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Abstract
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Healthcare workers must be allowed to move freely and humanitarian agencies granted access to those in need of aid, argues Elly Nott
For anyone who has paid attention to the Syrian conflict over the past 11 years, there was a grim predictability about the news that Russian cluster munitions had killed civilians, injured healthcare workers, and damaged a hospital and an ambulance on the first day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.1
Human Rights Watch has documented the use of cluster munitions--weapons that scatter large numbers of explosive submunitions over a wide area--by Russian and Syrian forces in Idlib governorate, Syria.2 They have described how the "nature and scale of the airstrikes and ground attacks on civilians committed by the Syrian-Russian alliance during the Idlib offensive in 2019 to 2020 may amount to crimes against humanity."3
Now, Russia appears to be pursuing military tactics honed in Syria in its assault on Ukraine, including indiscriminate bombing and besiegement of civilian areas, use of paramilitary forces, and disinformation campaigns. The assault on health has been one of the most striking features of the Syrian conflict. One of the most authoritative investigations was the Lancet-American University of Beirut Commission on Syria, which used the term "weaponisation" to describe the strategy of violently depriving people of the healthcare they need at the cost of hundreds of healthcare workers being killed, incarcerated, or tortured and scores of healthcare facilities being attacked.4
A UN General Assembly Human Rights Council Report in 2015 spoke of Syrian government forces instrumentalising the basic needs of civilians, including access to medical care, "as part of a military strategy to… punish those perceived to be affiliated with armed groups."5
In this assault on health, the Syrian regime has been ably assisted by the Russian government. Despite International Humanitarian Law protecting medical personnel and facilities in conflict, multiple investigations by Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights, and the New York Times have found that the Russian Air Force has repeatedly bombed hospitals in Syria.678 Physicians for Human Rights estimate that more than 923 healthcare workers have been killed directly during the conflict, with more than 90% of them killed by the Syrian government and its allies--including Russia.9
In 2020, Russia abandoned any pretext of respect for the Geneva Conventions when it quit the UN deconfliction arrangement, which sought to protect hospitals and the distribution of humanitarian aid...
Language: en |