The degradation of the Colombian internal armed conflict has generated ethically and morally indefensible situations. An example of this is the increasing number of attacks against the medical mission: attacks to hospital centers; threats against health service personnel; blocking of preventive actions such as vaccination campaigns; attacks against medical and paramedic personnel; the prohibition of circulation to ambulances and actions to finish off wounded or ill persons in medical centers or health service transportation vehicles.

Protection and care of the ill and wounded in wars and internal conflicts also constitute the historical humanitarian foundation of the humanitarian aid organizations and of the doctrine that orientates humanitarian rights. International Humanitarian Law, the Geneva Agreements of 1949 and international codes govern the duties of the doctors and humanitarian aid and must also govern the conduct of the combatants.

In order to guarantee the protection and aid of the wounded and ill, and of all professionals involved in delivering health services and humanitarian care, Colombia relies on the principles that govern the medical profession, the Colombian penal legislation and International Humanitarian Law regulating conflicts.

The Colombian State explicitly recognizes the importance of the medical mission and its humanitarian character. When doctors treat the wounded and ill, they are under an ethical obligation to do so, even at the risk of their personal security. International Humanitarian Law (IHL) excludes the wounded, medical installations, their means of transport and their personnel as legitimate targets in an armed confrontation. According to IHL norms, the wounded and ill must be taken care of and therefore, health personnel acquire, by analogy, the right to be protected along with hospitals, health centers, ambulances and all health personnel assigned to the search, rescue, transfer and treatment of the wounded and ill, or to disease prevention. Medical mission personnel enjoy not only immunity, but also special protection and consideration in order to carry out their humanitarian work, even in the middle of hostilities.

Attacks against doctors affect their rights and limit the functions they can undertake in the conflict. Doctors and other health professionals fulfill the duty of alleviating, preventing and reducing to a minimum the suffering as well as the number of noncombatant and combatant victims left by confrontation. In addition, they must take care of the consequences that conflicts bring to public health. These include epidemics and other lethal diseases affecting the most vulnerable population such the children and elderly, resulting from the conflict´s impact on water and energy provision, etc., as well as the human, physical, psychological and social sequels that can extend their effect across several generations.

The Colombian State and the sector´s social organizations have been working together in the defense of the rights of health professionals, equipment and medical missions. In order to offer protection to health professionals in danger, the National Government, through the Presidential Program for Human Rights, is working with the relevant professional organizations in the design of a global attention strategy for these professionals, allowing for urgent relocation and redeployment in new posts for those threatened. The Ministry of Health maintains a centralized registration system for IHL infractions that receives data from Regional Health Offices in order to follow up on the cases. Also, in agreement with the National Red Cross and the Departmental Health Secretariats, it is working on the application of the norm (decree 860 of 1998) that establishes an emblem to identify the Medical Mission nationwide.

In its 55th General Assembly, the World Health Organization approved the initiative presented by Colombia asking that WHO member countries promote and adopt IHL application norms, condemning attacks directed at health personnel, promoting the application of measures that guarantee health personnel safety and enforcing the use of ambulances, medical vehicles and medical facilities exclusively towards humanitarian purposes. The International Committee of the Red Cross, on the other hand, has called on all parties involved in the conflict to respect and apply humanitarian law in its totality, to abstain from attacking those who do not take active part in the hostilities, and to respect the Red Cross emblem and individuals participating in humanitarian work in favor of conflict victims. The Office of the Ombudsman has demamded respect for medical missions for the conflict's illegal actors. Thus the State, the Government and society are committed in promoting this basic humanitarian rule in the application of IHL so that it is respected by the armed actors confronted in Colombia: respect of medical missions, health personnel, the ill and wounded, health facilities and vehicles, and drug provisions.

Attacks to the medical mission not only constitute a serious infraction to humanitarian norms but they mainly affect the most unprotected sectors of the population and do not deliver any military advantage. For that reason the National Government calls for Colombian society and the international community to express their solidarity with health workers, and demand a halt to these useless and morally and militarily indefensible actions.