PHR and leading medical organizations sent a letter to the Turkish President to express concern about a health bill that was passed by the Turkish parliament on January 2, 2014. Article 46 of the bill will criminalize emergency medical care and punish doctors with heavy fines and imprisonment for simply assisting Turkish citizens in need of emergency medical care. In the letter, we call upon the president to refuse to sign the health bill into law, as not to compromise the health of Turkish citizens in need of emergency care, undermine essential trust in medical personnel, and violate international and Turkish law. The full letter can be found here.

PHR and leading medical organizations sent a letter to Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan to express concerns over the Ministry of Health taking punitive actions against physicians, including members of the Turkish Medical Association (TMA), who provided emergency medical care to demonstrators during the Gezi Park protests that begain in May 2013. In the letter, we call upon the prime minister to immediately and unconditionally drop the current legal actions against members of the TMA and to respect the professional duty of all medical personnel to provide medical care to those in need, including injured demonstrators. The full letter can be found here.

This week, a group of senators will have the ability to move forward and acknowledge the U.S. government’s use of torture and prevent future abuse. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will vote on whether to declassify and release a now infamous report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation practices.

According to a blistering article in the Washington Post, the report is said to include damning details about brutal interrogations – acts of torture that violated American values and universal morals and yet did nothing to promote our national security. As Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has documented, these crimes were facilitated by medical personnel who – in a grave breach of professional ethics – monitored and participated in detainee abuse.

The full truth about CIA abuse must come to light so that those responsible may be held accountable and to ensure that U.S. officials never again resort to torture under any circumstances. If you have not already done so, please take action to demand that the senators of the Intelligence Committee vote for declassification and release of the report. If your senators are not on the Committee, you can take action here to urge them to ask their colleagues to vote for the truth.

This week’s vote poses an opportunity for our elected leaders to move us closer to a full examination of detainee abuse, but it is just one important step in our ongoing struggle for transparency and accountability regarding our country’s use of torture. No matter the outcome of the Committee’s vote, we must press for additional information regarding crimes of torture – including details about the involvement of medical personnel – to be released for public review. We must also call for the removal of Appendix M of the Army Field Manual, a loophole through which the U.S. military can still use abusive methods against detainees.

Casting a light where there have been only shadows will start the necessary process of transitioning from a period of abuse and secrecy to a period of dedication to the rule of law and transparency. If the Intelligence Committee votes for the truth on Thursday, it will be a positive step in this direction.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) submitted a statement on the Syrian Refugee Crisis to a Hearing before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights. The statement discusses how attacks on the medical community (specifically health workers, facilities, and patients), cases of sexual violence and torture, and a range of unmet humanitarian needs have contributed to the crisis, and provides additional recommendations to help improve the situation. PHR recommends that the United States immediately convene a humanitarian summit with Russia and other nations in order to improve humanitarian aid in Syria; take steps to allow more Syrian refugees to resettle in the United States; and provide funding to address their health and other needs. The full statement can be read here.

This post originally appeared in The Huffington Post.

In Bahrain, two nurses and a doctor remain imprisoned during the holidays simply for doing their job: treating the injured during the government crackdown. Türkiye is considering a bill that seeks to criminalize emergency medical care — the latest example of the government trying to intimidate doctors for caring for those injured in last summer’s protests. And in Syria, the attacks against physicians, hospitals and medical transport have reached such epidemic proportions as to constitute war crimes, exacerbating an already massive humanitarian and human rights crisis.

In these countries and beyond, 2013 hit a low point, bringing about a new and more ferocious wave of targeted attacks on medical personnel and facilities. In an effort to destroy opposition, hide wounds inflicted by government authorities, and intimidate doctors from treating protesters and fighters, medical care — and those who take an oath to provide it — has come under a full assault.

In Bahrain, the government has released some of the many doctors and nurses imprisoned following the 2011 anti-government protests. But two nurses and a surgeon remain in jail. They recently wrote a handwritten letter from behind bars, highlighting the poor and overcrowded conditions. And the Bahraini government continues to prevent many doctors from working in government hospitals and providing care to injured civilians in desperate need of treatment.

