The Role of Health in Peacebuilding in the Phases of Armed Conflict with Reference to the Performance of the World Health Organization

Introduction
Various factors can lead to the violation of the right to health, the weakening and even the collapse of a country's health system, among which the outbreak of armed conflict is considered the most important and devastating factor. The exacerbation of diseases, widespread malnutrition, the systematic destruction of health system infrastructure and structures, and the alarming increase in mental illnesses are among the most significant and long-lasting effects of violent conflicts. As two fundamental and interdependent human rights, health and peace maintain a complex and mutually reinforcing relationship. Health can play an influential and transformative role in peacebuilding across all three critical phases: before the outbreak, during, and after the cessation of armed conflict. There is no doubt that building and maintaining sustainable peace through health initiatives requires a comprehensive, multifaceted approach 
that cannot be successfully achieved without the active participation and commitment of health professionals at all levels. The health system, as the primary institution responsible for medical treatment before, during and after the outbreak of conflict, has specific tasks and responsibilities that it must carry out through its trained personnel and established networks. This global system is coordinated and led by the World Health Organization as the preeminent international health body. This organization, while fully understanding the fundamental importance of sustainable peace for global health, consistently emphasizes the special role of doctors, nurses and other health workers in building, maintaining and promoting peace as the most important factor in achieving the goal of universal health coverage. This article systematically answers two key questions: what concrete role does health play in peacebuilding throughout different conflict phases, and what specific measures has the World Health Organization implemented in this regard?
Method
This article thoroughly examines the issue based on a rigorous descriptive-analytical method that incorporates multiple research approaches. The comprehensive content of this article has been carefully collected through extensive reference to authoritative Persian and English academic books and peer-reviewed journal articles. Relevant international legal documents and official reports from international organizations, as well as reliable institutional websites, have also been critically reviewed and analyzed, with significant content being systematically extracted from these diverse sources to ensure a balanced perspective.
Results
This article presents a compelling argument that health should be considered central and indispensable to peacebuilding efforts for two fundamental and interrelated reasons. First, access to basic health services and ensuring a minimum quality of health standards constitute an inalienable human right that must be protected in all circumstances. In this fundamental sense, improving population health represents not just a means but an essential goal in itself. Especially for societies devastated and traumatized by prolonged war, the urgent provision of improved medical and public health services is both desperately needed and morally imperative. Second, improving health outcomes serves as an integral and necessary component of other critical elements of peacebuilding and consolidation, namely sustainable economic development, meaningful political participation, and long-term societal stability. In practical terms, the health system can play a key and multifaceted role in supporting the interconnected fields of health, peace, and development, as well as in transforming the prevailing culture of violence into a sustainable culture of peace, primarily through innovative health diplomacy and equitable healthcare delivery.
During active conflict situations, the role of doctors, nurses, and frontline health workers becomes particularly crucial and challenging in efforts to reduce tensions, mitigate conflict impacts, and ultimately create conditions for stability and reconciliation. Restoring or strengthening community trust that has been severely eroded by violence, particularly through ensuring fair and impartial distribution of scarce health services, represents an important peacebuilding strategy that can be highly effective at this critical stage of conflict. In this regard, the health system can be particularly impactful by actively supporting the efficient delivery of humanitarian medical aid and participating in mediated dialogue processes between conflicting parties through health-focused diplomacy, thereby helping to reduce hostilities and resolve underlying tensions.
This article also reaches the significant conclusion that building trust between divided social groups, facilitating collaborative health partnerships, improving health equity through structured dialogue between government agencies, health providers and humanitarian organizations, promoting mutual understanding and cooperation, and helping to reconstruct damaged health infrastructure constitute important and practical measures that can substantially contribute to peacebuilding both during ongoing conflicts and in post-conflict recovery phases. The World Health Organization has also been consistently trying for many years to play a constructive role in achieving sustainable peace through health interventions, primarily through two flagship programs: the innovative "Health as a Bridge to Peace" initiative and the comprehensive "Humanitarian Response" framework, although their concrete results have shown considerable variation across different contexts, despite demonstrating significant potential effectiveness in certain situations.
Conclusions
Overall, the success and measurable effectiveness of health systems in contributing to peacebuilding has varied considerably across different conflict settings and historical periods. In reality, it is not possible to formulate a definitive or universal assessment regarding the precise extent to which specific health programs have been successful in establishing lasting peace, although substantial evidence suggests their effectiveness has been highly context-dependent and variable. The complex reality is that a careful examination of conditions in countries affected by violent conflicts clearly shows that given their vastly different situations in terms of the specific conditions prevailing at the time of conflict, as well as their varying institutional abilities, technical capacities, health system resilience, educational resources, and financial facilities, the effectiveness and long-term success of health-focused programs in establishing and maintaining sustainable peace in these troubled territories has inevitably shown significant variation and requires case-by-case evaluation.