Citation

Hakki L, Stover E, Haar RJ. Int. Rev. Red Cross (1999) 2020; 102(915): 1201-1226.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, International Committee of the Red Cross, Publisher Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1017/S1816383121000382

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

When hospitals are damaged or destroyed in armed conflict, the loss is far greater than the physical structures: safe spaces are lost, health outcomes worsen and trust in health institutions is undermined. Despite the legal protections afforded to medical units under international humanitarian law (IHL), attacks on hospitals are a recurring problem in armed conflict. In 2019, the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition documented more than 1,203 incidents of violence against medical facilities, transports, personnel and patients in twenty countries. This article examines investigations of four post-Second World War incidents of attacks on hospitals in armed conflicts in Vietnam, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Palestine and Afghanistan, the role public advocacy campaigns played in bringing about these investigations, and how national and international authorities can work together to promote greater accountability for violations of IHL.

Language: en

Keywords

accountability; Afghanistan; armed conflict; attacks on hospitals; Bosnia; Geneva Conventions; hospitals; international humanitarian law; Kunduz; laws of war; medical neutrality; Palestine; protection; Vietnam; violence against health care; war