work faces today. Often, states impose unnecessary restrictions that prevent aid workers from carrying out their duties.   Last December, Israeli authorities told Oxfam and 36 other international organisations that in order to continue to provide humanitarian relief in Gaza and the West Bank, they had to hand over information including the personal details of staff.   These demands went against the rights and safety of our colleagues. All 37 organisations refused and were deregistered.   Israel’s actions could not immediately end our ability to reach people because we are legally entitled to operate under our registration with the Palestinian Authority (PA). But this has significantly affected our work, as we are not allowed to bring goods in and we rely on local goods, which have been inflated in price due to the war and scarcity.   Humanitarian work is also threatened by ever-dwindling funding. This year, the G7 countries made the biggest aid cuts in history – slashing development assistance by nearly a third in 2026 compared with 2024.   This is despite humanitarian needs worsening, as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that is facing the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record, or in Sudan where people are dying of famine.   These funding cuts are a political choice, as are vetoes of UN Security Council action and decisions to override the binding rulings of international courts, defund UN agencies, militarise humanitarian delivery, or politicise distribution schemes run by parties to a conflict.   International humanitarian law is universal and binding. Civilians must be protected and relief facilitated. Starvation must not be used as a weapon. Aid workers, hospitals, water systems, schools and shelters must never be attacked.   Every attack on a humanitarian worker should trigger an independent investigation and, when a crime is proven, prosecution. UNSC Resolution 2730 demanded exactly this two years ago.   The selection of the next UN secretary-general will be a good test of our collective responsibility. This process must bring about genuine accountability against those who violate international law. We need to restore respect for the norms that safeguard us all.   World Humanitarian Day is about remembering all humanitarian workers who lost their lives while caring for others. But remembrance without accountability and action becomes a tolerance of the unjustifiable. We must do better: #protectaidworkers   http://www.worldhumanitarianday.org/ http://www.ifrc.org/article/why-world-cannot-normalize-killing-those-who-help http://www.savethechildren.net/news/world-humanitarian-day-national-staff-bear-brunt-record-violence-against-humanitarian-workers http://www.wvi.org/newsroom/attacks-humanitarian-workers-surge-under-new-armed-conflict-tactics-leaving-children http://alliancecpha.org/en http://www.rescue.org/press-release/aid-worker-deaths-near-record-high-2025-driven-gaza-and-sudan http://reliefweb.int/report/world/acaps-global-humanitarian-access-overview-access-conditions-crisis-affected-countries-july-2026 http://www.acaps.org/en/thematics/all-topics/humanitarian-access-overview http://www.unocha.org/news/world-humanitarian-day-un-relief-chief-says-violence-against-humanitarians-must-not-be http://www.unocha.org/world-humanitarian-day http://www.un.org/en/observances/humanitarian-day http://www.unocha.org/latest/news-and-stories   http://www.icrc.org/en/statement/world-humanitarian-day-remarks-yasmine-praz-director-operations-icrc http://www.icrc.org/en/article/world-humanitarian-day-health-care-not-privilege-it-fundamental-right http://www.who.int/news/item/04-05-2026-joint-call-by-the-president-of-the-icrc--the-director-general-of-who-and-the-international-president-of-msf http://www.msf.org/latest-portal http://www.insecurityinsight.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Executive-Summary-Still-Under-Attack-A-decade-of-monitoring-attacks-on-health-care-after-United-Nations-Security-Council-Resolution-2286.pdf http://www.inew.org/world-humanitarian-day-new-data-shows-impact-of-explosive-weapons-on-humanitarian-work/ http://www.icrc.org/en/article/icrcs-position-use-explosive-weapons-populated-areas http://explosiveweaponsmonitor.org/reports/9/explosive-weapons-monitor-2025/   http://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2026/08/unwavering-duty-protect-humanitarian-workers-and-civilians-world-humanitarian-day http://www.aidworkersecurity.org/ http://humanitarianoutcomes.org/AWSR_2026 http://ngosafety.org/latest/aid-under-arrest/ http://ngosafety.org/ http://protecthumanitarians.org/en/out-now-protect-humanitarians-and-legal-action-worldwides-report-on-justice-and-accountability-for-attacks-against-humanitarian-personnel/ http://reliefweb.int/report/world/children-and-armed-conflict-report-secretary-general-a80723-s2026357-enarruzh http://reliefweb.int/report/world/protection-civilians-armed-conflict-report-secretary-general-s2026390 http://docs.un.org/en/S/2026/390 http://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/press-release/2026/07/at-least-one-million-women-and-girls-lose-access-to-critical-support   http://interagencystandingcommittee.org/inter-agency-standing-committee/statement-principals-iasc-protecting-civilians-armed-conflict-responsibility-member-states-and-un http://www.unocha.org/news/over-1000-aid-workers-killed-often-hands-member-states-un-relief-chief-demands-action http://civiliansinconflict.org/press-releases/joint-civil-society-statement-ahead-of-the-2026-open-debate-on-the-protection-of-civilians-in-armed-conflict/ Visit the related web page
	U.S. sanctions against Cuba are endangering lives and must be lifted by UN Office for Human Rights, agencies   6 Aug. 2026   UN human rights experts today condemned recent measures by the United States against Cuba, denouncing them as an attempt to alter the constitutional order of a sovereign State through threats and coercion.   They urged the international community and civil society to act swiftly to prevent a “silent Gaza” from unfolding on the island, as recently invoked by four members of the US Congress during their visit to Cuba.   The US has expanded unilateral sanctions targeting key sectors of the Cuban economy since June 2026. The latest sanctions announced on 23 July, include energy companies, which has further blocked fuel procurements, even for humanitarian reasons, at a time when Cuba is facing acute fuel shortages and has recently experienced its third major nationwide blackout. Energy, transport, irrigation and basic services are failing simultaneously, disproportionately affecting women, children, older persons and other vulnerable groups, including peasant farmers in the rural economy.   “The humanitarian consequences are already unfolding into a full-blown crisis, threatening the rights to health, to life, to food and to development,” the experts said, following reports that uncollected waste is accumulating in parts of Havana, deepening the serious risk of diseases spreading.   UN agencies in Cuba have warned of mounting risks of food insecurity and shortages of medicines and basic necessities, with repeated national grid collapses and prolonged blackouts disrupting health care services and causing critical shortages of medicines and cancer-treatment capacity.   "Food must never be used as an instrument of political pressure. Measures that knowingly deprive a population of the means to survive strike at the most basic guarantees of the rights to life and diminish the core of human dignity," the experts said.   On 20 July, the US State Department released a report entitled "Cuba: The Capital of 21st-Century Communism" describing Cuba as a multifaceted threat to US national security and hemispheric stability. The experts observed that the report offers no concrete evidence that Cuba supports terrorism or subversive activity, and expressed concern that only political and ideological considerations appear to justify the continuation of coercive measures.   The experts stressed that the US’s unlawful unilateral coercive measures against Cuba contravene Article 2 of the UN Charter, and form part of a broader regime-change strategy encompassing the decades-long embargo on Cuba.   “The US Government must cease all threats and hostile acts against Cuba's sovereignty and revoke all measures it has imposed on the country that stand contrary to international law,” said the experts.   “The UN Security Council and General Assembly should urgently address these threats as a matter of international peace and security,” they added.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/08/cuba-un-experts-condemn-new-us-sanctions-humanitarian-crisis-deepens   May. 2026   Fuel shortages push Cuba into deepening crisis. (OCHA)   The UN remains deeply concerned about the deteriorating situation in Cuba, driven by the inability to import fuel. This has triggered an energy crisis.   Cuba’s already strained health system is approaching a critical point. Hospitals face frequent power outages, shortages of essential medicines, inability to operate critical equipment, and major disruptions to oncology care, dialysis, emergency services, infant and maternal care, cold‑chain systems, as well as chronic and non-urgent care.   As an example, some 16,000 cancer patients needing radiotherapy and more than 12,000 depending on chemotherapy cannot get the treatment they need due to power outages and resource shortages. Ambulances are struggling to obtain fuel, delaying urgent care.   