Researching the Impact of
Attacks on Healthcare

A multi-institution and interdisciplinary research programme to improve our understanding of the immediate, long-term, and wider impacts of attacks on healthcare on populations in contexts that have experienced armed conflict. Funded by the UK government.

Attacks against healthcare in armed conflict, including violence, access constraints, and insecurity, represent a major threat to health. In May 2016, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2286 demanding an end to impunity for those responsible for attacks on healthcare and calling for respect for international law on the part of all warring parties. Gathering evidence about the attacks themselves has and continues to be crucial in raising awareness of this issue.

The impact of attacks against healthcare in armed conflict is an intractable and priority knowledge gap despite multiple initiatives that have improved data collection about these attacks. Better understanding could help promote the resilience of health programs, enable more effective mitigation measures, inform accountability mechanisms, and advance advocacy efforts.

In 2019 there were at least 1,200 incidents of violence and threats to health workers, facilities, and transport in 20 countries. The contexts with the highest reported number of incidents are Democratic Republic of Congo, the occupied Palestinian Territories, Syria, and Afghanistan. *SHCC Data 2019

The aim of the RIAH project is to contribute to the evidence base by capturing more fully the nature, frequency, and scale of attacks on healthcare in conflict and to improve the methodologies employed to measure the impact of the problem. Our approach is to build evidence over time by generating in-depth case studies in order to highlight the nature and scale of attacks, and to develop a narrative that illustrates the impact of attacks in compelling ways. In doing so we expect to enable policy and decision makers to make more informed policy and advocacy decisions to respond to and prevent attacks, and to help mitigate their effects.

Incidents in 2019 resulted in the death of 151 Health Workers in 2019 in 18 different countries. *SHCC Data 2019

Swipe Next Part

News

New Blog Post

RIAH PI Larissa Fast summarises our recent article on using data to create change in this “ICTs for Development” blog post.

Report Published for the IPI

RIAH Researcher Rohini Haar collaborated on a recently published report for the International Peace Institute on improving data collection on attacks on healthcare. Click for the full report.

Report published: Crisis in Afghanistan

RIAH Co-I, Prof Rubenstein, along with other colleagues at Hopkins recently wrote and published this important report on the maternal and child health crisis facing Afghanistan. Click for the full report.

Conference Presentation

Co-Investigator Bertrand Taithe presented on Intimacy and the
Gendering of War: Women’s experiences of insurgency war (1996-2006) in Nepal. Click to see the full conference programme.

Publication: Joint Health Staff Survey in South Sudan

RIAH partners Insecurity Insight collaborated on this study which aims to identify incidents of violence as experienced by health care staff since 2021 and to better understand health workers perspectives on causes, impact and prevention and response.

Event: Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks – Attacks During a Pandemic

On 11th May 2022 Insecurity Insight and RIAH co-hosted a session at the Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks giving a practical view on the principles of risk sharing.

Op-Ed Published in Mother Jones

RIAH Consortium member Leonard Rubenstein recently published ‘Russia Has a Long, Cruel History of Attacking Hospitals. Maybe This Time Its Leaders Will Be Prosecuted’

Myanmar – One Year of Targeted Violence against Health Care

Consortium partners Insecurity Insight publish a special report on violence against healthcare in Myanmar – one year on from the military coup.

Syrian Civil War Publication

Consortium members Rohini Haar and Len Rubenstein, along with others, authored this paper giving an overview of attacks against civilian infrastructure during the Syrian civil war 2012–2018.

Afghanistan needs international support. But what kind?

Paper written by RIAH consortium members Karl Blanchet and Bertrand Taithe is published in The New Humanitarian, 13th September 2021

New Blog Post

RIAH PI Larissa Fast summarises our recent article on using data to create change in this “ICTs for Development” blog post.

Report Published for the IPI

RIAH Researcher Rohini Haar collaborated on a recently published report for the International Peace Institute on improving data collection on attacks on healthcare. Click for the full report.

Report published: Crisis in Afghanistan

Conference Presentation

Co-Investigator Bertrand Taithe presented on Intimacy and the
Gendering of War: Women’s experiences of insurgency war (1996-2006) in Nepal. Click to see the full conference programme.

Publication: Joint Health Staff Survey in South Sudan

Event: Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks – Attacks During a Pandemic

On 11th May 2022 Insecurity Insight and RIAH co-hosted a session at the Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks giving a practical view on the principles of risk sharing.

