Jan Egeland
Jan Egeland
Jan Egelandis a Norwegian politician, formerly of the Labour party. He has been the Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council since August 2013. He was previously the Deputy Director of Human Rights Watch and the Director of Human Rights Watch Europe. Egeland formerly served as director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and Under-Secretary-General of the UN. Egeland also holds a post as Professor II at the University of Stavanger...
NationalityNorwegian
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth12 September 1957
CountryNorway
We must be acutely aware that all that has been built up by the thousands of relief workers and hundreds of millions of dollars in donor contributions could be destroyed, and we could be on the brink of losing this huge humanitarian operation.
If we don't work together we will become a disaster within a disaster.
NATO is planning to increase its operations further, and will work closely with the Pakistan government and the United Nations in this regard.
If it continues to be so dangerous to do humanitarian work, we may not be able to sustain our operations for 2.5 million people,
The way it is now it can not continue. We need security, which we do not have. We need a government that enables us to work and does not create obstacles to our work. We need a guerrilla (force) that does not specialize in hijacking relief trucks and fighting each other and displacing new people, which has happened in the past few weeks. And we need funding.
The big non-governmental organizations, the ones with which we work all over the world, understood the value of coordination. The same cannot be said about all the newer players on the ground.
The goal of the fund is simple: to provide aid workers with funding to jump-start lifesaving relief operations .
This will help energize further the struggle to reach the earthquake stricken communities in the Himalayas.
There are issues we disagree on frankly, but we also agree on the importance of the international community to raise its profile in pursuing humanitarian principles.
Too often, aid resembles a lottery, in which a few win, but most lose, based on considerations other than need.
This time, at least, people heard about the earthquake. Many people fled inland.
We're sending around a hat now, we don't know how much is in the hat when it's coming back - in an emergency situation,
This year has really been the year of natural disasters, with nature at its worst and humanity at its best.
Based on numerous accounts, including reports from our own staff, the Janjaweed militia are primarily responsible for carrying out the attacks.