U.N. special rapporteur calls health and care workers "defenders of the right to health," details attacks in Gaza and other conflicts

Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to health, used a press briefing at U.N. headquarters in New York to present her thematic report “Health and Care Workers: The oath takers and defenders of the right to health” and to describe what she said were widespread, often lethal, attacks on health and care workers in recent conflicts.

Mofokeng said the mandate’s work over six years shaped the report and that the document is intended both to recognize health and care workers as human-rights defenders and to provide tools for accountability. “Health and care workers are key defenders of the right to health,” she said, adding that treating them as human-rights defenders creates specific obligations for states and other actors.

The rapporteur…