Op-Ed Published in Mother Jones

RIAH Consortium member Leonard Rubenstein recently published ‘Russia Has a Long, Cruel History of Attacking Hospitals. Maybe This Time Its Leaders Will Be Prosecuted’

Myanmar – One Year of Targeted Violence against Health Care

Consortium partners Insecurity Insight publish a special report on violence against healthcare in Myanmar – one year on from the military coup.

Syrian Civil War Publication

Consortium members Rohini Haar and Len Rubenstein, along with others, authored this paper giving an overview of attacks against civilian infrastructure during the Syrian civil war 2012–2018.

Afghanistan needs international support. But what kind?

Paper written by RIAH consortium members Karl Blanchet and Bertrand Taithe is published in The New Humanitarian, 13th September 2021

Our Research

The RIAH Consortium have produced the following publications and reports

RIAH Research Brief 01/2023

‘Gendered health impacts of civil war in Nepal’: The latest in a series of briefs intended to make findings from our research available to a broader audience.

Afghanistan Interview Guides

Here we provide the interview guides used in our Afghanistan case study “Assessing the impact of attacks on healthcare on health workers in Afghanistan”.

Using Data to Create Change? Interrogating the Role of Data in Ending Attacks on Healthcare

RIAH Researchers Prof Larissa Fast and Dr Roisin Read published a new paper in which they investigate the (non-straightforward) relationship between data, action and change processes.

Myanmar – May 2022 Update

This report gives an update on violence against or obstruction of healthcare in Myanmar as of May 2022.

SHCC Report 2021

As a part of our data collection on instances of attacks, partners at SHCC produce an annual report on violence against health workers, facilities, and transport in conflict areas around the world.

Ukraine monitoring May 2022 onwards

The latest data on incidents in Ukraine can now be seen on the Project Data page of our website where there are also links to the dataset, interactive map, and PDFs of the latest figures.

Ukraine – 05 April Update

This report updates the figures on incidents in Ukraine up until 05 April 2022 based on Insecurity Insight data. The report analyses 108 reported incidents for which we have details to provide analysis.

Ukraine – 25 March Update

This report updates the figures on incidents in Ukraine up until 21 March 2022 based on Insecurity Insight data. The report analyses 83 reported incidents for which we have details to provide analysis.

Ukraine – 12 March Update

This report updates the figures on incidents in Ukraine up until 12 March 2022. It includes statements of concern from a number of medical organisations.

Sudan – 28 Feb Update

This report records the incidents that Insecurity Insight has documented between 26 January – 28 February 2022.

RIAH Research Brief 01/2023

‘Gendered health impacts of civil war in Nepal’: The latest in a series of briefs intended to make findings from our research available to a broader audience.

Afghanistan Interview Guides

Here we provide the interview guides used in our Afghanistan case study “Assessing the impact of attacks on healthcare on health workers in Afghanistan”.

Using Data to Create Change? Interrogating the Role of Data in Ending Attacks on Healthcare

RIAH Researchers Prof Larissa Fast and Dr Roisin Read published a new paper in which they investigate the (non-straightforward) relationship between data, action and change processes.

Myanmar – May 2022 Update

This report gives an update on violence against or obstruction of healthcare in Myanmar as of May 2022.

SHCC Report 2021

As a part of our data collection on instances of attacks, partners at SHCC produce an annual report on violence against health workers, facilities, and transport in conflict areas around the world.

Ukraine monitoring May 2022 onwards

The latest data on incidents in Ukraine can now be seen on the Project Data page of our website where there are also links to the dataset, interactive map, and PDFs of the latest figures.

Ukraine – 05 April Update

Ukraine – 25 March Update

Ukraine – 12 March Update

This report updates the figures on incidents in Ukraine up until 12 March 2022. It includes statements of concern from a number of medical organisations.

Sudan – 28 Feb Update

This report records the incidents that Insecurity Insight has documented between 26 January – 28 February 2022.

Consortium

Our group is comprised of leading academics and data experts. We are an interdisciplinary group of researchers including social scientists, epidemiologists, historians, and experts in international relations, global health and law.

Researching the Impact ofAttacks on Healthcare

News

Our Research

Consortium

Researching the Impact of
Attacks on Healthcare