Over the weekend, the Syrian government of Bashar Al Assad returned to one of its preferred methods of conducting warfare – bombing hospitals.
On Saturday evening, regime warplanes carried out airstrikes on a hospital in the town of Afrin, which is under rebel control, killing 13 people and wounding 11, per initial reports by an NGO involved in running the facility. Two nurses were killed, as were two ambulance workers, and a midwife was in critical condition – essential workers of the sort venerated around the world these days, who have become targets for the Syrian government. The two missiles hit the emergency and the labour and delivery wards of the hospital, which has been put out of service and evacuated.
Ironically, this latest crime followed a flabbergasting election last month that saw Syria elevated to the executive board of the World Health Organisation for a three-year term, despite a decade of impunity, bombing hospitals, targeting medical workers, destroying ambulances and killing first responders with so-called "double-tap" strikes. This latest bombing highlights what the Syrian government thinks of the concepts of a rules-based international order and impunity in violating the tenets of international law and the norms of warfare.
A member of the White Helmets inspects the damage in one of the rooms of Al Shifa Hospital earlier this month. AFP
Syria has systematically targeted health facilities as a weapon of war from the early years of the revolution-turned-civil war, a strategy that amounts to committing war crimes and may also be a crime against humanity.
The evidence for this is catalogued in countless videos and archival footage, testimony, survivor accounts, independent UN reports, investigative journalism, open-source investigations, and other methods. I visited one such destroyed hospital during a trip to Syria in 2017, and it was a disorienting and disturbing experience. The facility was built into the side of a hill to protect it against airstrikes, but had nevertheless been put out of commission by over half a dozen missile strikes because it was treating chemical attack victims. I spent plenty of time in hospitals as a child because both of my parents were doctors, and the rhythmic orderliness of the wards felt a world away as shattered glass crunched underneath my feet, medicine was strewn on the floor, and the bright white lights were replaced with an enveloping darkness.
The NGO Physicians for Human Rights, which tracks attacks on healthcare facilities worldwide, has documented 595 attacks on at least 350 medical facilities throughout Syria since the start of the conflict in 2011, and a whopping 540 of them, or 90 per cent of all bombings, were carried out by the Syrian military, Russia, and allied forces. At least 930 medical workers have been killed over the course of the war – in the bombings themselves as well as by torture or extrajudicial killings. Once again, the Syrian government and its allies had the lion’s share of the abuses, with 827 of the killings, or 89 per cent, carried out by them.
This systematic destruction of people and facilities whose role is to provide succour and healing amid the endless bloodshed was not even carried out because of military or tactical expediency – the war crimes were enshrined into law. In 2012, the government designated medical facilities in opposition-controlled areas as legitimate military targets as part of an anti-terrorism law. Most regimes that commit atrocities and abuses of this scale at least seek to obscure their role in carrying them out or deny the fact that they even happened. Not the Syrian regime – it is happy to signal its premeditation and intent before committing war crimes, confident in its estimation that the world will do nothing about it.
It is probably past time for the world to do anything about it. In fact, Syria has been given membership of the executive board of the world’s global public health body.
But we must not lose sight of the broader implications of these crimes and what they do to our collective humanity and sense of decency and their impact on the conduct of war in the future. International norms are simply that – norms that we all agree to uphold. These norms can be replaced by new norms if they become obsolete.
If the world at large decides that bombing hospitals is against international norms and customs, that norm is only valid for as long as it is upheld. If we do not uphold it, bombing hospitals in war becomes the norm, and is deployed with greater impunity in the next major conflict because it ceases to shock and outrage our collective conscience. As these norms are eroded, so does our collective sense of morality.
For every doctor, nurse, paramedic, man, woman and child killed in these endless hospital bombings, we all lose a piece of our humanity.
Kareem Shaheen is a veteran Middle East correspondent in Canada and a columnist for The National
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
Investors: Palestine’s Ibtikar Fund, Abu Dhabi’s Gothams and angel investors
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11 What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time. TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
