Responding to attacks on health care

Health care is under attack. The sanctity of health care, the right to health, and International Humanitarian Law are threatened. Such attacks deprive people of urgently needed care, endanger health care providers, and undermine health systems.

In 2012, World Health Assembly Resolution 65.20 was adopted, which requested WHO to provide leadership at the global level in collecting and reporting information on attacks on health care. WHO subsequently created the Attacks on Health Care initiative to systematically collect evidence on attacks on health care, to advocate for the end of such attacks, and to promote best practices for safeguarding health care from attacks.

Evidence of attacks

The Attacks on Health Care initiative collects evidence through two main work streams: primary data collection in near real time through WHO country offices and partners on the ground using the Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care (SSA), and secondary data monitoring at the global level, which is published quarterly. The secondary data complements the primary data collection in countries where primary data collection is not yet fully implemented.