(New York) – Ten years after United Nations Safety Council Decision 2286 was adopted to guard well being care in armed battle, assaults on hospitals and healthcare staff proceed, Human Rights Watch stated at the moment.
Decision 2286, unanimously adopted on Could 3, 2016, obligates international locations to “stop and deal with” assaults on well being. A decade later, a brand new report by the Safeguarding Well being in Battle Coalition (SHCC), a world group of nongovernmental and educational organizations, together with Human Rights Watch, discovered that assaults on well being amenities and medical staff continued to happen at an alarming fee. Governments ought to shield the rule of legislation by meaningfully stopping illegal assaults and punishing these accountable.
“Decision 2286 units out clear obligations to guard healthcare staff and amenities in armed battle and to stick to worldwide legislation,” stated Julia Bleckner, senior researcher within the World Well being Initiative at Human Rights Watch. “A decade later, member states haven’t solely failed to fulfill these obligations however leaders are apparently snug flouting legal guidelines and norms. Accountability requires greater than resolutions. It requires penalties.”
Human Rights Watch has produced an online web page compiling its work on assaults on well being spanning the ten years because the adoption of the decision.
The SHCC documented 2,546 reported incidents of “assaults on well being” in 33 international locations in 2025. Of those, 936 concerned killing, kidnapping, or arresting well being or assist staff, whereas 790 affected healthcare infrastructure, together with hospitals and clinics. The coalition famous that “throughout all battle settings, assaults on well being care in 2025 induced interconnected system-wide impacts.” The coalition report additionally discovered that almost all of assaults had been carried out by state forces. On Could 7, 2026, UN Secretary-Common Antonio Guterres launched a report with related findings, highlighting that “the numerous enhance in violence towards well being care since 2016 has been pushed by State actors.”
On Could 19, representatives of UN member states and civil society teams gathered in New York to acknowledge the numerous gaps in accountability and renew their dedication to concrete actions to scale back assaults on well being care.
All governments ought to take pressing actions to adjust to worldwide legislation and the necessities specified by Decision 2286, Human Rights Watch stated. This consists of bettering knowledge assortment on assaults on and threats to well being care, integrating sensible measures to make sure respect for worldwide legislation into navy doctrine and coaching, increasing home legislation to include authorized obligations below worldwide human rights and humanitarian legislation, and limiting the sale and export of arms to identified violators. Governments ought to recurrently report on actions taken to adjust to these and different obligations below the legislation, Human Rights Watch stated.
Human Rights Watch has documented illegal assaults on well being care in battle for greater than 25 years, demonstrating their acute hurt in addition to the reverberating impression on human rights lengthy after the battle has ended.
Worldwide legislation grants particular protected standing for hospitals and different medical amenities, healthcare personnel, and medical transportation models, reminiscent of ambulances. Well being amenities, personnel, and transport models lose their protected standing provided that they’re used outdoors of their humanitarian operate to commit acts dangerous to the opposing social gathering. These assaults should be illegal if indiscriminate or disproportionate. The legislation additionally prohibits assaults on civilian infrastructure vital to the survival of the inhabitants, reminiscent of electrical energy and water installations.
Human Rights Watch has additionally reported that assaults of this nature can violate worldwide human rights legislation, particularly the proper to well being. Below the legislation, which applies throughout instances of battle alongside humanitarian legislation, states should adjust to sure core obligations that characterize the minimal important ranges of those rights, noncompliance with which can’t be justified even in instances of battle. Core minimal ranges of the proper to well being embrace nondiscriminatory entry to well being amenities, items, and providers; meals, shelter, and housing; sanitation and protected, potable water; and important medicines.
“Even in warfare, the proper to well being endures,” Bleckner stated. “The proof of assaults on well being care in battle is overwhelming. The one query is whether or not international locations will act or stay silent and permit such assaults to proceed with impunity.”
Supply: Human Rights Watch
