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Video: “Because We Are Doctors”

How Syrian Health Workers Became a Target for Arrest and Torture

Syrian doctor “Youssef” was treating a patient in the hospital when state security forces arrived and arrested him. He is one of countless health workers who provided care to the wounded, only to be arrested, detained, and tortured by the Assad regime.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) conducted an investigation into the purposeful, illegal, and brutal strategy by the Syrian government to commit these targeted atrocities against medical workers, effectively criminalizing their delivery of health care to the sick and wounded. PHR clinicians conducted in-depth interviews and structured psychological assessments of 21 formerly-detained Syrian health professionals, including “Youssef”, providing new insight into how the Syrian government has grotesquely punished health workers for carrying out their professional duties.

Read the full report: “My Only Crime Was That I Was a Doctor”: How the Syrian Government Targets Health Workers for Arrest, Detention, and Torture


This report is supported with German Federal Foreign Office’s funds by ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen), Funding Programme zivik.

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