Montreal, 10 November 2011 -- Health practitioners and academics across North America have banded together to demand the immediate release of Yaman Qadri, an 18-year old medical student who was disappeared by Syrian security forces one week ago.  Ms. Qadri was forcibly detained at the Faculty of Medicine at Damascus University on November 3rd.

The health workers' letter, signed by fifty nurses, psychologists, doctors, and other health workers from California to Quebec, call Ms. Qadri, "a symbol of the health and future hope of the Syrian people."

The letter places Ms. Qadri's disappearance in the context of a "full-blown health crisis in Syria" and states that Syrian authorities have, "impeded health care workers from responding to the crisis and ... put the lives and well-being of health care workers and students at risk when they have attempted to carry out their responsibilities as health workers and as members of Syrian society."

The North American health care workers conclude with words directed to their colleagues in Syria, "We stand with those nurses, doctors, medics, ambulance drivers and all other health care workers who have defied state pressure and risked their own well-being to uphold medical ethics and deliver health care to all. We are inspired by the Syrian people - health care workers and all others - who have put their lives on the line, with tremendous courage and hope, to struggle for the fundamentals of a healthy society: self-determination, justice and dignity." The full text of the letter as well as the list of signatories is below.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) estimated on Tuesday that "tens of thousands" of people have been detained in Syria and "dozens" are arrested every day. The OHCHR believe that 3500 people have been killed in the government repression, while other sources say that 4,200 people have been killed. The city of Homs is currently experiencing the worst violence, including bombardment by government tanks. Despite the suffering, people in Syria remain opposed to military intervention by foreign states.

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Free Yaman Qadri
Solidarity Statement by Healthcare Workers in Canada and the United States about Health crisis in Syria

As health care workers, health care teachers, health care students, and organizations working in the field of health we join in the calls for the immediate release of Yaman Qadri, an 18-year old student at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Damascus. According to eye-witnesses, Ms. Qadri was publicly beaten and then detained by Syrian security forces at the Faculty of Medicine on November 3rd, 2011. Her family and friends have had no news of her since. They fear that she may be subjected to the same treatment that many others in Syria have suffered in recent months: arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, torture and even death.

As people working and studying in the health field, we the undersigned, demand the immediate and safe release of Yaman Qadri.

We stand behind Yaman Qadri as an individual, as a colleague - and as a symbol of the health and future hope of the Syrian people. We frame our demand in the context of a full-blown health crisis in Syria.

The Syrian state is responsible for this health crisis. Moreover, it has impeded health care workers from responding to the crisis and has put the lives and well-being of health care workers and students at risk when they have attempted to carry out their responsibilities as health workers and as members of Syrian society.

The health crisis in Syria is severe. Briefly*:

* Security forces, shabiha (regime thugs) and military have been deployed in an attempt to repress and subdue the popular revolt with violence, including the use of guns and shelling from tanks. This practice has resulted in extensive injury and death to participants and bystanders.

* The state has detained thousands of activists and suspected activists since mid-March. Prisoners have been subject to a range of ill-treatment and torture and been denied necessary medical care. Physical and psychological trauma have resulted.

* The placing of cities under seige, displacement of people, and the break-down of the economy have had important secondary effects on public health.

* The state has impeded health workers from carrying out their work and attempted to coerce health care workers to report, mistreat or surrender people suspected of participating in the uprising:
- Red Crescent ambulances have been fired upon, stopped, drivers and workers threatened and assaulted, and armed state security forces have entered the ambulance and questioned patients.
- Authorities in the city of Homs ordered that victims of gunshot wounds be brought to the military hospital, where suspected activists are treated as detainees and held incommunicado.
- Authorities ordered both private and state-run hospitals to report patients suspected of having participated in protests.
- Blood supplies can only be obtained from the Central Blood Bank, which is controlled by the Defence Ministry; this means that ordering blood for victims of gun-shot wounds can trigger an alert leading to their arrest.
- Patients have been removed from hospitals by security forces, including during surgery.
- Health care workers that have participated in abuse of suspected activists at state hospitals have not been sanctioned.
- Security forces have entered hospitals and have detained, threatened, interrogated and beaten hospital workers on suspicion of aiding or refusing to report protestors.

* As a result of the danger, people injured by security forces have avoided attempting to access public or private health care. Where field hospitals exist, they are ill-equipped to deal with serious injuries. This has left many with no health care.

We stand with those nurses, doctors, medics, ambulance drivers and all other health care workers who have defied state pressure and risked their own well-being to uphold medical ethics and deliver health care to all.

We are inspired by the Syrian people - health care workers and all others - who have put their lives on the line, with tremendous courage and hope, to struggle for the fundamentals of a healthy society: self-determination, justice and dignity. We offer the local coordinating committees in towns across Syria our support and solidarity in achieving these goals.

