Initiative lobbying UN to act to uphold the Geneva Conventions which include the protection of health workers and patients during hostilities
LONDON (AlertNet) - Doctors are urging witnesses of attacks on medical services in war zones to report incidents on a new live blog, to help protect health workers who are increasingly being targeted during conflicts.
The doctors hope that the blog will enable organisations working near the location of an attack to respond, and that it will act as a general deterrent to combatants planning assaults on medical staff, clinics and ambulances.
Reports of attacks, along with photos and video footage, could ultimately be used to help bring the perpetrators to trial for war crimes, says the International Health Protection Initiative (IHPI), which launched the blog last week.
“If you and/or your health facility and/or patients are being targeted by armed individuals, groups or gangs, please let us know immediately and send us as much information about the specific details of the attack – and its effects – as you can”, the IHPI says on its website.
The initiative comes at a time when medical workers and facilities are increasingly finding themselves the targets of both armed groups and state security forces. Examples include the shelling of hospitals in Sri Lanka and Somalia and the shooting of ambulances in Libya.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says violence against healthcare is now one of the most crucial yet overlooked humanitarian issues.
An ICRC study shows that between 2008 and mid-2011 there were 655 violent incidents against health workers in 16 countries where the organisation works. Some 733 patients and health workers were killed and 1,101 injured. Another 166 health workers were kidnapped. Many patients were denied access to care or removed from health facilities.
Professor David Southall, co-founder of the IHPI, said attacks on health workers and services were often part of generalised violence directed towards civilians to achieve a political goal such as ethnic cleansing, government destabilisation or the displacement of populations.
Some attacks were also aimed at preventing wounded fighters from receiving treatment. Others were carried out by combatants wanting to steal vehicles or drugs.
Southall, a paediatrician who has worked in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan, said the people behind attacks on healthcare were committing war crimes.
The IHPI is in talks with the International Criminal Court (ICC) on how it might help prevent violence against health workers, he added.
Health workers wanting to report attacks on the live blog can send details, photos or video to davids@doctors.org.uk or can send SMS text messages to +44 7710 674003.
The IHPI will ask international and local non-governmental organisations in the area in question if they can help and will notify the international media.
Southall stressed that the blog would be secure and would never publish the names or contact details of people reporting violence.
But doctors attending the launch raised fears that health workers could be killed if caught filming attacks. There was also concern that people might have their phones tapped or email intercepted by government officials.
The IHPI has also launched a conflict map which will incorporate details of attacks on medical workers and services.
The health initiative is a collective movement of individuals, institutions and non-governmental organisations who are lobbying the United Nations to act to uphold the Geneva Conventions which include the protection of health workers and patients during hostilities.
(Editing by Rebekah Curtis)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
