The 19th of August marks the World Humanitarian Day, which is designated by the United Nations (UN) to honour international humanitarian aid workers who were killed or injured in the cause of of duty.

The 19th of August marks the World Humanitarian Day, which is designated by the United Nations (UN) to honour international humanitarian aid workers who were killed or injured in the cause of of duty. By commemorating this day, the UN wishes to draw public attention to humanitarian aid and to get more support from countries. The first World Humanitarian Day was marked in 2009, on the sixth anniversary of the bombing at the UN headquarters in Baghdad. During this incident, 22 humanitarian workers were killed.

The European Union (and Lithuania as the EU member state) is firmly committed to foster core humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence, and to encourage to respect them.

The aid is provided without any discrimination of the victims, regardless of political, economic or military objectives. These principles aim to ensure the primary objective of humanitarian aid - to save human lives and to ease the suffering of victims, to prevent casualties and to preserve human dignity.

In order to contribute to the international efforts in managing the consequences of humanitarian crises, Lithuania also provides financial humanitarian aid to the countries that have been affected.

Since 2004, Lithuania has already provided financial aid to Georgia, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, South-East Asian region, devastated by the earthquake and tsunami (Burma/Myanmar, Indonesia), as well as Afghanistan, Haiti, China, Lebanon, Macedonia, Moldova and Ukraine. Overall aid amount is more than 2.7 million litas (about 782 thousand EUR).