Destruction of telecommunications hinders access to healthcare: A crime against humanity?

Dear Editor:

In the Ukrainian conflict, healthcare for civilians has become a relative concept though the international community considered it a fundamental right that even the invaders should guarantee. Despite the invader’s statement to carry out the attacks only on military targets, it is not unusual that hospitals and medical staff have been deliberately bombed as happened to Mariupol children’s hospital.

Technology infrastructures are key to both military and civilian activities and represented one of the first targets destroyed in past wars. Hence, telecommunication network outages are becoming more common in the Russo-Ukrainian war. However, telemedicine could be the only way to help treat military and civilian patients with routine and emergent conditions. ¹ Telemedicine has indeed the potential to deliver health services in a various range of clinical settings especially when face-to-face healthcare becomes unavailable, as demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic. ²

There is no legal recognition of telemedicine as a (direct) fundamental right, although healthcare has been considered a human right since 1946. ³ Pursuant the article 7 (K) of the Statute of the International Criminal Court, a crime against humanity is ‘Other inhumane acts (…) intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or mental or physical health’. Given that the development of new technologies persists to remodel the way healthcare is delivered, the technology landscape ought to be considered when judging acts against civilian health. It is our view that the Russian tactic to destroy telecommunications and hinder access to healthcare for civilians, should be considered a crime against humanity.