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From:Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Helen McEntee TD, and Minister of State for International Development and Diaspora, Neale Richmond TD, have today marked World Humanitarian Day by calling for a sharper focus on accountability for violence against humanitarian workers.

On World Humanitarian Day, we need to draw attention to the increasingly complex and dangerous circumstances in which so many aid workers operate today. When conflict and disasters strike, those who deliver life-saving assistance should never be targets. Despite this, 2025 was the second-most dangerous year to be an aid worker on record after 2024, with 334 aid workers killed in 2025 alone.

The horrifying rate at which humanitarians are being killed demands a response. Accountability is a key means of providing justice, promoting respect for international humanitarian law, where it applies, and deterring future violations. Ireland joins the call to Act for Humanity, to protect the lives and dignity of those living in conflict and crisis settings and ensure the safety of the humanitarian and medical personnel responding to their needs.

Every day humanitarians are being killed, injured, arbitrarily detained, arrested or intimidated, while their work is increasingly criminalised and subject to misinformation. Local and national staff are the majority of victims and survivors of attack, often with the least protection. In signing the Declaration for the Protection of Humanitarians at the UN last September, I made a political commitment, on behalf of Ireland, to take action to improve the safety and security of humanitarians, including action to align the protection of local, national and international personnel.

In Brussels this October, Ireland and the European Commission will host a major international conference on the Protection of Aid Workers which will centre the voices of local humanitarians and discuss practical steps to support their safety and security needs.

Ireland provided over €330 million in humanitarian aid in 2025, as humanitarian needs rise and humanitarian organisations continue to face a funding crisis.

In 2026, Ireland is continuing to respond to large-scale humanitarian crises, including in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, alongside many less visible crises and sudden onset emergencies, including the recent earthquakes in Venezuela.

The United Nations has identified 239 million people in need of humanitarian assistance across the globe. World Humanitarian Day aims to pay tribute to humanitarian workers killed and injured while working to provide life-saving support and protection to people who need it most.