Nursing unions call on the UK to support prosecutions for war crimes against health workers | Global health
Senior nursing and medical leaders urged to prioritize war crimes targeting health workers, patients and health facilities in international criminal prosecution.
The number of health workers killed annually in conflicts has jumped five-fold in less than a decade, and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the British Medical Association (BMA) have called on the UK government to take action to support full prosecutions of perpetrators by the ICC.
There were 175 deaths of health workers in conflict in 2016, rising to 932 in 2024, according to a new report by the RCN’s International Academy of Nursing, using data from Insecurity Insights. The data is subject to a lengthy scrutiny process and is likely to rise – for example, its initial 2023 report included 143 health worker deaths in Palestine, a number that had risen to 414 by the time of their 2024 report.
Deaths in Palestine, Ukraine and Lebanon have been on the rise since 2023, and there have been corresponding increases in the arrest of health workers and attacks on health facilities. There have already been more than 1,200 attacks on health workers recorded by Insecurity Insight this year, and the total is expected to rise due to reporting lags.
Professor Nicola Ranger, general secretary and chief executive of the RCN, said: “Any killing of any member of nursing staff, in any context or for any reason, is absolutely abhorrent.”
“The UK government must do everything it can to support upholding international law, including supporting the International Criminal Court to investigate and prosecute those responsible.”
Dr Andrew Green, Chair of the British Medical Association Ethics Committee, said: “When states and armed groups violate international humanitarian law by launching attacks on the wounded and sick, health facilities and health workers, they must be held to account, and governments around the world, including our own, have a role to play in this process.”
Attacks on health systems have left deep and lasting scars on communities, putting them under enormous pressure as they struggle to deal with widespread civilian casualties and escalating public health needs, Ranger said. It also called for UK foreign aid spending to be restored to 0.7% of GDP “to support rebuilding devastated health systems around the world”.
report, Care in the midst of chaosIt includes the testimony of six nurses and midwives working in Afghanistan, Gaza, Lebanon, and Myanmar.
Asman, a nurse from Afghanistan, said she and her colleagues faced intimidation and were unable to provide high-quality care.
“Most villages have no hospitals, and patients die in ambulances because there is no emergency care, no oxygen, and no nurses,” she said. “We are threatened by caregivers: ‘If something happens to my child, my husband is a Taliban, and he will come after you.’ How can we work safely in this way?
Omar, a nurse from Gaza, where more than 1,200 health care workers have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in the past two years, said staff at his hospital are working around the clock “to care for large numbers of patients with complex and traumatic injuries — including amputations, diabetes complications, and gunshot wounds — in an environment where resources and personnel are increasingly scarce.”
He said the scenes encountered during shifts inside the hospital, including the “lingering smell of blood,” “will continue to haunt my dreams,” calling for “something simple: life, then life, then life in peace.”
The 1949 Geneva Conventions prohibited attacks on health care facilities and personnel in war zones, with subsequent resolutions tightening them further. International humanitarian law.
In Myanmar, where healthcare workers reported frequent targeting by the military, in April, a senior nursing leader asked: “What good is international law if they kill our colleagues and don’t face the consequences?”