In Türkiye, 2013 brought malicious examples of government authorities intimidating and harassing medical workers, including the targeting of clearly identified medical facilities with tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets. Dozens of physicians who treated injured anti-government demonstrators were also beaten and detained.

The latest example of the Turkish government’s relentless offensive against doctors is a bill that seeks to criminalize certain aspects of emergency care. Doctors could be fined and even jailed for providing care in emergencies, depending on the presence of a state ambulance. This is not only absurd — medical care should be based on need, not the arrival of a state transport vehicle — but would also put doctors in direct conflict with their ethical and professional responsibility to care for the wounded. The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health and the World Medical Association are among those who have warned about the chilling effect such a law would have on accessing medical care.

Nowhere is the situation worse for physicians than in Syria, where attacks specifically targeting the medical community are unprecedented. A September UN report found that the denial of medical care has been used as a weapon of war, calling this “one of the most alarming features of the Syrian conflict.” Medical professionals have been intimidated, tortured, detained, disappeared and killed. Understandably, an estimated 15,000 doctors have been forced to flee the country. According to one report, in the city of Aleppo, only 36 of the 5,000 doctors who were there before the conflict started remain. In the words of one Syrian physician I met last month, “Every doctor inside Syria is an encyclopedia in human rights.”

As another powerful weapon in the government’s arsenal, medical facilities are regularly bombed — 57 percent of Syria’s hospitals have been damaged, 37 percent are out of service, and 20 percent are partially damaged, forcing doctors and other medical professionals to provide care in make-shift clinics in the basements of damaged homes. Access to medical supplies is being blocked, leaving some patients to undergo procedures, such as amputations, without anesthesia. Today in Syria, delivering medical supplies can get a person killed. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has rightly called the targeting of Syria’s medical community “unconscionable.”

Under international humanitarian laws, medical professionals, facilities and supplies enjoy special protection in recognition of how critical these workers and their services are. The principle of medical neutrality obligates governments to refrain from interfering with their work, in times of war as well as peace. However, in Syria and beyond, government forces have been cracking down on doctors and other medical personnel, who — like journalists and humanitarian workers — often witness abuses on the frontlines. Attacks on doctors not only violate international laws and constitute war crimes, but have grave consequences for entire communities and public health systems.

When hospitals are shelled and doctors are harassed, beaten and detained for doing their work, the brutal effects of war are compounded. Physicians are afraid or unable to work, the sick and wounded cannot be treated, and mortality rates increase. The insidious attacks on Syria’s medical system have been devastating for a public health infrastructure already ravaged from a nearly three-year-long civil war. The World Health Organization has confirmed an outbreak of polio, the first in 14 years. Vaccination rates have dropped, blood supplies are running short, and children and adults are dying of hunger, malnutrition and disease.

Doctors and others who provide care can help limit bloodshed in conflict, but only if they are able to do their jobs without fear of arrest, torture or death. Passing the Medical Neutrality Protection Act of 2013 is the first and important step in helping start the new year off on the right path.

Physicians for Human Rights has long-condemned the use of health care workers for intelligence work, as it destroys the trust necessary for effective doctor-patient relationships and leaves patients suspicious of doctors’ medical advice. Kidnappings that recently took place in Pakistan are just one example among many of distrust of health care workers, which has served to increase the number of polio cases in the country.

Cynicism about the government vaccination program has abounded in Pakistan for some time. However, skepticism over immunization workers in Pakistan increased considerably following the CIA’s use of a local doctor for a fake immunization campaign in an attempt to confirm the location of Osama bin Laden.

Last week, eleven teachers were reportedly abducted in Pakistan after being mistaken for individuals providing children with much-needed polio vaccinations. A Pakistani government official said that the militants who kidnapped the teachers feared that the vaccines were “a [w]estern ploy to render their males infertile.” They were freed on the condition that the government would stop sending polio teams to the area.