Regarding access to water, nearly one million people depend on water delivered by tanker trucks, which require fuel to operate. More than 80 per cent of water‑pumping infrastructure relies on electricity, resulting in widespread and prolonged service disruptions.   Food supply chains – from production to storage to distribution – are increasingly impacted, with cold‑chain systems failing, transport routes increasingly interrupted, and reductions in the availability of basic food items across the country.   Humanitarian partners on the ground are working to provide assistance, but the lack of fuel is forcing food and water trucks to operate at a limited capacity.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/06/us-sanctions-against-cuba-are-endangering-lives-and-must-be-lifted http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/05/united-states-must-end-energy-starvation-cuba-severe-human-rights-impacts-un http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/06/un-experts-strongly-condemn-new-us-threats-and-coercion-against-cuba http://news.un.org/en/story/2026/04/1167254 http://cepr.net/publications/us-sanctions-and-the-sharp-rise-in-infant-mortality-in-cuba http://progressives.house.gov/press-releases?ID=A8BBF296-7749-46EF-9910-ECE0C5169F77   Feb. 2026   Cuba: UN warns of possible humanitarian ‘collapse’, as oil supplies dwindle. (UN News)   The UN on Wednesday warned of potential humanitarian “collapse” in Cuba, following US efforts to block oil supplies from reaching the island. The United States has threatened to impose tariffs on any country providing oil to Cuba, increasing pressure on the island nation following a decades-long trade embargo and the US seizure of Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro last month.   Venezuela had been the main supplier of oil to Havana but Washington has been ratcheting up pressure on Cuba in recent weeks, including an executive order last Thursday threatening to impose additional tariffs on countries that sell oil to Cuba, including Mexico.   “I can tell you that the UN Secretary-General is extremely concerned about the humanitarian situation in Cuba, which will worsen, and if not collapse, if its oil needs go unmet,” said UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.   The UN chief noted that the General Assembly has been calling for an end to the US embargo for more than three decades: “The Secretary-General urges all parties to pursue dialogue and respect for international law.”   The fuel crisis has pushed up food prices for Cubans, led to severe fuel shortages and major power cuts throughout the country.   Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Marta Hurtado:   "We are extremely worried about Cuba’s deepening socio-economic crisis – amid a decades-long financial and trade embargo, extreme weather events, and the recent U.S. measures restricting oil shipments. This is having an increasingly severe impact on the human rights of people in Cuba.   Given the dependence of health, food, and water systems on imported fossil fuels, the current oil scarcity has put the availability of essential services at risk nationwide.   Intensive care units and emergency rooms are compromised, as are the production, delivery, and storage of vaccines, blood products, and other temperature-sensitive medications.   In Cuba, more than 80 percent of water pumping equipment depends on electricity, and power cuts are undermining access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene. The fuel shortage has disrupted the rationing system and the regulated basic food basket, and has affected social protection networks – school feeding, maternity homes, and nursing homes – with the most vulnerable groups being disproportionately impacted. The electricity cuts also affect communications and access to information.   Access to essential goods and services, including food, water, medicine, and adequate fuel and electricity, should always be safeguarded, as they are fundamental in modern societies to the right to life and the ability to enjoy many other rights.   The long-term, sustained impact of sectoral sanctions creates economic hardship and weakens the State's capacity to fulfill its core responsibilities, including providing protection and assistance services.   UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk reiterates his call on all States to lift unilateral sectoral measures, given their broad and indiscriminate impact on the population. Policy goals cannot justify actions that in themselves violate human rights.   http://news.un.org/en/story/2026/02/1166895 http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-briefing-notes/2026/02/concerns-over-cubas-deepening-economic-crisis
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