Including 21 at the hands of the Syrian and Russian Regimes
SNHR has published its periodic report documenting the violations against medics and civil defense personnel by the conflict parties in Syria for the month of July.
The report notes that government forces have been involved in bombing and targeting medical facilities since 2011 in addition to the other conflict parties that killed and arrested medics and civil defense personnel. All of this indicates a deliberate policy that only aims to shed more blood and deepen the suffering of the wounded civilians and armed men.
The report documents the killing of 25 medics and civil defense personnel in July 2016 that are distributed as follows: 12 by government forces, nine by Russian forces, three by ISIS, and one by armed opposition factions.
Furthermore, the report breaks down the details of the victims where government forces killed one doctor, two nurses, three paramedics, two civil defense personnel, and one pharmacist whereas Russian forces killed two nurses, five civil defense personnel, and two members of medical staff. Also, ISIS killed two doctors including, one woman, and one pharmacist while armed opposition factions killed one pharmacist.
The report’s high methodology for documentation relies on survivors and families’ direct accounts in addition to the process of verifying and analyzing pictures, video footages, and some medical records. However, we can’t claim that we have documented all cases in light of the ban on SNHR by government forces and some of the other armed groups.
The report emphasizes that the Syrian government has blatantly violated both the international humanitarian law and the customary international humanitarian law; particularly Article 3 of Geneva Conventions and the international humanitarian law and committed crimes that can be openly classified as war crimes when it targeted medical personnel and medical facilities as well as crimes against humanity.
The report calls on the Security Council to uphold its legal and moral responsibilities in respect to what happening in Syria, at least against medical personnel, instead of only watching the ceaseless and daily bloodbath.
Finally, the report urges international organization to send volunteers to safe areas where wounded are sent for treatment as we have recorded many cases where wounded died due to lack of medical capabilities.
