Ten Years After Landmark UN Resolution on Protecting Medical Care in Conflict, MSF Urges Canada to Renew Leadership
With the ten-year anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 2286 approaching on May 3, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) urges Canada – a co-sponsor of the resolution – to reassert its leadership as attacks on hospitals and medical workers reach alarming new heights.
Adopted on May 3, 2016, the resolution called for the protection of medical care in armed conflict situations. “Seeking or providing healthcare must not be a death sentence,” MSF’s former International President, Canadian physician Joanne Liu, told members of the UN Security Council that day. “You will be judged not on your words today, but on your actions.”
Yet over the past decade, those actions have been woefully inadequate. Assaults on healthcare have continued with growing frequency and impunity across global conflict zones. In 2025 alone, there were a total of 1,348 attacks on medical facilities, resulting in the deaths of 1,981 people, according to the World Health Organization’s Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care.
“You will be judged not on your words today, but on your actions.”
– Joanne Liu, former MSF International President
Those attacks, carried out by government forces and armed groups alike, have increasingly been justified by perpetrators as legitimate use of force against military targets. The increasing normalization of attacks on hospitals and care providers threatens the foundational principles of International Humanitarian Law and humanitarian action.
MSF has repeatedly witnessed these violations. Our hospital in Lankien, South Sudan, was hit by airstrikes in early February 2026; we had to halt operations in El Fasher and the Zamzam displacement camp in Sudan after attacks in 2024 and 2025; MSF facilities and supported hospitals in Gaza have been struck multiple times since 2023; and our staff and clinics in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have been directly assaulted. These attacks destroy critical services and leave entire communities without lifesaving care.
“The impunity of such violations underscores the collective failure of UN member states – including Canada – to uphold their obligations to protect healthcare and humanitarian activities in conflict zones, and to develop and implement mechanisms that will hold perpetrators to account,” says MSF Canada’s executive director, Sana Beg. “Canada should use this anniversary as a turning point.”
There are several actions Canada can take, starting with launching a public national action plan to fully implement Resolution 2286, improving data and reporting on attacks and ensuring flexible funding to restore care after violence.
Internationally, Canada can revive the ‘Friends of 2286’ group of states – an informal coalition established in 2016 by Canada and Switzerland to support the UN resolution – to push for stronger action at the UN General Assembly this year, It can also advocate for the creation of a UN Special Rapporteur dedicated to protecting medical and humanitarian activities in conflict zones.
A statement from the Minister of Foreign Affairs ahead of May 3 would signal the renewed commitment urgently needed.
Ten years on, with attacks on healthcare worsening and impunity entrenched, MSF calls on Canada to reclaim its leadership and reaffirm a basic humanitarian principle: hospitals must never be targets.
