Event information

24 November 2016, 12:15-13:30

Downloads

Flyer >

Violence Against Healthcare and Humanitarian Workers

Geneva Academy Talks

Yemen, MSF hospital destroyed by bombing Yemen, MSF hospital destroyed by bombing

Violence against health care facilities and humanitarian workers remains a recurring and preoccupying issue in today’s world.

Paradoxically, this takes place within a well-accepted framework of protection of health care facilities and medical or humanitarian personnel under international humanitarian law (IHL), which rules and principles are not contested either by states or non-state armed groups.

This IHL Talk, organized with the support of the ICRC, aims at reflecting on the reasons why health care and humanitarian workers are being targeted despite their protection under IHL and what policy tools can be elaborated to implement and ensure better respect of the law by the different parties in armed conflicts.

Moderation

Imogen Foulkes, BBC Geneva Correspondent

Panelists

Babak Ali Naraghi, Head of Health Care in Danger Project, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

Robert Kolb, Professor of Public International Law, University of Geneva and Geneva Academy

Caroline Abu-Sada, Director of the Research Unit on Humanitarian Stakes and Practices (UREPH), MSF Switzerland

About IHL Talks

The IHL Talks are a new series of events, hosted by the Geneva Academy, on international humanitarian law and current humanitarian topics. Every two months at lunchtime, academic experts, practitioners, policy makers and journalists discuss burning humanitarian issues and their regulation under international law.

 Video

Violence Against Healthcare and Humanitarian Workers

Violence against health care facilities and humanitarian workers remains a recurring and preoccupying issue in today’s world.

Paradoxically, this takes place within a well-accepted framework of protection of health care facilities and medical or humanitarian personnel under international humanitarian law (IHL), which rules and principles are not contested either by states or non-state armed groups.

This IHL Talk, organized with the support of the ICRC, aimed at reflecting on the reasons why health care and humanitarian workers are being targeted despite their protection under IHL and what policy tools can be elaborated to implement and ensure better respect of the law by the different parties in armed conflicts.

MORE ON THIS THEMATIC AREA

Mô Bleeker News

UNSG Special Adviser Mô Bleeker Becomes Senior Fellow at the Geneva Academy

15 April 2025

Mô Bleeker, UNSG Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect, shares how her work as Senior Fellow at the Geneva Academy contributes to our shared goals.

Read more

A general view of participants during of the 33nd ordinary session of the Human Rights Council. Training

The Universal Periodic Review and the UN Human Rights System: Raising the Bar on Accountability

10-14 November 2025

This training course will explore the origin and evolution of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and its functioning in Geneva and will focus on the nature of implementation of the UPR recommendations at the national level.

Read more

A session of the UN Human Rights Council Project

IHL Expert Pool

Started in January 2022

The IHL-EP works to strengthen the capacity of human rights mechanisms to incorporate IHL into their work in an efficacious and comprehensive manner. By so doing, it aims to address the normative and practical challenges that human rights bodies encounter when dealing with cases in which IHL applies.

Read more

George Floyd protest in Washington D.C. Project

Promoting and Protecting the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association and Civic Space Worldwide

Started in June 2020

This project aims at providing support to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association Clément Voulé by addressing emerging issues affecting civic space and eveloping tools and materials allowing various stakeholders to promote and defend civic space.

Read more

Cover of the 2023 Geneva Academy Annual Report Publication

Annual Report 2024

published on July 2025

Read more