Signed**

• Dr. Nancy Arvold, Psychologist, Marriage and Family Therapist, educator,
• Redwood City, California, USA
• David Barbeau, MD, CSSS Jeanne Mance, Montréal, Québec, Canada
• M. Beder, MD, Toronto, Canada
• Khadija Benabdallah, Acupuncteure, Montréal, Québec, Canada
• Nazila Bettache, MD CM, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec
• Nikki Bozinoff, medical student, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario,
• Canada
• Colin Chalk, MD,CM, FRCPC, Associate Professor, Departments of Neurology &
• Neurosurgery and Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
• Janet Cleveland, Ph.D., Psychologist and researcher, Montreal, Québec
• Dr. J.V. Connors, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, NCRP, California State
• University at Dominguez Hills, USA
• Kathy Hardill, RNEC, Nurse Practitioner, Bancroft, Ontario, Canada
• Oliver Haw, MD, FRCPC, Alberta Health Services, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
• Adam Hofmann, MD, Montreal, Quebec
• Helen Hudson, Registered Nurse, MSc(A), Montreal, Quebec
• Farha Najah Hussain, M.Sc (A), Speech-Language Pathologist, Montreal, Canada
• Dr. Stephen Hwang, Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto,
• Toronto, Canada
• Catherine Gagnon, Registered Nurse, Val-Morin, Quebec
• Anne-Marie Gallant, infirmière, Solidarité sans frontières, Montréal, Canada
• Camille Gérin, médecin de famille, Montréal, Québec
• Barinder Jandu, Master of Public Health (MPH) Candidate, University of
• Toronto, Toronto, Canada
• Annie Janvier, MD, PhD, Prof agrégée de Pédiatrie et d'éthique clinique,
• Hôpital Sainte Justine, néonatologie, Montréal, Québec
• Andrea Kermack MD, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
• Catherine Landry, thérapeute en réadaptation physique, Montréal, Canada
• Aaron Leong, Physician, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• Abby Lippman, PhD, Professor Emerita, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec,
• Canada
• Sonia Lipson, Nurse Practitioner, Somerville, Massachusetts, USA
• Tarek Loubani, Emergency Physician, London, Ontario, Canada
• Jessica Lyons, Registered Nurse, St. Joseph's Hospital, OCAP, Toronto,
• Ontario
• Robert Mahood MD, CCFP, Assistant Professor of Family Medicine McGill
• University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
• Abeer Majeed, family physician, Toronto, Canada
• Dr. Gillian Morantz, Pediatric Fellow, Sick Kids Hospital, Toronto, Canada
• Jumana Mubarak, MD, Panama City, Florida, USA
• Dr. B. Mukhopadhyay, Family Medicine Resident, Northern Ontario School of
• Medicine, Timmins, Ontario, Canada
• George J. Netto, MD, Director of Surgical Pathology Molecular Diagnostics,
• Associate Professor of Pathology, Urology and Oncology, Johns Hopkins
• University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
• Catherine Oliver, MD, Toronto, Canada
• Chi-Minh Phi, MD, FRCP(C), Pediatrician, Montreal Children's Hospital,
• McGill University, Montreal, Canada
• Joyce Pickering, MD, FRCPC, FACP, Executive Associate Physician-in-Chief,
• Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
• Rebecca Piser, Registered Nurse, Holyoke, Massacusetts, USA
• Nanky Rai, medical student, Health for All - Migrant Justice Group, Toronto,
• Canada
• Sarah Reaburn, Registered Nurse, Toronto, Canada
• Cécile Rousseau, MD, Université McGill, Montréal, Quebec
• Olivier Sabella, MD, Montreal, Canada
• Alok Sood, MD, Toronto, Canada
• Samir Shaheen-Hussain, pediatrician, Montréal, Quebec, Canada
• Christine T. Trankiem, MD, Physician and Surgeon, Washington, USA
• Scott Weinstein, Registered Nurse, Montreal, Canada
• Jo Wood, Carleton University, Professor of Psychology, Retired, Ottawa,
• Canada
• Oriana Yu, MD, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
• Gulf Coast Pediatric, Florida, USA
• East Bay Saturday Dialogues, California, USA

*For more information, see: Amnesty International, 25 October 2011, "Health Crisis: Syrian government targets the wounded and health workers"; Human Rights Watch, 14 September 2011, "Syria: Red Crescent Workers under Attack"; FIDH, 28 July 2011, "Bashar al Assad: Criminal Against Humanity"; UN Human Rights Council, "Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic", 15 September 2011; Damascus Centre for Human Rights Studies website, www.dchrs.org/english/news.php; Syrian Human Rights Committee website, www.shrc.org.

**If you are a health worker, student/professor in the health field or health organization, you can add your name to this letter by sending an email to syri...@gmail.com with your Name, Title, Organization (if any), and Location.