The petition “Stop the attacks on humanitarian health workers! “by the NGO Mehad has attracted more than 6,100 signatures in ten days
Paris, 16 October 2025
A petition signed by Mego Terzian, Director General of the NGO Mehad and former President of Médecins Sans Frontières France, denouncing the international community’s inaction in the face of the attacks on humanitarian health workers, has already attracted more than 6,100 signatures, just ten days after it was launched.
As current conflicts continue to devastate already fragile populations, the “Stop attacks on humanitarian health workers” petition, launched by the international health and solidarity NGO Mehad, denounces the increasingly frequent attacks on health workers as they try to save lives in conflict zones.
Since the beginning of 2025, five carers have been killed every day. A total of 2,632 attacks have been recorded by the World Health Organisation since January 2024. These figures reflect a dramatic trend: care workers, ambulance drivers, nurses and doctors are now often targeted – no longer as “collateral damage”, but as intentional targets.
“I have devoted my career to helping those deprived of healthcare, wherever the right to health is violated. I have worked alongside humanitarian healthcare workers of extraordinary courage and dedication. Their safety has always been the priority for our teams,” says Dr Mego Terzian. “But for the past 2 years, their lives have been threatened by incessant attacks aimed directly at health facilities and professionals, and the number of such attacks is increasing all the time.
Since the beginning of 2025 alone, 412 attacks have taken place in Ukraine, 348 in Palestine, 42 in Syria and 2 in Yemen, the various countries of operation of the NGO Mehad, which works in conflict zones using the skills of local healthcare workers.
“As well as threatening my colleagues and colleagues, these attacks are also undermining all our healthcare activities in the field, compromising access to healthcare for local populations already weakened by broken healthcare systems”, says Mego Terzian. These attacks are not just acts of war or collateral damage: they are violations of international humanitarian law. They break the fundamental principle that health services must be protected, even in war.
The petition, addressed to the President of the French Republic and the members of the United Nations Security Council, makes three clear demands: respect for international humanitarian law, as set out in the Geneva Convention; bringing to international justice those responsible for attacks on health facilities and/or professionals; and maintaining unimpeded humanitarian action.
Mehad invites healthcare NGOs, humanitarian associations, medical unions, the media, elected representatives and all citizens committed to humanitarian values to take part in this #DoctorsInDanger campaign, by relaying this petition and/or signing it.
To sign or forward :
https://www.mehad.fr/petition/doctorsindanger-stop-aux-attaques-sur-les-travailleurs-humanitaires-de-sante/