Polio, which is incurable once the disease has been contracted, is currently endemic in only three countries: Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Recently, 17 cases of polio have also been confirmed in Syria. The disease can be contracted at any age, but it most often affects children under the age of five, and one in 200 cases leads to permanent paralysis.

Immunization is the only way polio can be prevented. Health care workers must be able to effectively and safely do their jobs in Pakistan in order to eradicate the disease in the country.

As Washington makes its policy decisions on Pakistan, as well as other countries, it must refrain from using medical care as a ruse in its operations. And militant groups in Pakistan must stop targeting those providing vaccines and allow for Pakistan’s children to be protected from the often-fatal disease. Without action from all sides, we’ll continue to see the spread of polio, the paralysis of innocent young children, and the disruption of medical care.

Unfortunately, both governments and militant groups worldwide continue to violate the principle of medical neutrality, which has a strong foundation in international law. Medical neutrality requires noninterference in medical services and the protection of medical personnel, patients, facilities, and transport. We can defeat polio – but only if those engaged in vaccination campaigns can do their work safely, and with the full trust of their patients.

PHR and leading medical organizations sent a letter to the Turkish Minister of Heath expressing concern about a draft health law being considered by the Turkish parliament. The proposed law would criminalize the provision of emergency health care in Türkiye and provide the Ministry of Health with unprecedented control over health care practices in the country. PHR and partner organizations call on the Ministry of Health to eliminate Article 33 from the draft health law and to exclude any provisions that would undermine independent, ethical, non-discriminatory care to those in need. The full letter can be found here.

“I’m upset – feeling guilty for leaving colleagues working in extreme circumstances in Syria. But I will document the violations. That is my contribution.” – Syrian refugee doctor

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is very fortunate to have the opportunity to meet and work with incredibly brave and talented health professionals, lawyers, and human rights activists around the world. Even in countries where human rights violations are widespread and corruption permeates every level of the government and legal system, PHR staff is consistently inspired by the courage, dedication, and brilliance of our colleagues on the ground who work tirelessly to press for transparency and accountability in their countries. Nowhere are these qualities more evident than in the Syrian health professionals and lawyers whom PHR has met through our work and trainings in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region. Despite the personal tragedies that each of them has faced, both in Syria and as refugees in neighboring countries, they are determined to use their professional medical and legal skills not only to support immediate needs, but also to document violations to ensure accountability in an eventual post-conflict Syria.

Using the principles and methods from the Istanbul Protocol (The Manual on Effective Investigation and Documentation of Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment), and other international instruments, Syrian health professionals and lawyers are documenting the physical and psychological effects of human rights violations in order to build a credible medical body of evidence to submit to the Commission of Inquiry and to use in future justice and accountability proceedings. The work undertaken by our Syrian colleagues is difficult from both a clinical and personal perspective, but these professionals are committed, resilient, and – frankly – awe-inspiring.

However, it’s not easy to put personal feelings aside indefinitely, and I have seen a clear shift in the spirits of our colleagues over the past several months. The failure of the world to intervene to stop the violence– even in the face of chemical weapons use – has sharpened their despair. Winter is coming, and they lack the simplest of supplies, like blankets for their children. Increasingly, friends and family inside Syria are being captured and killed. Our Syrian colleagues tell us that the weeks they spend at PHR trainings are an oasis where they can focus on learning with colleagues who care deeply about the Syrian people and the future of their country. They implore PHR‘s experts to continue to mentor them as they work to document the severe human rights violations accompanying this conflict, including torture and sexual and gender-based violence. We promise to do as much as we can, and will continue to urge the international community to act in order to meet the colossal needs of the Syrian people at this time.

Despite the tremendous challenges they face, our Syrian colleagues have not lost hope. Between intense discussions and case studies last month, my colleagues and I joined in the celebration of the birth of a baby to one training participant, the promise of a visa to another who will travel to the United States to take a clinical exam, one couple’s engagement, and a birthday. We were all able to more fully appreciate these special moments given the context of the intractable catastrophe of the civil war in Syria. To say that this work is an emotional journey would be a gross understatement, but the rewards of working with such an exceptional group of people are manifest.