Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In 2008 the United Nations General Assembly designated 19 August as World Humanitarian Day. This was done in memory of the 22 United Nations and NGO workers who were killed on 19 August 2003 when a bomb was detonated at the UN headquarters in Baghdad. Those killed included UN Envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello, along with my close friend Jean-Selim Kanaan and other colleagues I had known in Kosovo. Jean-Selim—to whom I dedicated my first speech in this place—had worked in Africa, the Balkans and the Middle East. He spoke seven languages and wrote a book called My War Against Indifference. His wife, Laura, had just given birth to their first and only child, Mattia-Selim, three weeks before Jean-Selim died at the age of 33. His story is just one of many.

Disturbingly, there has been a significant increase in the number of attacks specifically targeting aid workers in recent years. However, humanitarian workers do not only face risks from violence and war. In January 2010 the Haiti earthquake took the lives of a great many Haitian people and also around 100 UN staff. Four of those staff were close friends with whom I had worked in Kosovo, Gaza and New York.

This morning a wonderful breakfast was held in advance of World Humanitarian Day. It was co-hosted by the UN Parliamentary Group and the UN Association of Australia and sponsored by AusAID. Guest speakers included Foreign Minister Bob Carr. This Sunday, 19 August, on World Humanitarian Day, it is appropriate that we spare some time to remember those who spend their lives—and sometimes lose their lives—helping the world's most vulnerable people on behalf of all of us.

See this speech in context