Checked Against Delivery
All right, good afternoon, everyone, colleagues.
Thank you so much for joining us here this afternoon for this Arria Formula Meeting on protecting medical care in conflict.
This week we mark the 10 years since the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2286 on protecting medical personnel and humanitarian personnel in armed conflict.
But over the past decade, medical care has increasingly come under sustained attack, despite the Council’s unanimous vote a decade ago to protect it.
So from Sudan to Lebanon, Gaza, Ukraine and Myanmar, we have seen a spike in attacks against hospitals, clinics and medical personnel.
And according to newly released data, since 2016 there has been over eighteen-thousand attacks on healthcare systems.
These attacks have resulted in the damage or total destruction of nearly five thousand hospitals and clinics resulting in the deaths of three-thousand-eight-hundred-and-fifty-six health workers.
So put simply, we are profoundly off track in delivering the shared commitment made 10 years ago.
This is why Denmark, alongside with Spain and New Zealand, is pleased to invite you to this afternoon’s meeting marking the 10-year anniversary of this landmark UN Security Council Resolution..
But clearly, today is not a celebration. Rather we hope it is the beginning of a reinvigoration of our collective commitment to international law and the obligations to protect the medical mission also during the worst of war and conflict.
So this afternoon, we look forward to hear from our distinguished panel of briefers who will all share their perspectives on, not only the crisis of violence and impunity we face, but also the opportunities we have to change direction toward a better future.
So colleagues,
Silence and inaction signal impunity which breeds new violations.
Today we gather to reaffirm our commitment to resolution 2286 and the respective obligations under international humanitarian law.
But also to hear genuine pathways forward to ensure the safety, security, and protection of medical assistance in armed conflict.
So with those words, I now have the honour to pass the floor to my great colleague, Ambassador Carolyn Schwalger, Permanent Representative of New Zealand to the United Nations.
