Demand Accountability for Ukraine

Dear President Joe Biden,

The Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine – leading to both targeted and indiscriminate attacks on the country’s health care facilities, amongst other civilian infrastructure – constitutes a gross violation of international law. On the Day for International Criminal Justice, I’m writing to you out of concern over these repeated attacks on Ukraine’s health care system since the start of the full-scale invasion more than one year ago.

As detailed in a recent report from Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and several partners, violence against Ukraine’s health care system has been a prominent feature of the war to date as part of a broader attack on the country’s civilian population and infrastructure. I am asking you to take the following steps to demand accountability and justice for the Ukrainian people:

- Publicly condemn attacks on health care personnel and facilities in Ukraine, urging compliance with the Geneva Conventions, Additional Protocol I, and United Nations Security Council Resolution 2286, including rules on medical impartiality.
- Continue to exert all available political, economic, and diplomatic pressure on the Russian Federation to immediately cease indiscriminate and targeted attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, including on health care workers, facilities, and vehicles.
- Provide political, financial, and operational support for a range of justice and accountability efforts at the international and domestic level, including support for prosecutions at the International Criminal Court, to ensure that attacks on Ukraine’s health care system are prioritized for investigation and prosecution.

We’re nearing 1,000 attacks on hospitals, clinics, ambulances, pharmacies, and health care workers in Ukraine: that’s the cost of Russia’s war of aggression, and it continues to this day. Please take action now.