On 23–24 March 2026, Dustin A. Lewis, Research Director of the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict, participated in the Greentree Retreat on International Humanitarian Law, “Ten Years after Resolution 2286: Renewing Commitment to the Protection of Health Care in Armed Conflict under IHL.” The retreat was convened by the Permanent Mission of Spain to the United Nations in New York ahead of the tenth anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 2286 (2016).

The retreat brought together representatives of UN Security Council members and other Member States, UN entities, humanitarian organizations, civil-society actors, and scholars to assess trends, gaps, and possible commitments relating to the protection of health care in armed conflict. Discussions took place against a concerning backdrop of continued attacks against health care, including direct attacks on medical facilities, interference with medical personnel, units, and transports, and broader constraints on the provision of care.

Lewis spoke in the session titled “The Future of Protecting the Medical Mission: Accountability, Political Action and Collective Commitments.” The session focused on strategic priorities for the coming years, including accountability frameworks, implementation of IHL, and possible action by the Security Council, Member States, and the broader UN system to renew and strengthen commitments to protect the medical mission. In his intervention, Lewis outlined a range of legal and institutional pathways that may be available to respond to attacks against health care and other forms of illegitimate interference with the performance of protected medical functions. He addressed accountability avenues across domestic, regional, and international levels. Lewis also examined options through which the Security Council and Member States might pursue more systematic follow-up to Resolution 2286. His remarks emphasized that, amid a more fragmented and contested multilateral environment, the protection of the wounded and sick — and of the medical personnel, units, transports, facilities, data, and systems that make care possible — remains a central and indispensable element of IHL.