Resources

This report by Médecins du Monde France (MDM) delves into the unprecedented large number of incidents affecting health workers, facilities, and ambulances in Gaza since March 30, 2018. MDM's report presents insight into the violence health workers have suffered during the seven weeks between March 30 and May 15, based on the information provided by Palestinian health NGOs and their staff. The intention is to offer a better understanding of the incidents occurred along the border area, to frame these incidents within the different applicable legal frameworks, and to portray the consequences they have had on the overall provision of health services. Simultaneously, this report also stresses the importance of improving the safety protocols of health professionals working in Gaza and the responsibilities each actor has.

This report by the University of Essex Human Rights Centre, the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition, is the first of its kind to review laws, prosecutions, and other forms of state-inflicted violence in multiple countries against health workers for treating alleged terrorists or enemies. Of 16 countries reviewed, at least ten have laws that have been or could be used to prosecute the provision of health care to people in need as a form of supporting terrorism. The research was requested by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, Dainius Pūras.

In this new article, Rohini Haar and colleagues describe an extraordinary field-based data collection effort conducted amidst the ongoing war in Syria, spearheaded by the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) and supported by a team of mainly United States-based researchers. The resulting database records the deaths of 112 health workers and 185 patients that occurred as part of more than 200 attacks on healthcare facilities and transport vehicles in the governorates of Aleppo, Idlib, Hama, and Homs in 2016. The paper also matches the SAMS-documented events against those recorded in a separate but similar database maintained by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) using open-source methods. The SAMS–PHR overlap is substantial but not complete, suggesting that there are further events not captured by either data-gathering project.

In recognition of the brutality of today’s armed conflicts and the lack of respect for the fundamental rules of international humanitarian law, the Agenda for Humanity presented at the World Humanitarian Summit called for greater commitment and action to ensure the essential needs of affected populations are met and for full respect and protection of humanitarian and medical missions. This analytical paper prepared by the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition summarizes progress by 45 stakeholders on more than 180 commitments made at the summit. Despite positive examples, many challenges remain to ensure people in need have access to—and there is protection of—humanitarian and medical missions.

Systematic attacks on medical facilities in Syria have driven field hospitals underground, in basements, and into caves. These fortified facilities are saving the lives of health workers and patients.This report from 13 leading Syrian medical organizations, including coalition member Syrian American Medical Society, and The Syria Campaign makes an appeal for protection and support.

The October 2016 issue of the World of Irish Nursing and Midwifery journal focuses on the delivery of care in conflict zones.

Over the past few years, the frequency and severity of attacks on health workers, patients, hospitals and clinics throughout the world have increased. This report by the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition and Human Rights Watch describes recent examples of attacks on health in order to raise attention to this issue among the global health community, the human rights community, and those responsible for the attacks. The escalating level of attacks targeted against health care must be recognized as a critical human rights issue. Global and national human rights institutions should take action to ensure that practical steps are taken to protect health workers and facilities, and protect access to health care for all who need it.

This report by the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Syrian American Medical Society recounts the experiences of 27 physicians and other health workers in Syria who struggle to provide trauma care and health services to a population under assault. The goal is to offer a ground-level view of the daily experiences and insights of Syrian health workers in opposition-controlled areas. Interviews were conducted with medical personnel currently working or having recently worked in field hospitals in Aleppo, Idlib, Latakia, Hama, and Darayya in rural Damascus.

This emergency report documents and decries systematic human rights abuses in Bahrain during the February and March 2011 political unrest, and the persecution of health workers based on their knowledge of those abuses.

The consequences of the international community’s failure to protect Syrians from systematic and repeated violations of both human rights and humanitarian law have been devastating. Yet, one in particular stands out: the erosion of the long-established principle that neither militaries nor armed groups can target medical workers and the health care system for attacks. Since 2011, the Syrian government has systematically violated this principle and is using attacks on medical workers and facilities as a weapon of war.

This report from the Syrian American Medical Society presents volunteer physicians’ insights on the danger they and their colleagues faced while treating patients, performing life-saving surgeries, training personnel, and conducting assessments.

This report offers a review of the discussions that took place during a three-day conference in November 2013 that resulted in a call for action, including a global research agenda. The Center for Public Health and Human Rights of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health convened 19 experts from the fields of humanitarian practice, human rights, human security, academic research, government, and philanthropy, along with UN representatives and leaders from health professional associations, to address the problem of attacks on and interference with health care, particularly in times of armed conflict and internal disturbances. Participants met in Bellagio, Italy, and included eight individuals whose organizations are members of the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition.

This two-page brochure summarizes the mission and activities of the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition.

This film tells the story of Mirta Nubia Rosero, the only health worker in a remote village in south-western Colombia. After five decades of conflict, unexploded landmines and remnants of war lie hidden in the ground.

Patients and health workers face extraordinary risks in today’s armed conflicts and other emergencies. Part I of the International Review of the Red Cross’s thematic issue focuses on patterns of attacks against health care, based on results from health-related data collection and field studies. It also outlines the legal and ethical frameworks applicable to the provision of health care.

Designed to assist in re-establishing health services in a context of political and economic instability, this guide provides practical information and tools for rebuilding a health workforce.

In this issue of the Red Cross Red Crescent Magazine, contributors outline the global challenges of delivering health care during conflict or other situations of violence and health care after natural disasters.

This study looks at how violence affects the delivery of health care including attacks on patients, health workers, and facilities, and on medical vehicles.

This document outlines the role health workers play in areas suffering from severe crises and makes the case for investing in human resources for health as central to health system recovery and improved health outcomes.

This report evaluates the potential strengths and weaknesses of task-shifting in humanitarian relief efforts, and proposes a range of strategies to constructively integrate task-shifting into humanitarian response.

This video footage shot in Libya reveals the danger that health workers are exposed to as they treat the war-wounded close to the front line.

This video provides a brief introduction to the principle of medical neutrality, its foundation in medical ethics and international law, violations of medical neutrality, and steps that can be taken to protect and promote the principle.

This paper illustrates the process, successes, ongoing challenges, and strategies Liberia has used to increase and improve human resources for health since the end of a 14-year civil war.

This report describes the Syrian forces’ assault on the country’s medical system. The report includes new evidence of government forces denying wounded civilians medical treatment.