Leonard Rubenstein

Reports of More Than 1,200 Incidents of Violence Against Health Care in 2019 Demand Accountability and Concerted Global Action

Wednesday, June 10, 2020
New Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition annual report documents incidents of violence and threats against health workers, facilities, and transport in 20 conflict-affected countries and territories.

Eight Steps MEmber States Can Take to Protect Health Care

Monday, September 25, 2017
As chair of the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition, Leonard Rubenstein outlines eight concrete steps states can take now—on their own and through UN bodies—to protect health workers and the sanctity of health care. His statement was given at a UN General Assembly side event on September 22, 2017.

UNGA 72 Event: Protecting Health Care in Armed Conflict

Thursday, September 14, 2017
To advance international efforts to protect health care in conflict areas, UN Missions of Canada, the Netherlands, Spain​, and the United Kingdom in collaboration with the Lancet-American University of Beirut Commission on Syria and Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition, are organizing a side event during UNGA 72.

Ending Impunity for Attacks on Health Care: Q&A with Leonard S. Rubenstein

Monday, May 15, 2017
Intense violence against health workers persisted in 2016—and accountability for the attacks remains inadequate or non-existent. Leonard Rubenstein, chair of the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition, discusses findings in the coalition's new report documenting attacks on health in 23 countries.

Security Council Can Do More to Protect Health Care in Conflict

Tuesday, September 27, 2016
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.

Resolution Focuses on Role of UN in Protecting Health Care from Violence

Thursday, November 20, 2014
The UN Global Health and Foreign Policy Group is proposing a resolution to the UN General Assembly focused on ensuring the safety of health workers in conflict and emergency situations. Diplomatic, global health, and humanitarian communities gathered in New York on November 5 to discuss.

Medical Work in Conflict Zones Is Compromised

Friday, April 26, 2013
On April 24 Foreign Affairs published an article by Leonard S. Rubenstein, “Unhealthy Practice: Medical Work in Conflict Zones Is Compromised.” For the second time in less than six months, Rubenstein writes, polio vaccine workers in Pakistan have come under fire. For the gunmen, killing health workers has been seen as a legitimate response to a nefarious extension of Western power. For the CIA, faux vaccine campaigns have sometimes been justified as part of the war on terror. Both sides are wrong, he says: denying or providing health care should never be an instrument of statecraft.

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