Beirut: The UN Security Council on Tuesday demanded that hospitals and clinics be protected in war zones, in a resolution that draws attention to the rise in attacks on medical workers in conflicts worldwide.
Less than a week after air strikes on a hospital in the Syrian battleground city of Aleppo killed at least 30 people, the council unanimously adopted a measure that strongly condemned the targeting of health facilities and recalled that such attacks are war crimes.
French Ambassador Francois Delattre described the measure as a “major resolution” that sent a strong message that there will be “no impunity for the authors of attacks perpetrated against medical installations”.
The resolution does not break any new legal ground. But British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft stressed that it was “shining a spotlight” on the increase in attacks and serves as a reminder that hospitals, ambulances and medical workers cannot be targets in war. It was the first-ever resolution adopted by the council specifically on the need to protect medical facilities in war zones.
The resolution “demands that all parties to armed conflicts fully comply with their obligations under international law ... to ensure the protection of all medical personnel and humanitarian personnel, their means of transport and equipment, as well as hospitals and other medical facilities”.
The resolution was drafted by five non-permanent Security Council members: Egypt, Japan, Spain, New Zealand and Uruguay.
Meanwhile, on the ground, opposition fighters yesterday shelled government-held
parts of Aleppo, killing at least 12 people, as the army claimed it was repelling a wide offensive by the rebels in the country’s largest city. Activists, meanwhile, said government forces were also shelling rebel-held parts of the city, killing two people and wounding several.
Aleppo has been the scene of the worst surge in fighting in recent days, wrecking the first major ceasefire of the five-year-old civil war, sponsored by the United States and Russia, which had held since February.
Temporary truces
In an effort to revive the ceasefire, temporary local truces have been put in place in two parts of Syria, but those have not been extended to Aleppo, Syria’s largest city before the war and its biggest strategic prize now.
UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, who met US Secretary of State John Kerry in Geneva on Monday and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday, said he hoped the truce could be extended to Aleppo swiftly.
“We all hope that ... in a few hours we can relaunch the cessation of hostilities,” de Mistura said. If the truce were extended to Aleppo, peace talks could resume, he said.
Lavrov said: “The process of agreeing a ceasefire in Aleppo is being finished right now between Russian and American military personnel.” He added that he hoped it could be announced in the near future, “maybe even in the coming hours”.
