(The Diplomat) – On Monday, Watchlist — a New York-based coalition aimed at ending violations against children in armed conflict zones — called, for the first time, on the UN Secretary General to list the Afghan security forces as a party responsible for attacks on medical facilities in Afghanistan. The Secretary General is expected to release an annual report on children and armed conflict before summer and Watchlist’s report, based on research trips to Afghanistan in late 2016, urges the UN to call out Afghan government forces, in addition to Taliban and other insurgent groups, for targeting medical facilities. Afghanistan’s public health challenges are astounding and exacerbated by a conflict that has increasingly moved into civilian spaces. According to Watchlist, from 2015 through 2016, “the number of people requiring health care and humanitarian aid has steadily increased, while access to heath care and humanitarian actors’ access to populations in need has declined.”
In Afghanistan, Hospitals Sit on the Front Lines of Conflict
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