As large-scale US-led military operations in Iraq continue unabated,
the health situation on the ground is at breaking point. The Iraqi health infrastructure, medical doctors and
hospital staff are unable to cope with the deepening medical and humanitarian crisis. As they themselves are
often targets of harassment and attack, doctors and medical staff find it near impossible to perform their
duties as health workers.
We, health professionals and activists from around the world, cannot
remain silent while our colleagues in Iraq are facing the enormous difficulties caused by the ongoing war and
occupation of their country. As health workers, we urgently demand that all actions
that
compromise human health must be stopped at once.
We therefore:
- Express our solidarity with the courageous Iraqi health
workers who are trying to perform their duty in the most difficult conditions and render medical services to
the civilian population in need.
- Condemn the attacks on medical facilities, and the killing
and harassment of health personnel and academics.
- Call on the US and Iraqi authorities to respect the Geneva
Conventions and other relevant instruments of international law regarding the protection of medical personnel
and facilities.
- Ask international and Iraqi health and human rights
institutions and agencies to conduct an independent investigation of violations of the right to health care in
Iraq.
- Stress that from a public health point of view, a swift end
to occupation, with the withdrawal of all foreign troops, appears to be a major requirement.
Categories and some concrete examples of violations of the right to health care in Iraq
Initial list of signatories (15 November 2005):
Dr. Bert De Belder,
coordinator Medical Aid for the Third World, Belgium
Hans von Sponeck,
Former UN Assistant Secretary General & Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, 1998-2000, Germany
Dr. Dahlia Wasfi, M.D.,
Global Exchange, USA
Dr. Yasmine Wasfi, M.D.,
Ph.D., USA
Ellen Catalinotto,
midwife, USA
Dr. Geert Van Moorter,
Medical Aid for the Third World, Belgium
Dr. Colette Moulaert,
Medical Aid for the Third World, Belgium
Prof. Em. François Houtart,
World Forum for Alternatives, BRussells Tribunal, Belgium
Prof. Lieven De Cauter,
Philosopher, BRussells Tribunal, Belgium
Dirk Adriaensens, BRussells
Tribunal and coordinator SOS Iraq, Belgium
Hana Al Bayaty, filmmaker / journalist, BRussells
Tribunal- Iraq / Egypt / France
Carlos Varea,
Campaña Estatal contra la Ocupación y por la Soberanía de Iraq (CEOSI), Spain
Eman Ahmed Khammas, Former co-director of
Occupation Watch - Journalist - translator - Iraq
Corinne Kumar (Secretary General of
El Taller International - Tunesia / India)
Abdul Ilah Al-Bayaty,
writer, Iraq/France
Haifa Zangana, novelist,
Iraq/UK
Sami Ramadani (Senior
lecturer in sociology at London Metropolitan University - Iraq / UK)
Karen Parker, lawyer,
Association of Humanitarian Lawyers, USA
Niloufer Bhagwat (Vice
President of Indian Lawyers Association - Mumbai / India)
Amy
Bartholomew (Law professor - Canada)
Jeffrey Blankfort,
BRussells Tribunal, San
Francisco, USA
Joachim Guilliard,
journalist, anti-war movement, Germany
Sara Flounders, co-coordinator, International
Action Center, USA
Gabriele Zamparini, independent filmmaker -
Italy/UK
Larry Everest, author Oil, Power & Empire:
Iraq and the US Global Agenda, USA
Sigyn
Meder (Anti-war movement - Sweden)
Inge Van
De Merlen, BRussells Tribunal, Belgium
Prof. Pierre Klein,
Professor International Law, U.L. Bruxelles, Belgium
*
Click here for more complete list
To sign this statement,
please mail to
info@brusselstribunal.org, with the subject heading "health statement". Please mention your name,
function, organisation and country.
Categories and some concrete examples of violations of the right to health care in Iraq
A. Attacks on and military occupation of hospitals and other
medical facilities
-
The occupation of Fallujah Hospital, on 7 November 2004, is the most prominent example. Not only were the
hospital staff and all patients arrested, but the internal central clinic of the hospital was bombed, killing
patients and two doctors.
- In the course of 2005,
hospitals in the cities of Haditha, Al-Qaim, Talafar and Ramadi were occupied and sometimes used as bases for
US and Iraqi armed forces, without providing alternative health care facilities to the people of those cities.
- In the August 2005 military offensive against Al-Qaim, the
electricity supply to Al-Qaim General Hospital was cut off. Doctors were unable to move inside the area
because of the ongoing military operation. The manager of the hospital was forced to temporarily close the
facility because of the unsafe conditions in the area.
- On 4 October 2005, US and Iraqi military forces launched an
attack on Haditha, devastating its medical facilities. The main hospital had been severely damaged already by
a previous military attack in May, with the medical store of the hospital completely burnt. US/Iraqi forces
took over the hospital for seven days.
- Early November 2005, during a
joint US/Iraqi military operation in Al-Qaim no ambulances were allowed inside the
city. The only hospital in the city is desperately lacking medicines.
These constitute violations of Article
18 of the Fourth Geneva Convention: "Civilian hospitals organized to care to the wounded and sick, infirm and
maternity cases, may in no circumstances be the object of attack, but shall at all times be respected and
protected", and of other relevant instruments and principles of human rights and
humanitarian law.
B. The
harassment, arrest and maltreatment of health workers
- On 9 November 2004, 20 doctors were killed by a US air
strike on a government clinic in the centre of Fallujah.
- On 19 July 2005, more than 30 doctors in Baghdad’s Yarmouk
Hospital went on strike, demanding that they should be able to treat the patients freely, free from the
continuous threat of Iraqi soldiers. The strike was triggered by an incident in which Iraqi soldiers burst
into the hospital’s women’s ward. When a young doctor voiced disapproval, soldiers maltreated and threatened
him.
