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Title:

Hospital Attack Highlights Humanitarian System’s Weaknesses

Authors:

Michael R. Snyder

Date posted:

October 23, 2015

Publication type:

Article

Publication:

International Peace Institute, October 23, 2015

Publisher:

International Peace Institute

Availability:

Available on Publisher Website

See also:

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Introduction:

The bombing by US military forces of a hospital in Afghanistan on October 3 has thrust the issue of respect for the laws of war into the spotlight. The attack on the medical facility run by Doctors Without Borders (also known as Médecins Sans Frontièrs, or MSF), which killed at least 22 civilians, may have violated international humanitarian law and has led to accusations by the medical charity that US military forces committed a “war crime.”

Now MSF is calling for an independent investigation by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission into the incident, which occurred in the city of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan. MSF has argued that the bombing has undermined the sanctity of the Geneva Conventions and damaged the integrity of the international humanitarian system.