Episode 137 – Hospitals and IHL with Cordula Droege

By Stephanie van den Bergfeature interviews, podcast episodes

A report from the safeguarding health in conflict coalition said that, with more than 3,600 attacks on health workers, hospitals and clinics in conflict zones in 2024, this record figure reflects “new levels of horror” . 

We’d agree.

So we wanted to understand what International Humanitarian Law (IHL) – the laws of war – says about hospitals and why this perceived lack of respect for IHL.

It’s Ukraine and Gaza, for example. And then there’s Iran’s response to Israeli attacks included hitting a hospital in Beersheba prompting Jerusalem to talk about ‘war crimes’ while Israel has hit three hospitals at least in Iran which Tehran has called violations of international law. 

Earlier this month the WHO reported that Gaza’s health system is on the verge of collapse with only 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals currently partially functional. In March and April we saw the reports of the attack on a convoy of ambulances in Gaza.

Since the beginning of the full scale conflict in Ukraine in 2022 we also saw repeated attacks on hospitals. We all remember the images of the March 2022, Russian Air Force bombing of the Maternity Hospital No. 3, in Mariupol.

You might remember that we tackled the issue before this when we looked at how military actions were prosecuted at the Yugoslav tribunal and especially the final judgment in the Galic case about the shelling of the hospital in Sarajevo – with Carolyn Edgerton – former trial lawyer at the ICTY.

This time we spoke to Cordula Droege, the chief legal officer and head of the legal division of the ICRC, where she leads the ICRC’s efforts to uphold, implement and develop international humanitarian law.

Outside of work, Cordula mentioned Belarussian and Nobel prize-winning author Svetlana Alexievich, and her book: The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II, translated into English 30 years after she wrote it.

This podcast has been produced as part of a partnership with JusticeInfo.net, an independent website in French and English covering justice initiatives in countries dealing with serious violence. It is a media outlet of Fondation Hirondelle, based in Lausanne, Switzerland.