Attacks on Health Care

Health care workers and facilities are frequently attacked during armed conflict with devastating consequences. Insecurity Insight documents these attacks to improve understandings and help mitigate future risks.

Attacks on health care violate international humanitarian law. Using open source intelligence methods and contributions from aid agency partners, Insecurity Insight monitors such attacks.

Updates are available in the Monthly News Briefs and data is accessible on the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX). Incidents can also be viewed on our interactive map for global attacks on health care and the map for Ukraine covering incidents since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Our wider work is outlined below.

Ignoring Red Lines: Violence Against Health Care in Conflict: The 2022 Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition report documents almost 2,000 incidents of violence against or obstruction of access to health care in conflicts across 32 countries and territories based on data collected and analysed by Insecurity Insight. The figure marks a 45% increase compared with 2021 and the highest this decade. The report is accessible here.

Impact of Attacks on Health Care: Insecurity Insight works with the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute at the University of Manchester, UK, on the Researching the Impact of Attacks on Healthcare (RIAH) project. This aims to improve understandings of the nature, frequency, scale, and impact of attacks on health care in conflict.

Risk Management Measures: The security incident information management (SIIM) portal, an Insecurity Insight project, provides guidance and tools for aid organisations – including those involved in the provision of health care in conflict environments – to improve understandings and approaches to SIIM.

Attacks on Responses to Health Crises: Insecurity Insight monitors attacks on responses to COVID-19 and has previously documented these in relation to Ebola.

Quicklinks

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Toolkit: Evidence that Protects Health Care

Toolkit: Evidence that Protects Health Care

The Violence Against Health Care (EVAC) project has created a new Toolkit: Evidence that Protects Health Care. The resource brings together a variety of tools ranging from data collection forms to analysis frameworks, templates, case studies and more. It is a collaboration between Insecurity Insight, International Rescue Committee, The Center for Public Health and Human Rights at Johns Hopkins University and Physicians for Human Rights.

Digital Tools

Digital Tools

We collaborate with IT hubs to develop digital software that helps to identify, record, and analyse data on people in danger.

Discover more about our digital tools including the Emergency Healthcare in Insecure Settings mobile guide by clicking here.

Definitions

Definitions

What is an attack on health care?

Read about our definitions of attacks on health care by clicking here.

H2H Network

H2H Network

Insecurity Insight is a member of the H2H Network which consists of approximately 50 organisations that provide services to support other humanitarian responders.

The network supports members as they use their technical expertise and innovation to improve humanitarian programming and outcomes.