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Australia: Health Care in Danger - panel discussion

04-11-2013 Event

An international panel of speakers will explore the critical humanitarian issue of violence against health care at a public event during the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement's statutory meetings in Sydney this month.

Event Info

Mirwais hospital, Kandahar, Afghanistan. A taxi arrives with people injured by explosions in their village of Zhari.

Where: Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, 5.30pm-6.30pm

When: 14.11.2013, 17:30 - 18:30

The sick and wounded have the right to access medical assistance even during war and conflict, but too frequently people’s lives are jeopardized by violence. The International Red Cross Red Crescent Movement’s Health Care in Danger project, led by the ICRC, has identified many forms of obstructions to health care in conflict zones and other emergencies: threats to doctors’ lives, ambulances held up at checkpoints, medical workers injured or killed in crossfire, medical supply shipments blocked, and hospitals ransacked of medicines.

In this thought-provoking panel discussion our international panel of speakers will share their experiences of delivering medical assistance in times of conflict and explore some of the strategies that can improve access to the humanitarian prerogative of health care.

The panel will take place at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, as part of the Movement's bi-annual statutory meetings, hosted this year by the Australian Red Cross.

Panellists:

Pierre Gentile, Head of the ICRC’s Health Care in Danger project

Georges Kettaneh, Secretary-General, Lebanese Red Cross Society

Paul McPhun, Executive Director, Médecins Sans Frontières Australia

Susan Neuhaus CSC,  Associate Professor in conflict medicine, University of Adelaide