On Monday 19 august 2024, Luxembourg's Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Defence, Cooperation and Foreign Trade issued a statement on World Humanitarian Day 2024 in which they confirmed that Luxembourg continues to commit to the most vulnerable.
Established by the United Nations in 2008, World Humanitarian Day is marked each year on 19 August to commemorate the anniversary of the attack on the United Nations headquarters in Iraq in 2003, which claimed the lives of 22 people. Focusing on a different theme each year, World Humanitarian Day 2024 focuses on the fight against the normalisation of attacks on humanitarian actors, the suffering of civilians and impunity under international humanitarian law.
Luxembourg Humanitarian Action in 2024
In recent months, global humanitarian needs have reached unprecedented levels. While 300 million people required humanitarian assistance at the end of 2023, this figure rose to 311.3 million people in the first half of 2024. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that nearly $48.7 billion will be needed to meet these needs, which are exacerbated by the climate crisis and the many ongoing conflicts, including those in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and Haiti.
Following the escalation of tensions between Israel and Hamas on 7 October 2023 and the dire humanitarian situation that has developed in the Gaza Strip since then, Luxembourg has significantly increased its humanitarian support to the civilian population in Gaza. Since 7 October 2023, Luxembourg has so far allocated a total financial contribution of €3.5 million through several NGOs and international organisations, including the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the backbone of the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip. At a humanitarian pledging conference for Gaza, Luxembourg pledged to provide an additional €1.5 million in assistance in 2024, of which €1 million will be donated to UNRWA.
In line with its commitments made at the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit, Luxembourg continues to devote the majority of its budget to meeting the immediate needs of populations affected by humanitarian crises, with a particular focus on forgotten and protracted crises, as well as fragile countries and regions. Thus, in 2024, Luxembourg participated in several conferences on humanitarian assistance contributions relating to humanitarian situations, among others in Sudan, Ethiopia, Syria and Gaza. In total, the announcements made within the framework of these conferences amount to €11.3 million.
During 2024, Luxembourg also made the services of the emergency.lu satellite communication platform available as part of several missions. Thus, at the beginning of the year, at the request of OCHA and within the framework of the International Humanitarian Partnership, an agent from the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Defence, Cooperation and Foreign Trade and four volunteers from the Humanitarian Intervention Team (HIT) of the CGDIS installed prefabricated containers as well as two generators and an emergency.lu antenna in the town of Farchana in Chad in order to support humanitarian actors in the region.
Following the damage caused by Hurricane Beryl that hit the Caribbean in early July, Luxembourg also responded favourably to a request for international assistance from OCHA to support the affected populations in the islands of Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The Luxembourg government dispatched a member of the HIT to participate in the recovery efforts, as part of OCHA's UNDAC (United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination) team. Two other HIT members were deployed to the affected areas to support the UNDAC team with logistical and technical means, including the emergency.lu satellite communication platform.
During 2024, Luxembourg Humanitarian Action continued to provide telecommunications services in support of humanitarian organisations in Niger, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Chad, Venezuela, Panama and Syria, at the request of the World Food Programme (WFP), the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and UNICEF.
Overall, in 2024, Luxembourg has so far provided humanitarian assistance in 22 countries for a total amount of almost €55.4 million.
An accomplished chairmanship of the OCHA Donor Support Group
Luxembourg assumed the chairmanship of the OCHA Donor Support Group between July 2023 and June 2024. OCHA's mission is to on the mobilisation and coordination of an effective and principled humanitarian response in partnership with national and international actors with the aim of alleviating human suffering in disasters and emergencies.
During its presidency, Luxembourg supported OCHA's efforts to establish a more people-centred and context-specific humanitarian system, as well as a more efficient and less bureaucratic system. The Luxembourg presidency also focused on OCHA's role in the humanitarian system's response to internally displaced persons, as well as on better coordination and transition between humanitarian and development cooperation efforts. The presidency concluded with a high-level meeting of the ODSG in Luxembourg, in the presence of Joyce Msuya, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Acting Emergency Relief Coordinator.
The urgent need for greater respect for international humanitarian law
The Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols are at the heart of international humanitarian law (IHL), the body of international law that governs the conduct of armed conflict and seeks to limit its effects.
International humanitarian law therefore includes rules that, in times of armed conflict, aim to protect people who are not or no longer taking a direct part in hostilities as well as essential infrastructure such as hospitals, and to restrict means and methods of warfare in order to reduce human suffering.
While 2023 was the deadliest year on record for humanitarian workers, with a total of 280 humanitarian casualties, 2024 is set to be even worse. In Gaza alone, more than 280 humanitarian workers have been killed since October 2023, already surpassing the overall death toll from the previous year. These facts highlight the urgency for the international community to step up its efforts to protect humanitarian actors and the people they serve.
In response to this situation, Luxembourg continues to support partners such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and activities aimed at strengthening respect for international humanitarian law and preserving a safe space for humanitarian action based on the principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence in order to alleviate human suffering and ensure the effectiveness of humanitarian assistance. This echoes one of the six strategic objectives of Luxembourg Humanitarian Action, which is to promote respect for international humanitarian law.
In addition, through its advocacy work in international fora, such as the United Nations Security Council, the United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Council, Luxembourg strives in humanitarian diplomacy to continue to advocate for respect for IHL and the protection of civilians in armed conflicts. This includes the protection of humanitarian and medical personnel, the protection of children and the fight against impunity for sexual and gender-based violence in armed conflicts as well as the application of IHL to cyberspace. Furthermore, Luxembourg strives to advocate for the prevention of any potential negative impact of sanctions on humanitarian activities.
