The New Humanitarian is an independent non-profit newsroom with a mission to put journalism at the service of people affected by humanitarian crises around the world.

The New Humanitarian puts quality, independent journalism at the service of the millions of people affected by humanitarian crises around the world. We report from the heart of conflicts and disasters to inform prevention and response.

As the trusted news source on humanitarian crises, The New Humanitarian delivers the authentic, inside story. Our reporting gives insight to policymakers, practitioners, and others who want to make the world more humane.

The New Humanitarian (formerly IRIN News) was founded by the United Nations in 1995, in the wake of the Rwandan genocide, out of the conviction that objective on-the-ground reporting of humanitarian crises could help mitigate or even prevent future disasters of that magnitude.

Almost twenty years later, The New Humanitarian became an independent non-profit news organisation, allowing us to cast a more critical eye over the multibillion-dollar emergency aid industry and draw attention to its failures at a time of unprecedented humanitarian need. As digital disinformation went global, and mainstream media retreated from many international crisis zones, our field-based, high-quality journalism filled even more of a gap. Today, The New Humanitarian is one of only a handful of newsrooms world-wide specialised in covering crises and disasters – and in holding the aid industry accountable.

It’s in this context that in 2019, we changed our name from IRIN to The New Humanitarian to signal our move from UN project to independent newsroom and our role chronicling the changing nature of – and response to – humanitarian crises.