TABLE OF CONTENTS

RECOMMENDATIONS
ACTIONS TAKEN TO DATE TO
ADDRESS ATTACKS ON HEALTH
SERVICES
When the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition began
to promote awareness of the severity of this crisis in
2012, few members of the general public, aid agencies,
and other stakeholders were fully aware of the extent of
assaults on health care. Today, as a result of the work of
the coalition, and colleague organizations including the
International Committee of the Red Cross and MSF, as
well as states that have taken leadership on the problem,
no person or state can claim ignorance of the issue.
The international community has taken some steps to
respond. In 2014, for example, the UN General Assembly
reinforced norms prohibiting attacks and interference with
health care in all circumstances, and called for specific
preventive measures by states. In 2015, the World Health
Organization (WHO) completed a pilot project to collect
data on incidents of attacks on health services. In 2011,
the UN Security Council provided the Secretary-General’s
Special Representative on Children in Armed Conflict with
greater authority to promote accountability for parties
in conflict that engage in recurrent attacks on health
facilities and personnel. The UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights (OHCHR) has clarified the applicability of
international human rights law to attacks on health care
facilities and staff.
laws, train their militaries and security forces in the
requirements of international law, collect data, engage in
measures to prevent violations, and investigate violations
that take place. It demands an end to impunity, including
criminal prosecution where warranted. It calls upon the
Secretary-General to report violations in briefings to the
council on country situations and in other reports relating
to the protection of civilians, including recording specific
acts of violence against health facilities and personnel
and remedial actions and accountability measures taken.
Finally, it asks the Secretary-General to advise the Security
Council on measures being taken to prevent attacks and
ensure accountability.
Progress has been made in terms of awareness of—and, to
a certain extent, global reaction to—this crisis. But much
more action is urgently needed.
On May 3, 2016, the UN Security Council passed a
resolution specifically addressing attacks on health
facilities, health workers, ambulances, and patients. The
resolution reaffirms principles of international human
rights and humanitarian law that provide health services
immunity from attack and demands that states and armed
groups comply with their provisions. It reaffirms, too, that
health workers should never be punished for following
their ethical obligations to provide care, no matter the
identity or affiliation of the patient. It calls on states to
reform their domestic
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