Governments, International Community Must Better Protect Health-Care Workers, Facilities

during Armed Conflict, Deputy Secretary-General Tells High-level Event

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at the high-level debate “Health Care and Violence:  the Need for Effective Prevention”, in New York today:

I thank the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), my good friend and colleague Peter Maurer, for organizing this important high-level debate.  And I thank all of you for being here during this busy week at the United Nations.

We meet at a time of grave crises around the world.  I am a mediator.  I crave and long for prevention and for urgent diplomatic action.  I am also a humanitarian and I constantly think of the imperative of helping people caught in dire emergencies and giving them a chance for a normal, decent life.

The Security Council has recognized the urgent need to protect humanitarian workers, as well as the reality that they are all too often deliberately threatened, attacked or killed.  Their facilities are being damaged and destroyed.  The toll of these crimes is terrible, going far beyond the suffering of humanitarian workers and their families.  When violence restricts humanitarian access, millions of people are affected.

I am especially disturbed by attacks against humanitarian workers as part of a frightening trend.  Civilians are increasingly targeted in armed conflict with total disregard for the most basic principles of international humanitarian law.  Elements of this appalling trend are attacks against health-care providers and their facilities.  This is one of the most serious, most complex and most neglected of the humanitarian challenges we face.

That is why I welcome the “Health Care in Danger” campaign led by ICRC.  This Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement-wide initiative aims to raise awareness and advocate for action to make sure that health care is delivered safely in armed conflict and other emergencies.  The ICRC report on "Violent Incidents Affecting the Delivery of Health Care" of April 2014 showed that local health-care providers are overwhelmingly the most affected by violence, accounting for more than 90 per cent of all cases.

These are very often the courageous nationals caught in wars on their own soil — the doctors and nurses who stay behind, the ambulance drivers who pick up the wounded, the midwives who work under the worst imaginable conditions.  They are already coping with devastation and they also face direct, cowardly attacks.  We have seen this in recent times in Somalia, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Sudan, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syria.

In Somalia, in 2013, Médecins sans Frontières suspended operations after 22 years of service as a result of attacks on their staff.  In 2012, the organization provided more than 600,000 medical interventions.  The vacuum left by their departure is huge.

In Syria, since the beginning of the conflict, Physicians for Human Rights has documented 195 attacks on medical facilities, and the deaths of 561 medical personnel.  Last month alone, [Physicians for Human Rights] reported the killing of 21 medical personnel, 17 as a result of shelling or bombing, two as a result of torture and two were executed.  The list is shameful. The health effects are tragic.

Violence makes it difficult or impossible to vaccinate children, treat the sick and wounded, help pregnant mothers survive birth, and help their babies start a life.  One act of violence that damages a hospital or kills health-care personnel has consequences for many who desperately need care, as well as for families, livelihoods and society at large.  We have to respond to this scourge.

Member States must lead in reacting to emergencies and building health systems that are resilient and stay strong in crises.  But, as is often the case, we must do this together, through joint efforts and close cooperation between Governments and local health authorities, the UN and its humanitarian agencies, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movements and non-governmental organization.

I call for five clear steps.  First, States and all of us must insist on respect for international humanitarian law.  Countries involved in conflict must honour their obligations to protect health-care personnel.  Second, States must seek accountability for violations of international humanitarian law, including attacks against medical personnel, humanitarian, transports and facilities.

Third, States must ensure that health-care delivery is never used to advance any political agenda.  States are to always respect the impartiality, neutrality and independence of humanitarian action.  Fourth, States should support OCHA’s [the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’] efforts in analysing the humanitarian impact of the use of explosive weapons with effects in populated areas, including its impact on health services.  Fifth, States should stay focused on these issues both in the Security Council and in the General Assembly.

Health-care workers are on the frontlines answering the call of human misery and human solidarity.  The very least we can do is to rally Governments and the international community to protect these brave individuals and the facilities they need to save lives.  I look forward to your thoughts and actions on how we can best achieve this urgent and compassionate objective.

* *** *

For information media • not an official record