What books to read on World Humanitarian Day

On the 19th August each year we celebrate World Humanitarian Day. The purpose of World Humanitarian Day is to raise awareness of the plight of civilians around the world who have become caught up in conflicts, and also honour and raise support for the humanitarian workers who risk, and sometimes lose, their lives to help.

Over 130 million people throughout the world are currently in crisis, either through war or natural disasters and are in need of humanitarian aid. The date was chosen as it marks the anniversary of the bombing of the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, an event in which the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mellothe and twenty others lost their lives in 2003.

๐Ÿ“š Climate Justice: A Man-Made Problem with a Feminist Solution by Mary Robinson

๐Ÿ“š Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit

๐Ÿ“š How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney

๐Ÿ“š Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World by Jason Hickel

๐Ÿ“š Ecological Debt: Global Warming and the Wealth of Nations by Andrew Simms

๐Ÿ“š Chasing Chaos: My Decade in and Out of Humanitarian Aid by Jessica Alexander

๐Ÿ“š Emergency Sex (And Other Desperate Measures): True Stories from a War Zone by Andrew Thomson, Heidi Postlewait and Kenneth Cain

๐Ÿ“š In the Eyes of Others: How People in Crises Perceive Humanitarian Aid by Caroline Abu-Sada

๐Ÿ“š Band-Aid for a Broken Leg: Being a Doctor with No Borders (and Other Ways to Stay Single) by Damien Brown

๐Ÿ“š The Paradoxes of Aid Work: Passionate Professionals by Silke Roth

๐Ÿ“š Doing Bad by Doing Good: Why Humanitarian Action Fails by Christopher J. Coyne

๐Ÿ“š Humanitarian Ethics: A Guide to the Morality of Aid in War and Disaster by Hugo Slim

๐Ÿ“š Governing Disasters: Engaging Local Populations in Humanitarian Relief by Shahla F Ali

Check out book recommendations for World Hunger Day, International Day of Justice or International Migrants Day!

Check outย episode 50 on being informed on climate changeย with Devi Lockwood and episode 59 on being politically responsible with Fear of Black Consciousness author Professor Lewis R. Gordon.

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Published by suswatibasu

Suswati Basu is a writer, journalist, producer and feminist activist residing in London. She has written for the Guardian, Huffington Post and the F-Word blogs, and has worked for various media outlets such as the BBC, Channel 4 and for ITV News/ITN. She currently works as a senior intelligence expert.

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