iranian red crescent

Dear Colleagues,

  As all we know, insecurity of health-care in armed conflict is one of the most important humanitarian challenges today.   The situation in Syria nowadays is the current humanitarian catastrophe which civilians including medical personnel and Syrian Arab Red Crescent Volunteers and staff are paying the price for the violation of International Humanitarian Law and affecting by the lack of access to secure Health-Care services.   Co-sponsored by 48 Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies, including Iranian Red Crescent, the 31^st International Conference adopted a resolution on "Health Care in Danger" that ICRC, Governments & National Societies will cooperate with each other to prepare recommendations in several fields highlighted in HCID resolution to submit to the International Conference in 2015.   Following adoption of this resolution, Iranian Red Crescent used its status as auxiliary to the government in the humanitarian field and actively took part in the relevant programs and projects.   As the first step, we coordinated participation of Iranian Medical Council Association┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á in Cairo meeting where medical practitioners discussed practical measures that could be taken to safeguard emergency health-care.   By attending the Oslo workshop, the Iranian Red Crescent, As part of this process along with numerous partners actively involved in the practical measures on HCID Project and prepared itself to host Tehran workshop. Although we are not involve directly in armed conflict situation, but we have many medical staff and personnel who are working in high-risk areas such as Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Democratic Republic of Congo.   We had an experience on insecurity of Health-Care Personnel and staffs. Probably, all of you have heard about kidnapping of the Iranian Red Crescent Society delegation in Benghazi, Libya on which the Iranian Red Crescent Society was pioneer for sending out humanitarian contributions during Libyan revolution.   Following victory of Libyan revolution and ending of Armed conflicts a delegation of the Iranian Red Crescent Society was invited to pay a visit to Libya and sign an MoU on Health and Treatment, establishing clinics, dispatching physicians and nurses and establishing one Rehabilitation center, which was unfortunately left behind unfinished mission as the delegates were kidnapped by an armed group for 69 days.       Because of this, we were eager to have a role in the health-care project and in this regard we have been honored to host Tehran workshop which focused on the three themes of "the challenges National Societies face in delivering health-care in armed conflict and other emergency"," operational dimensions"┬á and ┬á" advocacy and communication" .   Tehran workshop produced conclusions particularly relating to security measures , advocacy on HCID and the role of National Societies in supporting" health-care in danger" campaign. As surely you have seen the final report of Tehran workshop it concluded with the adoption of recommendations on the basis of three workshop themes including: -┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á Making clear the mandates and roles of National Societies in armed conflict and other emergencies. -┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á Emphasizing on respect to distinctive emblems and identification -┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á Developing communication and advocacy on health ÔÇôcare in Danger. -┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á Building capacity and increasing preparedness.     For raising awareness in our community, we are working to integrate HCID matters in academic debates. Training to medicine students, Doctors and military forces on HCID is one of our most serious actions in promotion this subject and raising public awareness in this field throughout the country.   We have some projects in national level in order to inform and aware different levels of people and we are working with several ministries including Ministry of Justice , Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Interior, which are members of the Iranian National Committee of IHL for dissemination of HCID's goals and contents among experts and other relevant persons.   We believe that the Health Care in Danger project should goes beyond the activities of the Movement members if we want to achieve to this project's goals. In this regard, Iranian Red Crescent Society is ready to cooperate with all relevant partners in order mainstreaming of Health Care in danger agenda into their programs and activities to attain maximum expected results.   Finally , I take the opportunity to remind you that just our continued support enable us together to do more , do better and reach further in humanitarian field .