Addressing The Ongoing Violence Against Health Care In Conflict And The Covid-19 Pandemic

From 2016 to 2020, there have been more than 4,000 incidents of violence against health facilities and personnel, including bombing, shelling, setting fire to, and looting of hospitals, kidnapping, arrests and killing of in the past five years, and attacks on emergency responders and ambulances. In 2020, additional violence was inflicted in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2016, the Security Council adopted resolution 2286, condemning such actions and calling on states to take concrete actions toward stopping the violence and holding perpetrators to account. To date, however, there has been little progress in implementing resolution 2286 or reducing the levels of violence. The Global Health Centre, Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition, the Swiss Confederation, and the Spanish Government are hosting an in-depth discussion on the status of violence against health care in conflict, particularly in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. The event will also highlight the current impediments to further action and identify strategies to address the problem at the global and national levels. SPEAKERS:

• Nora Krönig Romero, Ambassador for Global Health; Vice Director General of the Federal Office of Public Health and Head of the International Affairs Division, Swiss Confederation
• Pierre Somse, Minister of Health, Central African Republic
• Christina Wille, Director, Insecurity Insight
• Leonard Rubenstein, Chair, Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition