1 Extract from a discussion between Joni, an MSF volunteer, and James Orbinski in Somalia around 1992. Quoted in Orbinski, James, Le cauchemar humanitaire, Music & Entertainment Books, Marne-la-Vallée, 2010, p. 99Google Scholar.

2 MSF is termed ‘the organisation’, ‘the movement’, or ‘MSF’ throughout this article.

3 ICRC, Health care in danger: Making the case, ICRC, Geneva, 2011Google Scholar.

4 Conversation with Jérôme Oberreit, Secretary General of MSF International, 16 May 2013.

5 Used mainly in psychiatry and criminology, the techniques of ‘risk assessment’ have moved away from their initial usage. See Douglas, Kevin A., Cox, David N. and Webster, Christopher D., ‘Violence risk assessment: Science and practice’, in Legal and Criminological Psychology, Vol. 4, 1999, pp. 149–184CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 The MSF movement comprises five operational sections and 23 associations.

7 See, for example, the memoirs of Norris, John, The Disaster Gypsies: Humanitarian Workers in the World's Deadliest Conflicts, Praeger Security International, Westport, CT, 2007, pp. 7–8Google Scholar.

8 The concept of ‘moral panic’ has its origins in the work of Jock Young and Stanley Cohen. It often refers to the impact of the media and other forms of expression of opinion on the development of new social perceptions of danger in response to concern about social changes. The concept is now an integral part of the development of approaches to risk and risk assessment. See Cohen, Stanley, Folk Devils and Moral Panics, Blackwell, Oxford, 1972Google Scholar; Thompson, Kenneth, Moral Panics, Routledge, London, 1998Google Scholar. For more recent use, see Ungar, Sheldon, ‘Moral Panic Versus the Risk Society: The Implications of the Changing Sites of Social Anxiety’, in The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 52, No. 2, 2001, pp. 271–291CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

9 In this regard, see Michel Tondellier, ‘L'action organisée face à la prise de risque: l'héroïsme au travail et son institutionnalisation’, Proceedings of the symposium ‘Acteur, risque et prise de risque’, 25 and 26 November 2004, Centre lillois d'études sociologiques et économiques, UMR 8019 Centre national de la recherche scientifique.

10 The Chinese press, for example, reported 17,000 incidents in 2011: Wall Street Journal, 22 October 2012; see Hesketh, Therese, Wu, Dan, Mao, Linan and Ma, Nan, ‘Violence against Doctors in China’, in BMJ 2012;345/e.5730CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Violence in hospitals is also at the centre of investigations in France and in the United Kingdom. See Ministère du Travail, de l'Emploi et de la Santé (French Ministry of Work, Employment and Health), Bilan national des remontées des signalements d'actes de violence en milieu hospitalier, 2011.

11 A series of semi-structured interviews was carried out in order to substantiate this article. Four members of MSF took part in interviews held to record the issues relating to incidents they had experienced while working for the organisation in the field. The reports were recorded and written up in extenso. The questions and all the replies are available on request.

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18 ‘A deeply worrisome pattern is emerging, where people and their scarce resources are deliberately targeted by all the armed groups involved in inter-communal violence. Hospitals, health clinics, and water sources are all targets, suggesting a tactic of depriving people of life's basic essentials, precisely when they need them most’. See Médecins Sans Frontières, ‘Even Running Away Is Not Enough: Attacks in Jonglei, South Sudan, Perpetuate Extreme Violence’, 24 January 2012, available at: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/press/release.cfm?id=5740ost (last visited 13 June 2013).

19 ‘Biopolitics designates the assumption of control by the power of the processes that affect life, from birth to death (disease, age, disability, environmental effects, etc.) and that, while absolutely random on the scale of the individual, have, as a collective phenomenon, decisive economic and political effects’ [ICRC translation]. See Cuillerai, Marie and Abélès, Marc, ‘Mondialisation: du géo-culturel au bio-politique’, in Anthropologie et Sociétés, Vol. 26, No. 1, 2002, p. 22CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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21 An argument to this effect is put forward by Fast, Larissa, ‘Characteristics, context and risk: NGO insecurity in conflict zones’, in Disasters, Vol. 31, No. 2, 2007, pp. 130–154CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

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24 Médecins Sans Frontières, ‘Libya: Detainees Tortured and Denied Medical Care, MSF Suspends Work in Detention Centers in Misrata’, 26 January 2012, available at: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/press/release.cfm?id=5744 (last visited 13 June 2013).

25 With regard to the terminology used by humanitarian agencies, see Abu Sa'Da, Caroline, Dans l’œil des autres: Perception de l'action humanitaire et de MSF, Editions Antipodes, Lausanne, 2011, pp. 43–50Google Scholar.

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27 In fact, the term ‘sanctuary’ implies the capacity of society to remove individuals from a situation of danger and to produce a situation in violation of the usual rules; in the North American context the concept of sanctuary refers to local and exceptional campaigns run by churches or other religions relying on ‘pastoral power’ in aid of a few refugees. As this concept has no implications for the majority of other refugees, it is not a universally recognized principle, but merely a locally negotiated balance of power. See Lippert, Randy, ‘Sanctuary Practices, Rationalities, and Sovereignties’, in Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, Vol. 29, No. 5, 2004, pp. 535–555CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

28 Interview with Fiona Terry, Geneva, 14 May 2013.

29 Certain public statements made by MSF concerning security incidents explicitly mention the attack on the fundamental principles of medical humanitarian aid. For example: ‘The attack on our team in Kismayo has been an attack on the very idea of humanitarianism and our ability to alleviate the suffering in Somalia’, available at: http://www.msf.org/article/attack-our-team-kismayo-has-been-attack-very-idea-humanitarianism-and-our-ability-alleviate (last visited 13 June 2013).

30 For two historical examples at critical moments, see Huber, Max, ‘Croix-Rouge et neutralité’, in Revue internationale de la Croix-Rouge, Vol. 18, No. 209, 1936, pp. 353–363CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Weil, Carola, ‘The Protection-Neutrality Dilemma in Humanitarian Emergencies: Why the Need for Military Intervention?’, in International Migration Review, Vol. 35, No. 1, 2001, pp. 79–116CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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32 Hugo Slim and Miriam Bradley, ‘Principled Humanitarian Action and Ethical Tensions in Multi-Mandate Organizations in Armed Conflict, Observations from a Rapid Literature Review’, in World Vision, March 2013, p. 13.

33 Ibid. See also Rieffer-Flanagan, Barbara Ann, ‘Is Neutral Humanitarianism Dead? Red Cross Neutrality Walking the Tightrope of Neutral Humanitarianism’, in Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 4, 2009, pp. 888–915CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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46 Income groups: economies are classified by gross national income (GNI) per capita for the year 2011, calculated according to the World Bank Atlas method. The groups are: low income, $1,025 or less; lower middle income, $1,026–$4,035; upper middle income, $4,036–$12,475; and high-income, $12,476 or more. Available at: http://data.worldbank.org/about/country-classifications (last visited 13 June 2013). See Duffield, Mark R., Global governance and the new wars: the merging of development and security, Zed Books, London, 2001Google Scholar; Newman, Edward, ‘The “New Wars” Debate: A Historical Perspective is Needed’, in Security Dialogue, Vol. 35, No. 2, 2004, pp. 173–189CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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64 MSF France Archives, Afghanistan 1996, 1997 and 1998, in particular on the conflicts with the Taliban over access to health care for women.

65 Pierre Micheletti discusses ‘affectabilité’ in ‘Les humanitaires français à l'épreuve de la Syrie’, Le Monde, 28 February 2012, available at: http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2012/02/28/les-humanitaires-francais-a-l-epreuve-de-la-syrie_1649002_3232.html (last visited 13 June 2013).

66 For example, see: Médecins Sans Frontières, ‘Afghanistan – L'humanitaire “assassiné”’, 5 July 2004, available at: http://www.msf.fr/actualite/articles/afghanistan-humanitaire-assassine (last visited 13 June 2013).

67 A patient executed in a Honduran Red Cross ambulance: ‘Acribillan a un hombre dentro de ambulancia en Honduras’, in La Prensa, 20 March 2013, available at: http://www.laprensa.hn/csp/mediapool/sites/LaPrensa/Sucesos/Policiales/story.csp?cid=365888&sid=951&fid=98 (last visited 29 August 2013).

68 A health centre was closed in Tegucigalpa because of constant threats and extortion on the part of the Maras: ‘Mareros le sacan carrera a personal de centro de salud’, in La Tribuna, 8 December 2012, available at: http://www.latribuna.hn/2012/12/08/mareros-le-sacan-carrera-a-personal-de-centro-de-salud/ (last visited 13 June 2013).

