Statement by H.E. Ambassador Yoshifumi Okamura
Deputy Permanent Representative of Japan
To the United Nations
At the Briefing of the United Nations Security Council
On Health Care in Armed Conflict
28 September 2016
Mr. President,
I thank you for convening this meeting. I would also like to convey my gratitude to the Secretary-General, Mme. Joanne Liu, President of Medecins Sans Frontieres, and Peter Maurer, President of International Committee of Red Cross for intervention and briefing, and appeal to the Council.
Mr. President,
Even in times of peace and stability, medical facilities and medical care save lives every day; but in the context of armed conflict, access to medical care becomes an immediate life or death concern to all innocent civilians caught in the grip of war. Hospitals represent the last and sometimes only hope for the injured to survive. Attacks on medical facilities threaten or even destroy their last hope.
We believe that attacks on medical facilities for strategic purposes are malicious beyond human decency and absolutely unacceptable. Holding this belief, Japan served together with NZ, Egypt, Spain and Uruguay in drafting and ensuring the adoption of Resolution 2286 in May. The adoption of this Resolution by consensus demonstrates the strong commitment of the Security Council to ensure that medical facilities be fully protected and secured under combat.
However, as briefed by MSF and the ICRC earlier, attacks against medical facilities have continued in those conflict areas even after the adoption of Resolution 2286. The lives of medical workers remain under threat, their deaths continue. We share our grief and anger with MSF and the ICRC. We would like to express our profound respect for the courage and devotion of all medical staff working in the field under conflict.
As for the recommendations compiling various practical measures, provided by the Secretary-General to the Security Council, we thank those who were involved in making this document for their efforts. Japan would like to once again urge all parties to armed conflict to take concrete actions, reflecting the recommendations before us and the briefings delivered today, to protect medical care in armed conflict.
I fully agree with Ambassador of Malaysia that one of the main factors behind the failure to prevent recurrence of attacks against medical facilities is lack of accountability. When such attacks are conducted, the facts of the attack are difficult to ascertain, different sides of the conflict cast blame on each other, no thorough investigation is ever conducted and therefore, ultimately, accountability cannot be pursued.
In this context, Paragraph 11 of the SG’s recommendations is noteworthy. Firstly, Paragraph 11.1 provides, in essence, that “Member States should develop protocols and process to ensure full, prompt, impartial, independent and effective investigations into allegations of serious violations of international law relating to the protection of medical care in armed conflict.” Paragraph 11.3 goes on to state that “When Member States fail to carry out such investigations, the Security Council should consider establishing international fact-finding missions, or have recourse to the International Humanitarian Fact Finding Commission (IHFFC), established pursuant to Article 90 of the First Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions.” Paragraph 11.4 states that “Member States and parties to armed conflicts should provide support to and facilitate the work of fact-finding missions.” Here, Japan emphasizes the important role of the IHFFC with a view to ensuring objective and fair application of international humanitarian law. Japan therefore has contributed and will continue to contribute both financially and with personnel to the body.
Mr. President,
Here, I would like to underline that the Security Council should play an active role in fact-finding and ensuring accountability on this matter. Japan is determined to collaborate with the United Nations and all the parties concerned on this issue.
Thank you.
