American University of Beirut

​​​​​​KNOWLEDGE RESOURCE PORTAL ON PROTECTING HEALTHCARE IN CONFLICT  

The development of this Portal has been made possible through support f​rom The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Peace & Human Rights Division​ of the Swiss Federal Depa​rtment of Foreign Affairs.

What is the issue​?

• Leonard Rubenstein. Perilous Medicine: The Struggle to Protect Health Care from the Violence of War (Columbia University Press) (2021) ​
  
• Ethical Principles of Health Care in Times of Armed Conflict and Other Emergencies (ICRC) (2015)
• Violence against health care Part I and Part II (International Review of the Red Cross - ICRC) (2013)
• Health Care in Danger - The responsibilities of Health-Care Personnel Working in Armed Conflicts and other Emergencies​ (ICRC) (2012)
• Health Ca​re in Danger - Making the Case (ICRC) (2011)
  
• Overview of Principles and Rules of International Humanitarian Law Applicable to Conduct of Hostilities with a Focus on Targeting of​​ Hospitals and Medical Units​ (Physicians for Human Rights) (n.d.)
  

Regional and International initiatives   

• Attacks on health care, WHO Humanitarian Health Action
  
• Attacks on health care​, WHO EMRO - Health Emergencies
• Canadians for Safe Syrian Healthcare​   ​
• Declaration of commitments to action by 13​​​​ countries: Protection of medical and humanitarian personnel (2017)
• Declaration by World Medical Association: Declaration on the protection of health care workers in situation of violence (2014)    
  
• Defenders for Medical Impartiality    ​
  
• Doctors in Danger Campaign​    
  
• Doctors under Fire​​   
  
• Group of Friends of the Protection of Civilians (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Uruguay) - Read the Group's statement during the Security Council open debate on the Protection of Civilians and Health Care in Armed Conflict​, 25 May 2017     
• Health Care in Danger (HCiD) pr​oject, ​an initiative of ICRC
• Health Workers at the Frontline​, an initiative of Dr Rita Dayoub (a Syrian doctor affiliated with the Chatham House)  
  
• ​Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition     
  

Scholarly investigations of impact of attacks on healthcare

Selected reports - Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition & partners

• ​No respite: Violence against Health Care in Conflict (2021)
• Ineffective Past, Uncertain Future: The UN Security Council’s Resolution on the Protection of Health Care: A Five-year Review of Ongoing Violence and Inaction to Stop It (2021)​
• Health workers at risk: Violence against health care​ (2020)
  
• Impunity Remains: Attacks on Health Care in 23 Countries in Conflict in 2018 (2019)
  
• The criminalization of healthcare and Appendices: Country profiles​ (2018) 
  
• Violence on the front line: Attacks on Health Care in 2017  (2018) 
  
• Impunity Must End: Attacks on Health in 23 Countries in Conflict in 2016​​ (2017)
  

Selected reports - Other  

Selected reports - Syria ​​

• Attacks on healthcare in the Syrian conflict (Abdulkarim Ekzayez, Chatham House) (2021)
  
• A Decade of Destruction: Attacks on health care in Syria​ (International Rescue Committee) (2021)
  
• The Syrian Conflict: Eight Years of Devastation and Destruction of the Health System ​(Physicians for Human Rights) (2019) 
  
• The Failure of UN Security Council Resolution 2286 in Preventing Attacks on Healthcare in Syria (Syrian American Medical Society)​ (2017)​
  
• Syrian Medical Voices from the Ground: The Ordeal of Syria’s Health​care Professionals​ (Center for Public Health and Human Rights at Johns Hopkins University & Syrian American Medical Society)​ (2015) 
  
• Syria’s Medical Community Under Assault (Physicians for Human Rights) (2015)
  
• Risking Lives to Save Lives: The Ordeal of Medical Personnel In Syria​ (Syrian American Medical Society) (2013) 
  
• Syria: Attacks on Doctors, Patients, and Hospitals​ (Physicians for Human Rights) (2011) 
  
• Syria: Health Crisis - Syrian Government Targets The Wounded and Health Workers​​ (Amnesty International) (2011)    ​
  

​Organizations reporting attacks   

• Global/regional: Amnesty International | Defenders for Medical Impartiality | Human Rights Watch | Insecurity Insight | Physicians for Human Rights | ​Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition​ | Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict​ | WHO Surveillance System of Attacks on Healthcare (SSA)         ​
  
• Syrian: Syrian American Medical Society​ | Syrian Archive​​ | Syrian Network for Human Rights (See Violations against health sector​) | Violations Documentation Center of Syria​  
  

Historical perspectives

•  Rethinking the history of Violence, Health and Care in Wartime, c. 1860-2000s​ (RIAH Consortium) (2021)
  
• Agenda​, Conference Summary