Dr_Assad_Sign_On_Letter_05_18_2012
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Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia
601 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20037
Dr. Assad,
We write to you as health professionals—as healers who are ethically and morally bound by our
duty to provide treatment and care to those in need—asking you to protect the right to health
in Syria. The world has heard credible accounts that government forces have:
1. Denied wounded civilians impartial medical treatment;
2. Invaded, attacked, and misused hospitals;
3. Attacked and impeded medical transport; and
4. Detained and tortured doctors for treating wounded civilians.
In response, brave medical personnel have risked their lives to care for those caught up in the
violence—for families whose homes have been indiscriminately shelled by modern artillery, for
innocent civilians who have been injured while running for cover from unprovoked sniper fire.
These health professionals have not forgotten their promise to heal—not harm—the people
they treat. For more than 2,300 years, this ethical and moral obligation to care for the sick and
wounded, without discrimination, has bound the medical community around the world. And it
is this commitment that prompts us to speak for the wounded and those who would help them.
Dr. Assad, any and all assaults on Syria’s hospitals, doctors, and patients are a clear violation of
the universally recognized principle of medical neutrality, which requires noninterference with
medical services in times of armed conflict and nondiscriminatory treatment of the sick and
wounded. As a member of the medical community, we hope you will respect this obligation by
ordering your military to cease all attacks on hospitals, medical facilities and vehicles, doctors,
nurses, and patients. At the same time, we call on all parties to the current conflict to respect
the principle of medical neutrality and commit to providing emergency medical treatment to all
citizens without discrimination.
Dr. Jose Gomes do Amaral, President, World Medical Association
Dr. Robert Lawrence, Chair, Physicians for Human Rights
Dr. James L. Madara, CEO and Executive Vice President, American Medical Association