Attacks on health workers and facilities have become a feature of modern war; they are not simply committed by rogue countries or forces.

It’s time for an organized international system for reporting attacks on hospitals and health workers in armed conflicts and to hold perpetrators of such acts accountable, say PHR’s past President, Leonard Rubenstein, and Melanie Bittle in an important recent article in The Lancet. The authors have conducted a review of reporting by governments, human rights organizations and the International Committee of the Red Cross over the past 20 years, looking for incidents and descriptions of bombing and shelling of hospitals, attacks on ambulances and medical convoys, harassment, arrest, torture and killing of medical workers, and more.

In reviewing the violations of international law that these acts entail, Rubenstein and Bittle find little or no accountability for perpetration of these human rights violations and war crimes, and conclude that reporting by NGOs, UN agencies and governments is also deficient.

Disturbingly, but not surprisingly, their review identified three trends in such assaults. The authors report:

Attacks on medical functions seem to be part of a broad assault on civilians; assaults on medical functions are used to achieve a military advantage; and combatants do not respect the ethical duty of health professionals to provide care to patients irrespective of affiliation.

Given the obvious health threats for affected populations when medical care itself comes under attack, Rubenstein and Bittle call on the World Health Organization (WHO) to lead a “robust and systematic documentation of these violations, and demand accountability.” Since many, if not most, of these violations and war crimes are perpetrated by government actors, this may be a tall order for the WHO, which works largely through government ministries of health. Nonetheless, this ambitious review is most welcome to PHR and our colleagues, many of whom have documented violations of “medical neutrality” since the 1980s or sustained these outrageous attacks themselves. For two decades, PHR has probed violations of medical neutrality and advocated for protection against them – most recently in Iraq, Sri Lanka, former Yugoslavia, Chechnya, El Salvador, occupied Palestine and Kashmir. An excellent appendix attached to the Lancet article provides citations to major existing studies, including PHR’s.

PHR supports the call to the health community to speak out more vigorously when systematic attacks on patients and medical functions occur in war. It is indeed high time for a much more robust and concerted global effort to protect medical care and patients in armed conflicts.

Today ten NGOs, including Enough, Humanity United, Human Rights Watch, Save Darfur Coalition, Genocide Intervention Network, Physicians for Human Rights, American Jewish World Service, Investors Against Genocide, and i-Act/Stop Genocide Now, released a major policy paper calling on the Obama administration to apply firm benchmarks to Sudan to prevent much broader conflict. In its Sudan policy review completed in mid-October 2009, the Obama administration indicated it would regularly assess the progress of peace in Sudan—or lack thereof. But the administration has not publicly disclosed precisely what benchmarks it is applying to assess progress in Sudan, even as it begins its official review process this month and as tensions increase across Sudan.

To help bring transparency to the process by which the United States ensures strict adherence to unambiguous benchmarks, and ensure that the appropriate pressures and incentives are applied accordingly, “Clear Benchmarks For Sudan” aims to provide guidance for how officials, concerned citizens, and others in the international community can assess genuine progress toward a lasting peace in Sudan.

In addition to today’s release, Sudan Now, a coalition of Sudan advocacy groups, ran a new advertisement in the Washington Post. Click here to view the ads.

Take Action

1. As constituents who don’t have access to these high level policy officials, it’s important that we use every tool at our disposal this week to increase the pressure on these individuals. Call 1-800-GENOCIDE (1-800-436-6243) today to ask your member of Congress to contact the Deputies and ask them to implement clear benchmarks for Sudan.

2. Update your status on Facebook with the following information, urging your friends to do the same.

“This week senior U.S. Government officials will meet to review Sudan policy. Become a fan of the State Department Facebook page and publicly urge Deputy Secretary Jim Steinberg and the other deputies on the National Security Council to be firm when holding Sudan’s leading parties to their commitments to promote peace.”

3. Join our petition on Twitter, urging the Deputies to be strong on Sudan benchmarks when they meet this week.

Click here to sign the petition

In June 2009, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a landmark resolution recognizing that maternal death and injury are preventable, unacceptable and a matter of fundamental human rights.

Today, on December 10 — Human Rights Day — please join us in committing to end maternal mortality, so that women everywhere can enjoy their right to life, health, equality and non-discrimination.

PHR is a is a member of the Steering Committee of the International Initiative on Maternal Mortality and Human Rights (IIMMHR), which has issued this call to commit to end maternal mortality as a crucial human rights challenge of our time.

Learn the facts about maternal mortality and human rights and see ways that you can take action by visiting the IIMMHR at http://righttomaternalhealth.org.

Further Reading

• Deadly Delays: Maternal Mortality in Peru (PHR report)

As medical professionals responsible for the health and safety of all people, Jews and Arabs, we cannot remain silent in the face of the horrors occurring before our eyes:

On Friday, 16th of January, we will set out together, members, volunteers, and supporters of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, to accompany a convoy of food and medical supplies for the residents of the Gaza Strip.

Together, Arabs and Jews, we will express solidarity with the residents of Gaza and the south of Israel, and call for the following:

• Stop the killing of innocent people
• Stop attacking medical teams
• Stop withholding medical treatment from the wounded
• Stop shooting at aid convoys

Together we will call for an immediate ceasefire and for a political solution to end the occupation.

Bus transportation will be organized. Upon reaching the south, we will accompany the supplies vehicle on foot up to a pre-arranged point near to the Gaza Strip. There we will hold a quiet rally, after which the supplies vehicle will continue to the Crossing.

Black clothes are recommended. Medical personnel may wear white coats.

• A bus will leave Taybeh from the gas station at the northern entrance to the town at 9:00 am.
• Bus/buses will leave Tel Aviv from Arlozorov train station at 9:45 am.
• A bus will leave Jerusalem from the commercial center in front of Bank Hapoalim on French Hill at 9:45 am.
• Additional transportation may depart from Beer Sheva at 10:45 am.
• Additional meeting points scheduled for 11:00 am at Ashkelon Junction.

For details and to RSVP: call Miri,  0546995199 or email: miri [at] phr.org.il

signed:
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel