Legal framework governing Short-Term Medical Missions

The presence and influence of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the landscape of global health and development have dramatically increased over the past several decades. Increasingly, Medical Practitioners in industrialized countries have become interested in global health issues, an interest that often takes the form of Short-Term international Medical Missions (STMMs). His article will aim to help Medical Practitioners to have a synthetic overview of the legal framework governing medical volunteering in STMMs and give them some recommendations. The idea of this article started from the need to have an overview of the legal framework governing medical volunteering missions organized by the Claros’s Foundation named "Foundation Clarós" (hereinafter also "FC"). To better understand who this article is addressed to, it is interesting to bring to your attention the concrete case from which this article was born. The following is a brief outline of what FC is all about. FC is a private, non-profit organization (NGO) whose aim is to provide medical care and alleviate the suffering of people in health and medical precarious situations.