UNICEF’s global Interventions on Health for Peace: Examples from the field

It is my pleasure to address you via this video message for the‘Health for Peace’ Conference. Apologies for not being able toattend the conference in person and losing the chance to enjoy thebeautiful autumn of Shiraz.All emergency situations, be they natural disaster or man-madeconflict, will affect the health of the populations and bring aboutsubstantial loss and disruption to public health systems.Unfortunately, under such complex circumstances, children areamong those who are affected the worst.Conflicts could cause trauma, injuries, life-term disabilities andeven death of children. Conflicts also exacerbate the mostcommon causes of childhood illness and death, includingdiarrhea, pneumonia, malaria, malnutrition and neonataldisorders as a result of disruption of health systems and essentialservices.Sometimes the warring parties in a conflict deny access to basichealth services for the vulnerable population including children.Denial of basic services to certain groups of people even duringpeace time, is a form of structural violence which in turn cantrigger open conflict. Equitable provision of health services for allgroups can promote peace and can be considered one of thedimensions of Health for Peace .