69 For example in Ciudad Juarez and Tamaulipas State: ‘Médicos huyen por violencia’, in El Universal, 5 October 2010, available at: http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/primera/35648.html (last visited 13 June 2013).

70 Private communication, MSF adviser, Mexico, 2013.

71 Discussion with François Delfosse, Head of MSF mission, Geneva, 12 April 2013.

72 Archives MSF France Afghanistan 1996, 1997, 1998.

73 Private communication, teaching staff, University of Mexico Faculty of Medicine, Mexico City, 6 April 2011.

74 There are no doctors in the country's 74 municipalities, which have a population of some 500,000. A large number of complaints have been addressed to the Health Secretary about the lack of treatment available: ‘No hay médicos en 74 municipios del país’, in La Prensa, 2 April 2011, available at: http://archivo.laprensa.hn/content/view/full/488396 (last visited on 13 June 2013).

75 ‘Médecins Sans Frontières expresses its serious concern for the security of its surgical centre in Aden, following the irruption into the hospital of a group of armed men during the night of 18 to 19 June. These men tried to carry away a patient who was receiving treatment in the emergency room’ [ICRC translation]. See Médecins Sans Frontières, ‘Yémen: MSF appelle au respect de la neutralité des hôpitaux’, 21 June 2012, available at: http://www.msf.fr/actualite/articles/yemen-msf-appelle-au-respect-neutralite-hopitaux (last visited 13 June 2013).

76 Interview with Laurent Ligozat, Deputy Director of Operations, MSF Switzerland, Geneva, 13 May 2013.

77 Pierre Valette, Du tri à l'Autre: Éthique et médecine d'urgence, Thesis presented and defended at the Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée, 1 December 2011, p. 181.

78 ‘While security concerns persist in Nigeria – amplified by the August bombing of UN headquarters in Abuja – a quarter of the children not vaccinated in the July 2011 immunization campaign were due to refusals – with greater than 80% of refusals in the northern States of Kano, Sokoto and Jigawa’, in Larson, Heidi J. and Paterson, Pauline, ‘Eradicating polio: persisting challenges beyond endemic countries’, in Expert Review of Vaccines, 2011, pp. 1635–1636CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

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83 A field in which MSF teams have often shown great sensitivity, which has sometimes influenced international opinion. Archives MSF France, Comité Solidarité étranger (Afghanistan, 1985–1987).

84 For views on the difficulty experienced by medical teams in analysing violent phenomena, see Duroch, Françoise, ‘Le viol, arme de guerre: l'humanitaire en désarroi’, in Les Temps Modernes, No. 627, 2004, pp. 138–147CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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86 ‘MSF is gravely concerned for the safety of our staff and patients following a serious incident occurring in an MSF medical facility in Dinsor (Bay region, Somalia) on December 27. After taking control of Dinsor, representatives of military forces entered the MSF medical facility, pressured the Somali medical staff employed by MSF, and confiscated all inpatient confidential medical files’, in Médecins Sans Frontières, ‘After a Week of Intense Fighting in Somalia, MSF Extremely Concerned about the Security of Medical Staff and Safety of Patients’, 28 December 2006, available at: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/press/release.cfm?id=1916&cat=press-release (last visited 13 June 2013).

87 For example in Somalia, where two MSF colleagues were killed in Mogadishu in December 2011.

88 The National Report on the increase in reports of acts of violence in the hospital setting records a similar trend and notes that a policy encouraging reporting of such incidents may result in their increase, while tolerance with regard to violent episodes depends largely on the persons who fall victim to them. ‘The establishments do not all report the events that occur in the same manner, for a subjective analysis of the event partly remains, and the threshold of tolerance to agression is very different from one set of personnel to another, from one structure to another, from one establishment to another’. [ICRC translation] See French Ministry of Work, Employment and Health, above note 10, p. 6.

89 ‘It should be remembered finally that the problem of violence within health facilities requires prudence and prior definitions because violence is protean and subjective. Everyone who encounters this notion gives his or her own definition, a fact that must imperatively be taken into account before any attempt at analysis is made, so as to define a common language from which everyone can draw the elements of communication and information that he or she is seeking.’ [ICRC translation] See French Ministry of Work, Employment and Health, above note 10, p. 4.

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96 Discussion with Laurent Ligozat, Deputy Director of Operations, MSF Switzerland, Geneva, 13 May 2013.

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