Strategies to protect health workers in times of conflict

Assaults on patients, health workers, facilities and transports during armed conflicts and civil instability inhibit access to health services and have significant impacts on health worker migration. This paper reviews what is known about the type and extent of these attacks and provides a framework for understanding the motivations animating the attacks toward the development of strategies to deter or prevent the attack through reinforcement of norms, responsiveness to the security concerns that many animate assaults, and accountability for governments and non-state actors that engage in attacks. It then reviews initiatives at the international level that seek to take proactive steps toward data collection, prevention, and accountability, including at through the World Health Organization, the UN Security Council, and resolution stemming from a conference on states parties to the Geneva Convention. The status and implications of these initiatives are discussed.