SYRIAN CRISIS AND ITS EFFECTS ON MEDICAL COMMUNITY

Abstract

The Syrian conflict is a civil war complicated by brutal violence where neither side has any regard for civilian casualties, nor does it respect the protected status of health personnel and facilities resulting in near complete deterioration of the healthcare system in the affected areas. There is growing shortage of medical supplies and skilled health professionals along with outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases and the inability to adequately treat chronic and non-communicable illnesses. The humanitarian situation has worsened in Syria with intensified fighting, high levels of violence, widespread disregard for the rules of international laws and gross human rights abuses committed by all parties. The active conflict is increasingly hindering the delivery of humanitarian aid especially in Northern Syria where supply roads are disrupted or closed and the humanitarian organizations have been forced to downscale or suspend operations in several areas due to insecurity. Civilians continue to be the primary victims of the conflict. Rape and sexual violence, enforced disappearance, forcible displacement, recruitment of child soldiers, summary executions and deliberate shelling of civilian targets have become a common place. Health facilities have been seriously affected in Syria amidst the bombings and destruction both by the governmental and opposition forces. Medical problems include not only those atrocities incurred during the fighting but also injuries that occurred while fleeing out of the country. Seventy-five percent of Syrian refugees are women and children, and 716,492 are women and girls of reproductive age. In the camp setting, rape, prostitution and underage forced marriages are rampant. Hundreds of women and girls have been sold under the guise of “temporary marriage.” If the international community does not rise to stop the attacks on medical professionals and infra¬structure, civilians will continue to suffer and die. In addition, lasting peace cannot be achieved unless the perpetrators of these crimes are held accountable. The effects of these violations and absence of accountability will go far beyond Syria. The longer the international community fails to enforce humanitarian laws, the greater are the chances that these violations will become the “new normal” in armed conflicts around the world, eroding the long-standing norm of medical neutrality. Left unchecked, attacks on medical care will become a standard weapon of war. The United Nations should mobilize a peace keeping force in Syria to implement International Humanitarian Laws for protecting civilians, health care workers and to prevent the targeting of hospitals and other health facilities.