ICRC

Everyday Violence against Health Workers Takes a Toll—on Us All

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Attacks on health care range from catastrophic to casual. At what cost?

International Red Cross Movement strongly condemns killing of Red Cross volunteers

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

The six Red Cross volunteers were taking part in a crisis meeting at a health facility in the south east of the Central African Republic on August 3, 2017. The exact circumstances are not yet clear; however, reports indicate that civilians and medical staff may also have been killed.

Pakistan: Karachi Says No to Violence against Health Care Workers

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Violence against health services and health workers in Pakistan is an all too familiar occurrence. But now an exemplary initiative—the Health Care in Danger project—is tackling the problem, one which could be replicated elsewhere in Pakistan and beyond.

Even War Must Have Limits

Monday, January 11, 2016

Dominik Stillhart, director of operations at ICRC, writes that wars have limits and those waging them must resolve to protect civilians

Stop the violence. Protect health care.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

In the last few months, a number of attacks against health workers, medical transports, and facilities have taken place in several countries, like Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen to mention a few. These incidents are taking place in countries with fragile health care systems that are already struggling to treat the numbers of people affected by the ongoing conflicts there. In some cases, the situation is made even worse by the restrictions placed on aid workers, preventing them from getting to the people who need them.

ICRC mobile surgical teams: Bringing emergency medical care across South Sudan

Friday, August 14, 2015

In June and July this year the ICRC Mobile Surgical Teams (MST) performed more than 600 emergency surgeries in South Sudan and over 6,000 since the beginning of the crisis in December 2013.

South Sudan: Patients dying after fighting compels medical staff to leave hospital

Friday, July 10, 2015

In South Sudan, a hospital in Upper Nile State supported by an ICRC surgical team was caught in the crossfire of heavy fighting in Kodok. As a direct result, two people -one of whom was a patient- were killed and 11 people injured. The hospital sustained material damage and because of the dangers of the in-close fighting, doctors and nurses left the hospital.

Safeguarding the Provision of Health Care

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

The International Confederation of the Red Cross published a new tool that provides armed groups and other interested audiences with information on relevant IHL obligations and practical measures to safeguard the provision of health care.

Health Care in Conflict: A Doctor's Perspective

Friday, May 1, 2015

Providing or seeking health care in a conflict zone is a perilous undertaking. Every year health workers are kidnapped, threatened, tortured, and killed. Hospitals and clinics are targeted and bombed. Patients are shot. In Syria alone, 187 health facilities have been attacked since March 2011, and 615 health workers were killed—141 of them by torture and execution. One doctor has made health care in conflict the center of his work.

Health Care in Danger Report: The Untold Suffering

Monday, April 20, 2015

“An airstrike destroys the paediatric and premature baby section of a hospital killing, among others, five babies and three mothers. A health-care centre occupied by security forces for days, preventing patients’ access to medical treatment. A clearly marked ambulance misused for an arrest operation. A doctor threatened not to treat wounded combatants of an armed group”. The data on these and other incidents were collected by the ICRC in 11 countries from January 2012 to December 2014 and published in a report, uncovering the untold suffering that violence against health care is causing to thousands.

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