Sierra Leone Statement At The UN Security Council – On The Situation in the Middle East: Attacks Against Hospitals and Healthcare Facilities in Gaza

STATEMENT BY
H.E. DR. MICHAEL IMRAN KANU
AMBASSADOR AND PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE

Mr. President,

Sierra Leone congratulates you, and Algeria on assuming the presidency of the Security Council for the month of January 2025. We assure you of our full support.

We thank and commend the United States, for their successful presidency in December 2024.

We further welcome the newly elected members of the Council, namely Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, Panama and Somalia. We look forward to working collaboratively with the new members as well as the whole Council in discharging its important responsibility.

As I thank the delegation of Algeria for requesting and convening today’s briefing. I also thank Mr. Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,and Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, WHO Representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territories,for their sobering briefings that describes the situation in the Gaza Strip.

I further thank Dr. Tanya Haj Hassan, Medical Practitioner at Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) Charity, for the valuable contribution.

As we start the New Year, our thoughts and prayers are with the Palestinian and Israeli civilians, who have been subjected to a prolonged war, lost loved ones, properties, displaced from their homes and those still held hostage. We stand in solidarity with the civilians in the Gaza Strip and those in other active conflict zones, overshadowed by indignity, inhumanity and series of man-made crises threatening their well-being.

Mr. President,

“Even wars have rules”. However, the conflict in Gaza has tested all principles and rules under international law that safeguard the dignity of humanity, even in times of conflict. At the heart of these principles is the protection of civilians, including medical personnel and facilities, essential to ensuring that humanitarian aid can reach those in dire need.

Despite the protections under international law, the ongoing violence in Gaza has seen repeated attacks on hospitals, healthcare facilities, transportation, and healthcare workers, violations that strike at the core of human rights and the very essence of the international humanitarian law (IHL).

In times of armed conflict, IHL has made provisions through its humane rules to protect access to healthcare. These rules bind parties to a conflict, and they apply to the wounded and sick, medical personnel, medical units and transports. Parties to an armed conflict are not to impede the provision of care by preventing the passage of medical personnel. Parties must facilitate access to the wounded and sick and provide the necessary assistance and protection to medical personnel.

Generally, States have an obligation to maintain a functioning health-care system. In situations of occupation, the occupying power must, to the fullest extent of the means available, ensure and maintain, inter alia, medical and hospital establishments and services, public health and hygiene.
In the context of the Situation in Palestine, it is the responsibility of the occupying power, Israel, to ensure healthcare access within a functioning healthcare system, and not to destroy the already fragile healthcare system. In the aftermath of the condemnable October 7^th 2023 attacks led by Hamas, we have witnessed an unrelenting wave of violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory marked by appalling living conditions, high level of insecurity, airstrikes on residential buildings, hospitals and densely populated areas.

Sierra Leone is deeply disturbed by the joint statement of the independent UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, and the special rapporteur on the right to health on their assessment that “… Israel’s blatant assault on the right to health in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory is plumbing to new depths of impunity”.

[Similar to the briefing by the WHO], the most recent updates from the UN and its humanitarian partners highlight the critical status of the health situation in the Gaza Strip as hospitals are being struck, health workers killed and/or detained, as well as the unavailability of medical supplies to treat the injured and ill patients.

The attacks on and around hospitals have pushed the health care system to the brink of collapse as over 85% of the health care facilities remain non-operational. Recent raids around the Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of the major health facilities in the North, have forced the facility out of service.

Health experts have projected that, if care is not taken, sooner than anyone can imagine, the death from disease will surpass those from airstrikes, as civilians live in unsanitary conditions characterized by the accumulation of solid waste, sewage overflow and exposure to intense weather conditions without appropriate shelter and proper sanitary facilities.

We deeply regret to hear about the deaths of babies, children and other civilians due to the poor housing and severe weather conditions. This appalling situation being inflicted on the Palestinians can be irreparable and it is an outright violation of the dignity and human rights of the Palestinian people.

As we reflect on the over 45,541 Palestinians killed and 108,338 injured so far in the Gaza Strip, we again urge the Israel Defence Forces and Hamas to cease all attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure. Avoid any further actions that could claim more lives and cause more injuries. Any circumstances that will lead to deliberate killings of civilians must be avoided at all costs and we call on the conflicting parties to respect and uphold the rights of all people to life, freedom, dignity, food and water, the bare minimum required for human existence.

Mr. President,

International law, particularly the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, unequivocally prohibit the targeting of medical personnel and medical facilities in armed conflict. The legal framework, embodied by the principles of humanity and medical neutrality, designed to safeguard human life and dignity, assert that medical units must be respected and protected.

The Fourth Geneva Convention and Additional Protocol I enshrine the principle that medical personnel should be allowed to perform their duties without interference and be protected from attack, while medical facilities are to be safeguarded. They are not to be used for military purposes, and the systematic exploitation of medical facilities by all sides must stop.

It must be clear to all States and non-state actors that international law prohibits attacks and threats against the wounded and sick, medical personnel and humanitarian personnel exclusively engaged in medical duties, their means of transport and equipment, as well as hospitals and other medical facilities.

As a matter of fact, this Security Council has repeatedly reinforced the need for strict adherence to these principles. In resolution 2286 (2016), this Council condemned the targeting of medical personnel and facilities, calling for the protection of medical workers and unhindered access to healthcare in conflict zones.

This Council has demanded that all parties to armed conflict must comply fully with their obligations under international law, including international human rights law, as applicable, and international humanitarian law, in particular their obligations under the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols.

This Council has also demanded that all parties to armed conflict facilitate safe and unimpeded passage for medical and humanitarian personnel. Resolution 2286 adopted by the Council also emphasized the critical need to hold accountable those responsible for violating IHL and to ensure that medical personnel can operate freely and safely. In this regard, we recall the provisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court on the prohibition of intentional attacks on hospitals and places where the sick and wounded are collected, as well as medical units.

The international community, including the UN, must call for and hold accountable those responsible for these violations and take immediate steps to ensure the safety and security of medical personnel and the preservation of healthcare infrastructure in conflict zones like Gaza. It is imperative that all parties involved in the conflict adhere to their legal obligations and respect the sanctity of healthcare in times of war.

Let me close, Mr. President, with the words of the WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, “the best medicine is peace”. The longer we allow this war to persist, the greater the cost. We once again demand an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, the release of all hostages, as the first step to ending the inhumanity in Gaza, and usher in a period of stability in the region.

I thank you.