On April 12th, 2023, the Institute of International and Strategic Studies (IISS), Peking University (PKU) held the 61st series of lectures of the "North Pavilion Seminar". Hao Nan, founder of Zhuoming Info Aid and NCP Relief Network and Executive Vice Chairman of Technical Committee of Earthquake Response at China Association for Disaster Prevention, delivered a lecture entitled "Maintain the Bottom Line of Human Dignity—Discussion on the International Humanitarian Aid". The lecture was hosted by Lu Xiaoyu, Assistant Professor at the School of International Studies, PKU.

Mr. Hao first explained the impact of the 2023 Türkiye–Syria earthquake in quake-stricken areas. According to him, over 50,000 people were dead and nearly 200,000 houses were destroyed in the earthquake. The large affected area, complex population composition, poor infrastructure, and complicated political environment, have brought considerable challenges to international humanitarian aid. Next, Mr. Hao introduced the different measures taken by international humanitarian organizations. He mentioned that governments, NGOs, and volunteers played different roles in Türkiye and Syria's disaster-stricken areas due to their different natures, and the fundraising for Syria in the international community progressed well. He further analyzed the characteristics of the operation of the international humanitarian aid system, and pointed out key points and difficulties in the rescue work, such as mastering geographical and administrative division information, personnel and logistics coordination, cross-organizational collaboration, and needs assessment. When summing up experiences, Mr. Hao pointed out that like Türkiye and South Korea, China is also a country that has shifted from an aid recipient to an emerging aid provider in recent years. After the earthquake, almost all of the registered civil rescue teams in China with the international response capabilities arrived in Türkiye. The participation of so many civil rescue organizations is very unique in the world, and the Blue Sky Rescue team was even in charge of the rescue work in Malatya, Türkiye. This is a breakthrough for NGOs work in humanitarian aid worldwide; Chinese civil rescue organizations have greater development needs and potential due to their voluntariness nature.

During the Q&A session, Mr. Hao had deep discussions with the faculty and students  on issues such as challenges faced by Chinese civil rescue organizations, and the prospect, value and significance of international humanitarian aid. (Contributed by: Wang Runtan)

Editor: Li Fangqi