News, blog posts, and event announcements. Other websites are welcome to cross-post this material with attribution and a link to the original.
What's New
09/27/2013
IntraHealth International is cohosting the Third Global Forum on Human Resources for Health, which is sponsored by the Global Health Workforce Alliance under the patronage of the Government of Brazil, the World Health Organization, and the Pan American Health Organization. The theme is “Rising to the grand challenge of human resources for health.” IntraHealth is managing a vital subtheme of the forum: “empowering health workers.”
09/26/2013
LANKIEN, South Sudan—The wounded started arriving in the evening. A rusted-out pick-up truck dropped off four young men with gunshot wounds, two with life-threatening wounds to the abdomen and the others with leg injuries, at the 100-bed Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital here. Just hours earlier, the hospital’s team and local residents had been playing volleyball as the sun began to set on a 106-degree day.
09/25/2013
The Turkish government has engaged in unnecessary and excessive violence, used tear gas as a weapon on a massive scale, and intentionally targeted medical facilities and staff during the June demonstrations, according to a new report by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). The report discusses how Turkish authorities violated international laws while cracking down on what started as peaceful protests at the end of May over the government’s plan to raze Istanbul’s Gezi Park.
09/20/2013
When the government of Bahrain responded to peaceful protests in 2011 with a barrage of tear gas, birdshot, and other weapons, nurse Rula Al-Saffar rushed to help those in need. She saw abuse against protesters, including the use of live ammunition against a peaceful crowd and the firing of tear gas canisters at close range.
09/20/2013
In Syria, doctors have fled in droves, fearful of adding to the casualties in the country’s bloody civil war. In Pakistan, vaccinators are gunned down by militants. In Bahrain, physicians who treat protesters are thrown in jail. Despite universally recognized international law protecting medical workers in conflict situations, increasingly, the people on the front line of health care are becoming targets. At a side event of the United Nations Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva today, speakers from Turkey, Bahrain, and Pakistan described attacks on healthcare workers for providing care to politically unpopular groups, or because the workers witnessed human rights violations. Other recent attacks have targeted vaccination teams and ambulances.
09/20/2013
The United Nations Human Rights Council should strengthen documentation and accountability for the growing number of attacks on health workers, the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition, a group of human rights, health professionals and other nongovernmental groups said today. At a side event of the Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, speakers from Turkey, Bahrain, and Pakistan described attacks on healthcare workers for providing care to politically unpopular groups, or because the workers witnessed human rights violations.
09/18/2013
The Government of Norway, the Government of Switzerland, and the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition invite you to a side event at the 24th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva: Attacks on Health Systems: The Need for Action by the Human Rights Council Friday, 20 September 11h00 - 13h00, Palais des Nations Room XII
09/13/2013
The United Nations Human Rights Council produced a document, Assault on Medical Care in Syria, related to agenda item 4 at the Council’s 24th session in Geneva. “The deliberate targeting of hospitals, medical personnel and transports, the denial of access to medical care, and ill-treatment of the sick and wounded, has been one of the most alarming features of the Syrian conflict,” the document states.
09/10/2013
At the end of 2008, Dr. Dirhem Al-Qadasi, the head of the emergency room at the Science and Technology Hospital in Sana’a, a private health care facility, was stabbed to death. Those responsible for his murder are believed to be family members of an elderly man who died while at the hospital who were seeking revenge for the man’s death. According to former patients and colleagues, the doctor had a sterling reputation. News of Al-Qadasi’s death caused a media storm and popular outrage, but no one was ever tried for the doctor’s murder.
09/06/2013
The AMA Federal Council has adopted the World Medical Association’s WMA Regulations in Times of Armed Conflict and Other Situations of Violence as formal AMA policy. The Regulations outline the duties of doctors working in armed conflict and other situations of violence and address the obligations of Governments, armed forces, and others in positions of power to allow health care personnel to fulfil their ethical duties to care for the sick and wounded, and to provide protection for health care personnel and facilities such as hospitals.