“There is a form of impunity,” deplores Jean-François Corty, vice-president of Médecins du Monde.

The number of aid workers killed worldwide will reach 280 in 2023.

“There is a form of impunity, a lack of denunciation from the international community”deplores Jean-François Corty, vice-president of Médecins du Monde, on franceinfo on Monday August 19. Some 280 humanitarian workers were killed worldwide in 2023, a record fueled by the war in Gaza. “What we see is that there has been a steady increase in the number of acts of violence in recent years. Humanitarian actors are targets, as are civilians who pay a heavy price.”Jean-François Corty is also indignant.

The doctor denounces “a form of trivialization”of “normalization” deliberate attacks on humanitarian workers, in contradiction with international humanitarian law “established at the end of the 19th century”. A trend which can be explained, according to Jean-François Corty, by the fact that the “The international community’s denunciations are not strong enough”. He denounces “u“a fairly marked form of impunity”which is particularly visible in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as 160 workers died in Gaza in 2023 and 121 since the beginning of 2024.

“More pressure is needed so that international courts can defend international humanitarian law. It is urgent.”insists Jean-François Corty, who adds that “the international community” does not follow, for example, the recommendations of the International Criminal Court which wishes to launch “an international arrest warrant against Hamas leaders and against Israeli leaders.” “We can clearly see that for many states, in conflict zones, it is first and foremost military operations that take precedence over the lives of civilians and caregivers, so there is an urgent need to try to reverse the trend.”

The vice-president of Médecins du Monde also underlines that a campaign of “propaganda” For “discrediting humanitarian actors” is underway in recent years, as workers are sometimes the only ones “witnesses of war crimes, crimes against humanity” on the ground “and the actors, the parties involved in the conflict, do not want there to be too much of it”He therefore concludes by recalling the heart of the mission of humanitarian NGOs: “We are the ones who try to save lives, to bring a bit of humanity into inhumanity.”