- On 26 July 2005, members of the Iraqi National Guard
destroyed the Intensive Care Unit at Baghdad’s Medical City hospital and threatened medical staff after one of
their colleagues died despite the medical attention he had received.
- On 10 August 2005, unidentified gunmen ambushed a group of
doctors on their way from Karbala to offer assistance at hospitals west of Baghdad, killing 10 of them. Among
the victims were Dr Youssef Alewi and two of his assistants from the Karbala health department.
- On 5 October 2005, US-led forces arrested two doctors at
the main hospital in Haditha. Dr Walid Al-Obeidi, the director of Haditha General Hospital and Dr Jamil Abdul
Jabbar, the only surgeon in the Haditha area, were arrested for a week, very badly beaten and threatened.
- According to reports from the Word Health Organization,
during military operations in Al Anbar province in October 2005, medical doctors were detained and medical
facilities occupied by armed forces. According to the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq, "such actions are
contrary to international law governing armed conflict and in any event they constitute a denial of the
protection of international human rights law".
These constitute violations of Article 20 of the Fourth Geneva
Convention: "Persons regularly and solely engaged in the operation and administration of civilian hospitals,
including the personnel engaged in the search for, removal and transportation of and caring for the wounded
and sick civilians, the infirm and maternity cases, shall be respected and protected."; of Article 55:
"Medical personnel of all categories shall be allowed to carry out their duties."; and of and other relevant
instruments and principles of human rights and humanitarian law.
C. The
failure to provide adequate health services and resources, in spite of the increased patient load
- In the Baghdad area, of 11 hospitals surveyed in late 2004,
eight to eleven were in critical need of X-ray equipment, ventilators and ambulances, and all of them were
only sporadically supplied with medicines and laboratory material.
- In mid-October 2005, two days of US air attacks against
Ramadi caused heavy casualties among the city’s civilian population. "We have received the bodies of 38 people
in our hospital and among them were four children and five women," Ahmed Al-Kubaissy, a senior doctor at
Ramadi hospital said, adding that his hospital had also treated 42 injured people. Dr Al-Kubaissy said he had
run out of painkillers, but more casualties kept on arriving.
- The UN Assistance Mission in Iraq
reports that for the months of September and October 2005, according to figures released by the multinational
forces and NGOs, more than 10,000 families have been displaced due to ongoing military operations in Al Anbar
and Ninewa provinces. Displaced persons’ access to basic services has been severely hampered.
Thousands of refugee families who fled Al-Qaim arrived in small towns and villages
where there were no medical facilities and there was a shortage of health workers.
- The October 2005 offensive in Haditha took the Iraqi Red
Crescent by surprise at a time when most of its resources were deployed trying to help civilians hurt and
displaced by US military operations against Al-Qaim and Talafar. "It is a collapse and we now don’t know where
to start or finish", Red Crescent spokeswoman Ferdous Al-Abadi said.
These constitute violations of Articles 55 and 56 the Fourth
Geneva Convention: "To the fullest extent of the means available to it the Occupying Power has the duty of
ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population (… and) of ensuring and maintaining, with the
cooperation of national and local authorities, the medical and hospital establishments and services, public
health and hygiene in the occupied territory."; and of and other relevant
instruments and principles of human rights and humanitarian law.
D. The
kidnapping and assassination of health personnel and academics
- Various reports put the estimated
figure of assassinated physicians, since the start of the invasion, at anywhere between 30 and 100.
- Since the invasion of Iraq, its academe has been hit by a
series of killings, including those of a former rector, a dean and several professors of the medical faculties
of the University of Baghdad, Al-Mustansiriya University of Baghdad, the University of Basra and the
University of Al-Anbar.
- Some of the country’s most qualified specialists have been
abducted and released in exchange for ransoms ranging between 1,000 and 10,000 dollars. "The kidnapping of
doctors has risen, forcing the best practitioners to leave Iraq and settle in neighbouring countries to
protect themselves," declared Health Ministry Public Affairs Officer May Yassin in May 2004.
- Iraqi hospitals are having a hard time trying to cope with
brain drain — the migration to other countries, because of the troubled situation in Iraq, of trained and
talented personnel. "Security is causing so many doctors to leave, as are the kidnappings of doctors," said Dr
Wijdi Jalal, executive manager of the Baghdad Teaching Hospital. Wa’al Jubouri, a pharmacology student at
Baghdad University said: "Everyone is asking himself if he’ll go or stay. We just live day by day. We all want
to get out because the situation is so bad."
Examples of concrete action undertaken
against the violation of the right to health care in Iraq
-
In November 2004, the US Association of Humanitarian Lawyers (AHL) submitted a
petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS) on
behalf of "unnamed, unnumbered patients and medical staff both living and dead of the Fallujah General
Hospital and a trauma clinic against the United States of America". The Commission has authority to
investigate human rights violations committed by a member State of the OAS and to seek remedies for victims.
(See
http://www.humanlaw.org/petition.html)
-
On 4 August 2005, the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion
and Protection of Human Rights, in its 57th session, passed a resolution on the "Prohibition
of military operations directed against medical facilities, transport and
personnel entitled to protection during armed conflict". (See
http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/G05/152/43/PDF/G0515243.pdf?OpenElement)
-
The BRussells Tribunal and the Spanish State Campaign against the Occupation and
for the Sovereignty of Iraq (CEOSI) have launched the campaign 'Academics for Peace’ to protest the killing
of Iraqi academics. (See
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Academics.htm and
http://www.nodo50.org/iraq/2004-2005/docs/represion_11-11-05.html)
