On 23 – 24 May 2016 world leaders from government, civil society and business met in Istanbul to stand up for our common humanity and take action to prevent and reduce human suffering.

 

Many priority themes had emerged from the Summit and with recommendations for advancing the initiatives launched and commitments made at the Summit and, more broadly, in the Agenda for Humanity. The outcomes of the Summit can be found here.

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The Humanitarian Forum was invited by the Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, MrStephen O’Brien, to NGO Pre-Summit Welcome and Briefing, which was to welcome all to the Summit. Dr. Hany El Banna delivered a speech at the opening session.

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In addition to addressing the UN Humanity Agenda, Dr. Hany spoke about the importance of being realistic and how important it is to work together to move forward. Below is a synopsis from his speech:

‘Let us be optimistic but realistic.
Three years ago we didn’t have a platform, but yesterday and today we have one.
Thank you, UN. This Summit is our dream summit.
A dream to work together,
A dream to build an effective partnership between governments, Civil Society Organisations, businesses, media, academia …
A dream to speak our mind freely,
A dream to fight extremism, radicalism terrorism, and other social ills,
A dream to create a new and more inclusive humanitarian leadership,
A dream to include everyone in our humanitarian family,
A dream to end conflicts,
A dream to build the future of our children
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A dream to save humanity and build our society, together.
But we have to apologize to our children in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, DRC, South Sudan … Be sure that we will not let you down, again’.