Initiated in January 2022, the Forum to Address Attacks on Health Professionals brings together health care and scientific associations to work collectively in response to assaults on health professionals, in the United States and around the world.

We believe the use of violence to disrupt the work of health professionals and undermine health systems, which ranges from threats against public health professionals responding to the COVID-19 pandemic to physical attacks on health workers in conflict zones, has been too long ignored. Threats and violence are often magnified for health professionals with intersecting minoritized or marginalized identities, arising from issues ranging from individual prejudice to organized persecution of religious, political, or ethnic groups. These attacks—and the failure to take concerted action to prevent and stop them—amount to a betrayal of global commitments to international humanitarian and human rights law in conflicts and in situations of political volatility. Attacks on health professionals not only harm the health and well-being of our colleagues; they also impede people’s right to access needed healthcare services and threaten the functioning of health systems in accordance with public health principles, often with the largest impact on historically marginalized or minoritized communities.

We firmly believe that health professionals have the right and duty to provide ethical, evidence-based care and professional advice, free from threats or violence. As a platform of exchange and a catalyst for common action, the forum will work together and support member initiatives that strive to:

• Connect members of the health and scientific communities working to address this issue and in need of assistance
• Educate members of professional associations, as well as the public and policy makers, on the problem and possibilities for addressing it
• Support and defend health professionals under threat
• Advocate for greater protection and accountability measures
• Ensure that all measures to address attacks incorporate the experience and input of those most impacted, including historically marginalized and minoritized groups

Our goal is to use our collective knowledge to mitigate and prevent violence against health professionals wherever it occurs, including through sustained attention to and support for historically marginalized or minoritized groups. As the scale of the problem is vast and varied, we believe we can do more together than our individual resources allow. The international composition of this forum enhances our understanding of this global problem and ability to formulate effective and innovative means to address it.