SoPW-May2007

Handbook of WMA Policies
World Medical Association ⏐ S-1997-02-2007

WMA STATEMENT
ON
THE LICENSING OF PHYSICIANS FLEEING PROSECUTION FOR
SERIOUS CRIMINAL OFFENCES
Adopted by the 49th
WMA General Assembly, Hamburg, Germany, November 1997
and reaffirmed by the 176th
WMA Council Session, Berlin, Germany, May 2007
PREAMBLE

Physicians are bound by medical ethics to work for the good of their patients.
Involvement by a physician in torture, war crimes or crimes against humanity is contrary
to medical ethics, human rights and international law. A physician who perpetrates such
crimes is unfit to practice medicine.
DEFINITION

Physicians seeking to work in any country are subject to the licensing arrangements of
that country. The duty to demonstrate suitability to practice lies with the person seeking
regis-tration. Licensing bodies in some countries are distinct from the national medical
asso-ciation.
Physicians who lose their licenses in one country after being found guilty by their li-
censing authority of serious professional misconduct, or following a criminal conviction,
will usually be unsuccessful if they apply to practise in a second country. This is because
most licensing authorities require not only proof of qualification but also proof that an
applicant who is an immigrant continues to be in good professional standing in his or her
country of origin.
Yet physicians who have been accused by international agencies of torture, war crimes or
crimes against humanity have sometimes been able to escape from the country in which
these crimes were committed and to obtain registration to practice medicine from the
licensing authority in another country. This is clearly contrary to the public interest and is
damaging to the reputation of physicians.
RECOMMENDATION

National medical associations should use their own licensing powers to ensure that
physicians against whom serious allegations of participation in torture, war crimes or
crimes against humanity have been made are not able to obtain licences to practice until
they have satisfactorily answered these allegations. National medical associations that do
not have licensing powers should inform the appropriate licensing authorities of infor-
S-1997-02-2007⏐ Berlin
Criminal Offences and Licensing

mation they receive regarding physicians against whom serious allegations of
participation in torture, war crimes or crimes against humanity have been made , and
should encourage the licensing authorities to take appropriate actions to ensure that such
physicians have satisfactorily answered these allegations before granting them licenses to
practice. Where evidence of involvement in abuses is compelling, national member
associations or licens-ing authorities should draw such evidence to the attention of the
appropriate authorities.