Statement by Executive Director Diene Keita on the need to protect motherhood in crises on World Humanitarian Day

Every day, we witness the courage of the millions of pregnant women and mothers who do all they can to protect new life as conflict upends their own. This unwavering commitment to nurturing the most vulnerable should compel us to do everything we can as an international community to ensure their protection, even - or especially - in the most acute and protracted of crises.

On this World Humanitarian Day, we honour the front-line aid workers and health workers who are risking - and all too often have lost - their lives while trying to safeguard these women and their babies in the world's most dangerous settings.

Last year, 350 aid workers were killed, bringing the total over the past three years to more than 1,000. This is in addition to the more than 1,400 attacks on healthcare in 2025, which killed nearly 2,000 civilians, including health workers and their patients.

In too many crisis settings, the health facilities and protection services that women depend on have come under attack precisely when they are needed most. Midwives and doctors, ambulance drivers and social workers are being detained, injured and killed while trying to save lives and care for others. UNFPA-supported healthcare facilities have been damaged, looted or destroyed in multiple locations, including Gaza, Lebanon, South Sudan, Sudan and Ukraine.

Motherhood must be protected, even in the darkest of crises. International humanitarian law must be respected, violations must be investigated, and perpetrators held to account. When sexual and reproductive health systems operate as they should, women are provided with skilled birth attendants, safe places to deliver, and emergency obstetric care, while survivors of sexual violence receive the treatment and support they need. Operational maternity wards, stable medical supply chains, and protected healthcare professionals serve as the foundation for safe maternal outcomes. Sustaining these systems is essential to preserving human life and dignity.

UNFPA remains committed to standing beside every woman and girl, every aid worker, every midwife, and every healthcare provider on the frontlines. Delivering sexual and reproductive healthcare and protection services in emergencies is not an optional add-on - it saves lives and is central to all emergency responses. I urge the world to stand with us, to protect mothers and newborns, to ensure that humanitarians and health workers have safe, unimpeded access to all who need their support, and to #ActForHumanity.