A 107-page legal submission published last week asserts a deliberate, widespread Russian campaign of attacks on civilian medical personnel, ambulances, and hospitals in Ukraine — and asks the International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) to investigate. The paper, written by Vanderbilt Law Professor Michael A. Newton, includes materials gathered by the Center for Civil Liberties and filed under Article 15 of the Rome Statute.
In addition to the main idea—that medical personnel must be protected at all times—the submission describes the so-called “double tap” tactic, where Russians first attack the victims and then the rescuers who arrive to help. The tactic not only makes it impossible to help the victims but also violates humanitarian law. Such actions are characteristic of the Syrian experience and constitute war crimes. An appendix with a chronology of such attacks was attached to the document to assist investigators and prosecutors in their investigation and evidence gathering.
Newton documents the use of precision munitions and argues these operations are part of a refined doctrine intended to deprive Ukrainians of medical assistance and humanitarian relief.
Under Article 15 of the Rome Statute, individuals and organizations can send information on alleged crimes within the Court’s jurisdiction to the Prosecutor, who must then decide whether the material provides a “reasonable basis” to open a formal investigation. Article 15 communications have been an important channel for civil-society actors to draw the ICC’s attention to alleged atrocities, though not all communications lead to investigations.
The submission seeks to add a focused, evidence-rich allegation set that frames attacks on medical actors as war crimes and crimes against humanity requiring OTP scrutiny.
Civil-society submissions such as this one aim to make that preliminary threshold easier for prosecutors to meet by supplying structured evidence and legal analysis.
Human-rights groups and legal experts say systematic attacks on health care and humanitarian actors not only violate international humanitarian law but have far-reaching effects on civilians’ ability to survive and on the functioning of society during conflict. Newton’s paper frames these attacks as a deliberate tactic of “Total War” with cascading social and political effects — an allegation that, if substantiated in court, would carry serious legal and political consequences.
