YSPH EMD Seminar: "Geospatial approaches to identify patterns of attacks on healthcare facilities in the Ukraine conflict”
Healthcare facilities are civilian objects protected by international humanitarian law. In Ukraine, attacks on healthcare facilities are widely documented. Whether indiscriminate or intentional, attacks on healthcare constitute a war crime under the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol II. The practical repercussions of indiscriminate and intentional attacks on healthcare may be indistinguishable. And yet, intentionality is an important criterion for accountability under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which identifies intent to inflict specific harm on civilians and facilities upon which they depend as a serious violation of the “laws and customs applicable in international armed conflict.” Investigating the geospatial distribution of attacks on healthcare facilities may provide statistical evidence of non-random patterns, which, combined with additional sources of information, may establish the intentional nature of attacks.