Policy Tag: Inhuman

Adopted by the 29th World Medical Assembly, Tokyo, Japan, October 1975
Editorially revised by the 170th WMA Council Session, Divonne-les-Bains, France, May 2005
and the 173rd WMA Council Session, Divonne-les-Bains, France, May 2006
and revised by the 67th WMA General Assembly, Taipei, Taiwan, October 2016

 

PREAMBLE

It is the privilege of the physician to practise medicine in the service of humanity, to preserve and restore bodily and mental health without distinction as to persons, and to comfort and to ease the suffering of his or her patients. The utmost respect for human life is to be maintained even under threat, and no use is to be made of any medical knowledge contrary to the laws of humanity.

For the purpose of this Declaration, torture is defined as the deliberate, systematic or wanton infliction of physical or mental suffering by one or more persons acting alone or on the orders of any authority, to force another person to yield information, to make a confession, or for any other reason.

 

DECLARATION

1. The physician shall not countenance, condone or participate in the practice of torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading procedures, whatever the offense of which the victim of such procedures is suspected, accused or guilty, and whatever the victim’s beliefs or motives, and in all situations, including armed conflict and civil strife.

2. The physician shall not provide any premises, instruments, substances or knowledge to facilitate the practice of torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or to diminish the ability of the victim to resist such treatment.

3. When providing medical assistance to detainees or prisoners who are, or who could later be, under interrogation, physicians should be particularly careful to ensure the confidentiality of all personal medical information. A breach of the Geneva Conventions shall in any case be reported by the physician to relevant authorities.

4. As stated in WMA Resolution on the Responsibility of Physicians in the Documentation and Denunciation of Acts of Torture or Cruel or Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and as an exception to professional confidentiality, physicians have the ethical obligation to report abuses, where possible with the subject’s consent, but in certain circumstances where the victim is unable to express him/herself freely, without explicit consent.

5. The physician shall not use nor allow to be used, as far as he or she can, medical knowledge or skills, or health information specific to individuals, to facilitate or otherwise aid any interrogation, legal or illegal, of those individuals.

6. The physician shall not be present during any procedure during which torture or any other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment is used or threatened.

7. A physician must have complete clinical independence in deciding upon the care of a person for whom he or she is medically responsible. The physician’s fundamental role is to alleviate the distress of his or her fellow human beings, and no motive, whether personal, collective or political, shall prevail against this higher purpose.

8. Where a prisoner refuses nourishment and is considered by the physician as capable of forming an unimpaired and rational judgment concerning the consequences of such a voluntary refusal of nourishment, he or she shall not be fed artificially, as stated in WMA Declaration of Malta on Hunger Strikers. The decision as to the capacity of the prisoner to form such a judgment should be confirmed by at least one other independent physician. The consequences of the refusal of nourishment shall be explained by the physician to the prisoner.

9. Recalling the Declaration of Hamburg concerning Support for Medical Doctors Refusing to Participate in, or to Condone, the Use of Torture or Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, the World Medical Association supports, and encourages the international community, the National Medical Associations and fellow physicians to support, the physician and his or her family in the face of threats or reprisals resulting from a refusal to condone the use of torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

10. The World Medical Association calls on National Medical Associations to encourage physicians to continue their professional development training and education in human rights.

Adopted by the 49th WMA General Assembly, Hamburg, Germany, November 1997,
reaffirmed by the 176th WMA Council Session, Berlin, Germany, May 2007
And reaffirmed with minor revision by the 207th WMA Council session, Chicago, United States, October 2017

PREAMBLE

1.     On the basis of a number of international ethical declarations and guidelines subscribed to by the medical profession, physicians throughout the world are prohibited from countenancing, condoning or participating in the practice of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment for any reason.

2.     Primary among these declarations are the World Medical Association’s International Code of Medical Ethics, Declaration of Geneva, the Declaration of Tokyo (1975), the Resolution on the Responsibility of Physicians in the Documentation and Denunciation of Acts of Torture or Inhuman or Degrading Treatment (2003) and the Resolution on Physician Participation in Capital Punishment(1981); as well as the Standing Committee of European Doctors’ Statement of Madrid (1989); the Nordic Resolution Concerning Physician Involvement in Capital Punishment; and, the World Psychiatric Association’s Declaration of Hawaii.

3.     However, none of these declarations or statements addresses explicitly the issue of what protection should be extended to physicians if they are pressured, called upon, or ordered to take part in torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Nor do these declarations or statements express explicit support for, or the obligation to protect, doctors who encounter or become aware of such procedures.

RESOLUTION

4.     The World Medical Association (WMA) hereby reiterates and reaffirms the responsibility of the organised medical profession:

4.1  To encourage physicians to honour their commitment as physicians to serve humanity and to resist any pressure to act contrary to the ethical principles governing their dedication to this task;

4.2  To support physicians experiencing difficulties as a result of their resistance to any such pressure or as a result of their attempts to speak out or to act against such inhuman procedures; and,

4.3  To extend its support and to encourage other international organisations, as well as the constituent members of the World Medical Association (WMA), to support physicians encountering difficulties as a result of their attempts to act in accordance with the highest ethical principles of the profession.

4.4  To encourage physicians to report and document any acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment they are aware of.

5.     Furthermore, in view of the continued employment of such inhumane procedures in many countries throughout the world, and the documented incidents of pressure upon physicians to act in contravention to the ethical principles subscribed to by the profession, the WMA finds it necessary:

5.1  To protest internationally against any involvement of, or any pressure to involve, physicians in acts of torture and or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;

5.2  To support and protect, and to call upon its constituent members NMAs to support and protect, physicians who are resisting involvement in such inhuman procedures or who are documenting and reporting these procedures, or who are working to treat and rehabilitate victims thereof, as well as to secure the right to uphold the highest ethical principles including medical confidentiality;

5.3  To publicize information about and to support physicians reporting evidence of torture and to make known proven cases of attempts to involve physicians in such procedures; and,

5.4  To encourage its constituent members to take action so that physicians are held accountable before the law in case of complicity in acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;

5.5  To encourage its constituent members to ask corresponding academic authorities to teach and investigate in all schools of medicine and hospitals the consequences of torture and its treatment, the rehabilitation of the survivors, the documentation of torture, and the professional protection described in this Declaration.