Policy Tag: Medical Associations

Adopted by the 49th WMA General Assembly, Hamburg, Germany, November 1997
and reaffirmed by the WMA Council Session, Berlin, Germany, May 2007
and amended by the 69th WMA General Assembly, Reykjavik, Iceland, October 2018

 

SCOPE AND DEFINITIONS

The scope of this Statement includes the following specified crimes: genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

PREAMBLE

  • Physicians are bound by medical ethics to dedicate themselves to the good of their patients. Physicians who have been convicted of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity1, have violated medical ethics, human rights and international law and are therefore unworthy of practising medicine.
  • In accordance with the principle of the presumption of innocence, only physicians who have been convicted of the specified crimes should be declared unworthy of practising medicine.

DISCUSSION

  1. Physicians seeking to work in any country are subject to the regulations of that country’s relevant authorities or jurisdiction. The duty to demonstrate suitability to practice medicine rests with the person seeking licensure.
  2. Physicians who have been convicted of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity must not be allowed to practise in another country or jurisdiction.
  3. The relevant licensing authorities must ensure both that physicians have the required qualifications and that they have not been convicted of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity.
  4. Physicians who have been convicted of the specified crimes have sometimes been able to leave the country in which these crimes were committed and obtain a licence to practise medicine from the relevant licensing authority in another country.
  5. This practice is contrary to the public interest, damaging to the reputation of the medical profession, and may be detrimental to patient safety.

RECOMMENDATIONS

  1. The WMA recommends that physicians who have been convicted of the specified crimes be denied a license to practice medicine and membership to national medical associations by the relevant regulatory and licensing authority of that jurisdiction.
  2. The WMA recommends that relevant regulatory and licensing authorities use their own authority to inform themselves, in so far as is possible, if verifiable allegations of participation in genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity have been made against physicians, while at the same time respecting the presumption of innocence.
  3. National Medical Associations must be sure that a thorough investigation into those allegations is performed by an appropriate authority.
  4. The WMA recommends that national medical associations ensure that there is efficient communication amongst themselves and that where possible and appropriate they inform relevant national regulatory and licensing authorities of physicians’ convictions of genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity.

1 As defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

Adopted as a Council Resolution by the 189th WMA Council Session, Montevideo, Uruguay, October 2011, adopted by the 62nd WMA General Assembly, Montevideo, Uruguay, October 2011
and reaffirmed by the 217th WMA Council Session, Seoul (online), April 2021

 

National medical associations are established to act as representatives of their physicians, and to negotiate on their behalf, sometimes as a trade union or regulatory body but also as a professional association, representing the expertise of medical doctors in relation to matters of public health and wellbeing.

They represent the views of the medical profession, including attempting to ensure the practice of ethical medicine, the provision of good quality medical care, and the adherence to high standards by all practitioners.

These associations may also campaign or advocate on behalf of their members, often in the field of public health.  Such advocacy is not always welcomed by governments who may consider the advocacy to have oppositional politics attached, when in reality it is based upon an understanding of the medical evidence and the needs of patients and populations.

The WMA is aware that because of those advocacy efforts some governments attempt to silence the medical association by placing it’s own nominated representatives into positions of authority, to subvert the message into one they are better able to tolerate.

The WMA denounces such action and demands that no government interferes with the independent functioning of national medical associations.  It encourages governments to understand better the reasons behind the work of their national medical association, to consider the medical evidence and to work with physicians to improve the health and well being of their populations.