Protection of Medical Personnel and Other Voluntary Staff in Armed Conflict

Abstract

When an armed conflict occurs, the Red Cross crew are at work, rescuing the victims of the attacks. The whole world is also at alert, keeping vigil, monitoring the wellbeing of the victims. But there is a great vacuum in the scenario. No one cares to know the effects of the armed conflicts on the health care workers themselves or on their beneficiaries and their facilities/services. Once, their services are guaranteed and the health of the victims are improving, the issue of their own health is neglected.This article departs from the general trend by looking into the condition of health care workers during the armed conflict, the effects of the armed conflict on their health and also on their work and their beneficiaries. The article adopts a right based approach to this issue of neglect, it concludes that such neglect is a violation of international humanitarian and human rights law and recommends different ways by which these set of persons can be better protected in a situation of armed conflicts.

Keywords: Humanitarian law, human right law, Armed Conflict, Medical Personnel, volunteers.