Rights center reports increased threat to journalists and aid workers in conflict zones News
Nesbitt, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Rights center reports increased threat to journalists and aid workers in conflict zones

The Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human  Rights (Geneva Academy) published a report on Monday that detailed numerous serious human rights violations and war crimes between July 2024 and December 2025 across 23 armed conflicts, and emphasized increased risks posed to journalists and aid workers in conflict zones.

The report, titled “War Watch,” reported instances of targeted attacks on hospitals and humanitarian aid across various conflicts. Experts detailed how “health clinics and hospitals have been repeatedly subjected to airstrikes in Myanmar.” In Gaza, the World Health Organization documented “772 attacks against healthcare facilities” since October 2023. The report also described similar attacks in Haiti, Burkina Faso, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Denouncing these attacks, experts conceded that some may have been justified on the basis of “alleged military use.” However, the report emphasized how, under international law, “even if a facility is being used for military purposes such as storing weapons or soldiers, a warning must be given to end military use before any attack can be mounted.”

The Geneva Academy also outlined how journalists are increasingly targeted “as part of a method of warfare.” It cited a Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) report that found 127 journalists were killed in 2024, nearly two-third of whom were Palestinians who lost their lives working in Gaza. In 2026, the CPJ reported three more deaths of Palestinian journalists.

The UN has condemned these attacks and expressed alarm over the murder of journalists, stating:

We are alarmed at the extraordinarily high numbers of journalists and media workers who have been killed, attacked, injured and detailed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly in Gaza, in recent months blatantly disregarding international law.

The Geneva Academy called for accountability and for countries to uphold international law, at “both domestic and international levels.” In particular, it argued that weapon exports should be impermissible “where there is a clear risk that the arms…will be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law” and advocated for treaty rules prohibiting air-dropped or “long-range artillery” in highly populated zones. The group also pushed for systems to ensure “systematic prosecution of war crimes.”

The targeting of hospitals, healthcare and aid workers, civilians, and members of the press, are violations of international humanitarian law. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, civilians are protected during conflict. Special provisions under Protocol I for articles 15, 79, and 76-77 issue “special protections for women, children and civilian medical personnel, and measures of protection for journalists.”

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