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Published On: Fri, Feb 23rd, 2018

Syria crisis: Medical and Humanitarian organizations call on UN to stop violence using billboards

A coalition of medical and humanitarian organizations, some working inside besieged Eastern Ghouta, have urged the United Nations Security Council to vote for an immediate cessation of hostilities to allow urgent humanitarian assistance to all areas in need in Syria.

Image/UOSSM

The Security Council is expected to vote tomorrow on a resolution aimed at implementing the cessation of hostilities and lifting sieges on areas like Eastern Ghouta. More than 300 people have been killed there by Syrian government and allied forces since Sunday while more than 20 health facilities were subject to bombardment. The resolution would also prevent further indiscriminate attacks from armed opposition groups in Damascus, where at least 15 have been killed since Sunday.

The coalition, which includes organizations like UOSSM, SAMS, Save the Children, Care International and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), are making themselves heard loud and clear in New York today by deploying three billboards to circle the United Nations building, calling out the Security Council and demanding answers for their inaction.

Mirroring a tactic from the Oscar-nominated film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, the billboards say “500,000 dead in Syria / And still no action? / How come, Security Council?”

“The civilians in Ghouta are being exterminated. Hundreds of thousands of lives hang in the balance. If something is not done soon, there will be death like we have never seen before. We demand that aid is allowed in and these sickening attacks are stopped!” Said Dr. Ghanem Tayara, Chairman of UOSSM International and Birmingham UK GP.

In their joint call to the UN Security Council, the coalition calls on all members to support the passage of a humanitarian resolution and use their influence to make the cessation a reality.

They are asking for:
1. A humanitarian pause/cessation of violence throughout Syria;
2. Sustained humanitarian access through weekly UN humanitarian aid convoys to all areas in need, including those in opposition-held areas;
3. Emergency medical evacuations with necessary safety guarantees to patients in need of urgent treatment outside of besieged areas;
4. Commitments from all parties to the conflict to comply with their obligations under international law to prioritize the protection of civilians and guarantee the protection of hospitals and other medical facilities;
5. Lifting of the sieges, most urgently on eastern Ghouta, the largest Syrian city under besiegement. Around 400,000 have been living under siege there since 2013, leaving residents starving and many close to death.

Refusal to deliver medical supplies prevents doctors from fulfilling their duties. Trauma drugs and surgical equipment are non-existent, and in Syria they are systematically removed from humanitarian convoys without any justification.

One of the biggest challenges doctors face is the refusal of medical evacuation requests for critically ill patients, including those with tumors and serious heart problems. In the rare cases where they can evacuate patients, many die while waiting for a medical evacuation out of Syria or treatment inside the country. Currently, more than 700 patients require medical evacuation.

The recent onslaught of violence comes on top of one of the worst hunger crises since the beginning of the Syrian conflict, with the UN reporting that 12 percent of preschoolers in eastern Ghouta are suffering from acute malnutrition.

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