23-24 May: World Humanitarian Summit
The news:
The European Union as the world's largest donor of humanitarian aid will play a key role at the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) taking place on 23-24 May 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey. The summit will bring together for the first time ever a wide range of stakeholders to address the current humanitarian challenges.
Discussions will aim to identify solutions to reshape the humanitarian system and more efficiently address the rapidly growing humanitarian needs. Key priorities of the EU agenda for the World Humanitarian Summit are (i) Humanitarian effectiveness (ii) Reconfirming the norms, e.g. International Humanitarian Law; (iii) Stronger humanitarian-development cooperation, in particular in contexts of forced protracted displacement.
The summit outcomes will include a Chair’s Summary, a “Commitments to Action” document and the UN Secretary General's report on the WHS. The summit aims in particular to set a strategic agenda beyond 2016 that should be translated into action by all key stakeholders after the Summit.
The background:
The World Humanitarian Summit is the culmination of a global consultation process in which the European Union has been actively involved from the start. It co-organised the preparatory European consultation, has followed all other regional consultations and has participated in the global consultations in Geneva. It has also engaged in the work-streams resulting from the Report of the UN Secretary General's, High-Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing.
The European Commission has also adopted, in September 2015, the Communication 'Towards the World Humanitarian Summit: A global partnership for principled and effective humanitarian action'. The Communication sets out the EU's strategic vision for reshaping humanitarian action ahead of the summit.
The Commission has also recently adopted the Communication "Lives in Dignity: from Aid-dependence to Self-reliance". The Communication sets out EU proposals to better support displaced people through its external action, to prevent refugees and displaced people relying only on emergency humanitarian type assistance.
The event:
The World Humanitarian Summit will be held on 23-24 May 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey.
Information on media accreditation: https://www.worldhumanitariansummit.org/media#media-accreditation-linking
The sources:
AGENDA/16/1665
Press contacts:
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-Alexandre POLACK (+32 2 299 06 77)
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-Daniel PUGLISI (+32 2 296 91 40)
General public inquiries: Europe Direct by phone 00 800 67 89 10 11 or by email