Medicine Under Attack: Violence Against Healthcare in Conflict

When: Tuesday, September 30, 2025, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Where: Garrod Building, Mile End

Speaker: Professor Neve Gordon will chair the event.

Panel event on the report recently published by the British Medical Association (BMA), ‘Medicine Under Attack: The Increasing Assault on Healthcare in Conflict Zones’, which explores the evolving nature of warfare and its impact on population health, as well as recommendations regarding the protection for medical neutrality and healthcare under international humanitarian law.

Healthcare is under attack across contemporary conflict zones, despite clear protections under international law. Hospitals and clinics are routinely damaged or destroyed, medical supplies withheld or impeded, and healthcare workers are victims of targeted violence while fulfilling their duties of care. These acts are both illegal and fundamentally contrary to long-established norms of medical neutrality.

In this panel event, our speakers (see below) reflect on the report recently published by the British Medical Association (BMA), ‘Medicine Under Attack: The Increasing Assault on Healthcare in Conflict Zones’, which explores the evolving nature of warfare and its impact on population health, as well as recommendations regarding the protection for medical neutrality and healthcare under international humanitarian law.

This is the second event in the Global Impact of Attacks on Healthcare and Healthcare Workers in Conflict Zones series.

You can attend this event in person or watch the event online, please register for a free ticket using one of the two ticketing options. Joining details for online attendees will be sent nearer the time.

Speakers:

Liz Harding is a Humanitarian Representative for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Liz has spent over 11 years in operational roles across Sudan, South Sudan, the Philippines, Myanmar, India, Somalia and Ethiopia. In her current role she engages with the UK Government and Parliament across all contexts where MSF works.

Khaled Dawas is a surgeon at UCLH, head of the regional Upper Gastrointestinal Unit and an Associate Professor at UCL. He is the vice chair of the Hanoon Foundation, a charity working with Palestinian medical schools. He has been part of the UK emergency medical team in Gaza since October 2023.

Dominic Norcliffe-Brown is a policy lead in medical ethics and human rights at the British Medical Association (BMA). He is an expert advisor in health-related human rights issues and has written extensively on contemporary issues in the field.

John Chisholm is the President of the BMA, and a retired GP. He was Chair of the BMA’s Medical Ethics Committee (2014-2021), leading major policy initiatives on issues such as assisted dying, immigration detention and health-related human rights.