Members of staff in St Patrick’s Mental Health Services (SPMHS) share a statement in response to ongoing conflict in Palestine and Israel.
As mental health professionals committed to promoting and protecting human rights, members of staff of SPMHS wish to extend their sympathies to, and compassion for, all those in Palestine and Israel who have been affected by and become innocent victims of the appalling violence of recent months.
We wish to condemn the horrendous violent attack which took place in October and the ongoing horrific human rights violations being perpetrated in the region since then. In particular, we wish to denounce the unprecedented and heinous attacks on children in Gaza, and the unacceptable and appalling violation of all their rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The Executive Director of UNICEF has highlighted that the Gaza Strip “is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child”. We urgently support her irrefutable assertion that “children need a lasting humanitarian ceasefire.”
As healthcare professionals, we also especially wish to express our solidarity with healthcare workers who are working tirelessly in the region, while facing unimaginable circumstances and traumas through unrelenting attacks and the targeting of healthcare facilities. Furthermore, as mental health professionals, we feel compelled to advocate for the more than 485,000 people with mental health disorders in Gaza who the World Health Organization (WHO) affirms are facing “daily intense psychological stressors, including bombardment and severe barriers to fulfilling basic needs”.
Immediate and egregious human rights violations resulting from the conflict are being evidenced in Gaza, including the denial of the most basic needs for survival. Undoubtedly, this violence and trauma perpetrated on the people of Gaza will have profound consequences not only for the immediate physical and mental health of those affected, but for overall societal wellbeing in the longer term. We express especially our deep concern and distress for the children and young people of Gaza, who are experiencing levels of violence, trauma and loss that no child should face, and for the generational toll this will inevitably have on their wellbeing and health into the future. UNICEF has reported that nearly the entire child population in the enclave - more than one million children - are now thought to need mental health and psychosocial support.
We support the calls of other national healthcare bodies; the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children; the World Health Organization; and UNICEF for an immediate cessation of violence, the upholding of international humanitarian law and norms, the release of hostages, and the urgent provision of aid and healthcare within Gaza.
We highlight the obligations of Israel under both the UNCRC, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, in addition to the broader and fundamental human rights commitments espoused by the UN Charter. We further underline the recent ruling of the International Court of Justice, requiring that Israel ensure they abide by international humanitarian law, to ensure to refrain from and prevent acts of genocide, and to ensure urgent humanitarian assistance is provided to those who desperately need it in Gaza.