Health workers are supposed to save lives and health facilities are supposed to be safe places for health and healing. They’re protected by the rules of war, but are still being attacked.
The humanitarian crisis in eastern Aleppo is tragic but not unimaginable or surprising—it is the result of years of inaction by the international community, writes Physicians for Human Rights researcher Elise Baker.
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel reports on the increasing number of attacks against personnel and transport teams by Israeli Army and Border Police in Israel and Palestine and the Israeli authorities dismissal or delay in investigating these occurrences.
Where there is pain, you will always find healers. And those healers should not be targets for attacks in times of war or at peaceful protests. National Nurses United condemns reports of medics specifically targeted for arrest and attack in North Dakota.
Coalition Chair Leonard Rubenstein recommends the UN Security Council take three immediate actions to protect health workers and services and implement its resolution from May 2016. The Council will hold a briefing on the resolution on September 28. After the recent, horrific attacks in Syria, the credibility of the Council is at stake.
Honoring #WorldHumanitarianDay, we are reminded that the majority of the humanitarian work force is comprised of local workers, who face tremendous risks when providing assistance. Investments in the humanitarian system, including health workers, should reflect this reality in order to be more cost-effective.
We know very little about what happened to Sister Veronika Rackova, a physician and Catholic nun who was loved by her community in Yei, South Sudan. We know that someone shot at Sister Veronika’s ambulance and she died four days later. She was one of more than a thousand people killed in the last 15 months as a result of attacks on health care.