Localisation in the balance: Syrian medical-humanitarian NGOs' strategic engagement with the local and international.

Contributions on localisation often focus on interactions between local organisations and the international community, with limited attention paid to dynamics within the locally-led part of the response. The humanitarian operation in non-government-held areas of Syria is considered a key example of localisation, in which the health sector has assumed a leading role. Drawing on fieldwork among Syrian medical-humanitarian organisations conducted in southern Turkey in 2017, this paper offers a view from below on the localisation debate.

Beyond medical humanitarianism - Politics and humanitarianism in the figure of the Mīdānī physician.

This article explores the complex position of local physicians at times of political unrest or conflict, conceptualizing local medical voluntarism as a form of collective action. It analyzes the evolving interpretation of medical neutrality among Egyptian physicians who provided medical assistance to injured protesters in the Egyptian uprising (2011-2013). In-depth interviews with 24 medical and non-medical volunteers on their perception of medical neutrality were matched with their mobilization and participation history, showing the extent towards which political considerations influenced their voluntary medical engagement.

Health workers and the weaponisation of health care in Syria: a preliminary inquiry for The Lancet-American University of Beirut Commission on Syria.

The conflict in Syria presents new and unprecedented challenges that undermine the principles and practice of medical neutrality in armed conflict. With direct and repeated targeting of health workers, health facilities, and ambulances, Syria has become the most dangerous place on earth for health-care providers. The weaponisation of health care-a strategy of using people's need for health care as a weapon against them by violently depriving them of it-has translated into hundreds of health workers killed, hundreds more incarcerated or tortured, and hundreds of health facilities deliberately and systematically attacked.