11 March 2022
Reacting to the tragedies unfolding in Ukraine including the attacks on medical facilities and hospitals, Gordon Miles, Chief Executive Officer of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said:
“Attacks on health facilities are an absolute redline, they must be condemned and must cease immediately. Patients and medical workers in areas engulfed by conflict must never be targeted or be allowed to become collateral damage as part of wider war and violence.
“The Colombo Declaration makes clear that attacks on healthcare facilities, personnel and their patients will be condemned, will be an absolute redline, and that they will be protected under international law, international human rights law, the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, and UN Resolution 2286. We have written to successive Foreign Secretaries, asking the government to signal support for this declaration.
“Medics and medical personnel must have safe passage in conflict zones, including in Ukraine, and be able to provide medical assistance in protected healthcare facilities to the sick and injured without the threat or fear of attacks or violence.”
