The protection of the medical mission lies at the heart of international humanitarian law and is a building block of our shared humanity: anyone needing medical assistance – friend or foe – must be treated with humanity; and those providing such care have special protection.
On 7 September, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, the Danish Red Cross, Doctors without Borders Denmark and DanChurchAid, is co-organising an event to highlight the urgent need to protect healthcare in armed conflict, and explore practical measures to do so through expert insights and panel discussion.
Date: 7 September 2026, 14:30-17:00
Location: Folkekirkens Nødhjælp (DCA), Meldahlsgade 3, 1613 København.
Organisers: Danish Red Cross, Doctors without Borders Denmark, Folkekirkens Nødhjælp (DCA), MFA Denmark/PM of Denmark to the UN
Addressing attacks on medical personnel and facilities
On 3 May 2016, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 22861, marking the first-ever resolution specifically addressing attacks on medical personnel and facilities in armed conflict, demanding that warring parties comply with their international obligations to prevent and address such attacks.
A decade later, the implementation gap remains stark. In 2024 the number of attacks as well as the number of medical and aid workers killed had at least doubled since 2021, and in 2025, the number of fatalities more than doubled again compared to 2024.2 This does not only impact patients and staff but often deprives entire communities of access to basic healthcare, often for a length of time extending far beyond the actual attack.
Resolution 2286 Ten Years On
The 10-year anniversary of UNSCR 2286 offers a timely opportunity to bring renewed international attention to this alarming situation, while also reflecting on how the evolving nature of warfare has contributed to it and what lessons can be drawn to strengthen its implementation and thus the implementation of fundamental humanitarian law provisions.
In this context, mobilizing strong State commitment is critical as increasingly, the majority of attacks on healthcare are attributed to State actors3. Strengthening compliance with and accountability under international humanitarian law is essential. When the international community fails to act, we risk normalizing the unacceptable – treating attacks on healthcare as an inevitable feature of modern warfare rather than as grave breaches of international humanitarian law.
State Leadership to Reverse the Trend
To uphold and reinforce this fundamental humanitarian norm, courageous and consistent State leadership is urgently needed. Such leadership has been demonstrated by States that have actively advanced this agenda in multilateral forums. Through its seat on the UN Security Council, Denmark is refocusing global attention on this issue, including by marking the tenth anniversary of the resolution with an Arria-formula meeting – co-organised with Spain and New Zealand -,which took place on 5 May 2026.
Against this backdrop, the co-organizers of this event seek to draw attention to the urgent need to protect healthcare in armed conflict and point to what measures can be taken to strengthen protection through expert presentations and a panel discussion which will include a range of perspectives – from healthcare providers in conflict settings to legal experts and States that have committed to playing an active role in the UNSC and beyond to ensure better protection of the medical mission in armed conflict.
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Agenda
| 14.00 | Doors open |
| 14.30 | Welcome by organizers |
| 14.35 | Opening Remarks by the Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs (video) |
| 14.40 | Statement on Denmark’s Approach to the Protection of the Medical Mission at the UN Security Council (10min) Ministry of Foreign Affairs, State Secretary for Foreign Policy, Lotte Machon, Denmark |
| From Incidents to Systemic Failure | |
| 14.50 | Trends and tendencies in attacks against health care Claude Maon, legal Director, MSF findings from MSF report Medical Care in the Cross Hairs (15 min) Dustin A. Lewis, Research Director of Harvard Law School’s Program on International Law and Armed Conflict implications of new and emerging technologies on the protection of healthcare (15 min) |
| 15.20 | The Situation for Health Care Providers This segment will bring forward the lived realities of healthcare providers operating in conflict settings, highlighting the human, operational, and long-term consequences of attacks on healthcare. Guiding questions: What is the operational impact of attacks on health care? What changes when staff know they may be targeted? What are the long-term effects on civilians? Speakers: Palestine Red Crescent Society (name of speaker TBC) (10 min) MSF, Sandra La Marqué, South Sudan and Sudan (10 min) |
| Action to Restore the Norm on Protecting Healthcare in Conflict | |
| 15.40 | Global IHL Initiative workstream on achieving meaningful protection for hospitals in armed conflict. Supriya Rao, Legal Advisor, International Committee of the Red Cross (15 min) |
| 15.55 | Effective Measures to Ensure Protection of the Medical Mission – Panel Discussion Intro and moderation by Dr Emanuela-Chiara Gillard, Senior Visiting Fellow, Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, on the legal provisions for the protection of the medical mission and personnel and concrete measures that can be taken by states, organized armed groups and other actors to promote compliance (10 min) followed by panel debate (20 min) Panel – Marc Schack, Associate Professor, Center for Law and Security, University of Copenhagen. – Dr Ihor Perehinets, Regional Emergency Director and Director of WHO/Europe’s Health Security Division – D. Salvador Rueda Rabanal, Ambassador of Spain – Driving Change at the National Level. A state-led example of concrete action – Insecurity Insight (speaker TBC) Guiding questions: How can violations against healthcare be more effectively prevented? What mechanisms are needed to ensure accountability and combat impunity? How can states and institutions shift from commitments to measurable impact? Statements from the the floor |
| 16.25 | Q&A (25 min) |
| 16.50 | Closing Remarks Marie-Louise Wegter, Director for Humanitarian Action and Civil Society, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark (10 min) |
| 17.00 | Event Close |