What does humanitarian law say about hospitals?
The Geneva Conventions, adopted in the aftermath of World War II, form the core of international humanitarian law and “are particularly protective of civilian hospitals,” said Mathilde Philip-Gay, an expert in international humanitarian law at Lyon 3 University in southeast France.
“It is forbidden to turn recognized civilian hospitals into a conflict zone. It is also forbidden to use civilian populations, the sick or the injured as human shields. It is a war crime, as is fighting from inside a hospital,” she said.
Article 8 of the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, defines a long list of war crimes, including “intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals and places where the sick and wounded are collected.”
However, it makes an exception if the targets are “military objectives.”
Philip-Gay said that “if a civilian hospital is used for acts harmful to the enemy, that is the legal term used,” the hospital can lose its protected status under international law and be considered a legitimate target.
Nevertheless, if there is doubt as to whether a hospital is a military objective or being used for acts harmful to the enemy, the presumption, under international humanitarian law, is that it is not, she said.
It is widely accepted that Hamas has an extensive tunnel network across Gaza.
Israel is not a member of the ICC, but the ICC says it has jurisdiction in Gaza and the West Bank, because Palestine is a state party to the court, a claim Israel disputes.
“For those responsible for targeting and firing missiles, I wish to be clear on three points in particular. One: in relation to every dwelling house, in relation to any school, any hospital, any church, any mosque — those places are protected, unless the protective status has been lost because they are being used for military purposes. Two: if there is a doubt that a civilian object has lost its protective status, the attacker must assume that it is protected. Three: the burden of demonstrating that this protective status is lost rests with those who fire the gun, the missile, or the rocket in question,” ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan wrote in the Guardian.
“In this context, I would also underline that the indiscriminate firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel may represent breaches of international humanitarian law subject to the jurisdiction of the ICC,” Khan said.
Yet, what happens if a hospital loses its protected status?
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that “any military operation around or within hospitals must take steps to spare and protect the patients, medical staff, and other civilians. All feasible precautions must be taken, including effective warnings, which consider the ability of patients, medical staff, and other civilians to evacuate safely.”
“The other party must take all precautions to avoid intentionally targeting civilians,” Philip-Gay said.
Even if the hospital was used for “acts harmful to the enemy,” the other party “does not have the right to bombard it for two days and completely destroy it,” she said, citing the need under international law for the response to be “proportionate.”
She added that the other party must give advance warning of its response, and that evacuation procedures must be put in place for patients and health workers.
Alternatively, they could be asked “to isolate themselves in a part of the hospital,” she said.
However, during any military operation against the site, “there have to be doctors to take care of the patients,” she added.
With Agence France-Presse
US President Donald Trump created some consternation in Taiwan last week when he told a news conference that a successful trade deal with China would help with “unification.” Although the People’s Republic of China has never ruled Taiwan, Trump’s language struck a raw nerve in Taiwan given his open siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression seeking to “reunify” Ukraine and Russia. On earlier occasions, Trump has criticized Taiwan for “stealing” the US’ chip industry and for relying too much on the US for defense, ominously presaging a weakening of US support for Taiwan. However, further examination of Trump’s remarks in
It is being said every second day: The ongoing recall campaign in Taiwan — where citizens are trying to collect enough signatures to trigger re-elections for a number of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators — is orchestrated by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), or even President William Lai (賴清德) himself. The KMT makes the claim, and foreign media and analysts repeat it. However, they never show any proof — because there is not any. It is alarming how easily academics, journalists and experts toss around claims that amount to accusing a democratic government of conspiracy — without a shred of evidence. These
As the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) reach the point of confidence that they can start and win a war to destroy the democratic culture on Taiwan, any future decision to do so may likely be directly affected by the CCP’s ability to promote wars on the Korean Peninsula, in Europe, or, as most recently, on the Indian subcontinent. It stands to reason that the Trump Administration’s success early on May 10 to convince India and Pakistan to deescalate their four-day conventional military conflict, assessed to be close to a nuclear weapons exchange, also served to
China on May 23, 1951, imposed the so-called “17-Point Agreement” to formally annex Tibet. In March, China in its 18th White Paper misleadingly said it laid “firm foundations for the region’s human rights cause.” The agreement is invalid in international law, because it was signed under threat. Ngapo Ngawang Jigme, head of the Tibetan delegation sent to China for peace negotiations, was not authorized to sign the agreement on behalf of the Tibetan government and the delegation was made to sign it under duress. After seven decades, Tibet remains intact and there is global outpouring of sympathy for Tibetans. This realization
RSS