The world is beset with a constantly increasing number of crises and conflicts. In 2023, a record of 339 million people required humanitarian assistance. According to international law and principles, these victims are entitled to receive aid. 

Cees Wittebrood’s talk will not only focus on the scope and importance of humanitarian aid, but also on what could go fundamentally wrong. This is unfortunately more than what is going right. 

Humanitarian crises include both man-made and natural disasters. Their impacts are increasingly severe, linked to a number of factors, such as the changing nature of conflict, climate change, increasing competition for energy and natural resources, extreme poverty, poor governance and situations of fragility. Civilians are the main victims, often the poorest and most vulnerable, mainly living in developing countries. Humanitarian crises have led to large numbers of people being displaced either internally or as refugees in other countries. 

Humanitarian actors today face a number of major challenges. There has been an increasing tendency for International law, to be ignored or blatantly violated. The ‘humanitarian space’ that is needed to ensure access to vulnerable populations and the safety and security of humanitarian workers is constantly shrinking. 

The EU insists that the “humanitarian space” must be preserved as essential precondition for the delivery of humanitarian aid, and for the European Union (EU) and its partners to be able to get assistance and protection to crisis-hit people. They endeavor to work on the basis of neutrality, impartiality, humanity and independence. 

Cees Wittebrood, who is Dutch, is a former EU official. He retired in 2017. He was a member of cabinet to two European Commissioners, Frans Andriessen and Hans van den Broek, responsible for external relations, political cooperation, trade and enlargement. He has also been a visiting professor at the European Institute for Public Administration. Before that he held various positions at the Free University in Amsterdam, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs in The Hague and the European Commission, most notably as Ambassador at Large for the Caucasus and Central Asia and Director of Emergency Aid and Civil Protection. 

Cees holds a master’s degree in political science and economics and a bachelor degree in social and political psychology.

Image credit : Wikimedia Commons - Bambasi Refugee Camp