The Oxford Statement on the International Law Protections Against Cyber Operations Targeting the Health Care Sector

We, the undersigned public international lawyers, have watched with growing concern reports of cyber incidents targeting medical facilities around the world, many of which are directly involved in responding to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

We are concerned that the impact of such incidents is exacerbated by the existing vulnerability of the health-care sector to cyber harm. Even in ordinary times, this sector is particularly vulnerable to cyber threats due to its growing digital dependency and attack surface.

We consider it essential that medical facilities around the world function without disruption as they struggle to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Any interference with the provision of health-care, including by cyber means, risks further loss of life as thousands continue to die every day.

We support the International Committee of the Red Cross’ call on States to protect medical services and medical facilities from harmful cyber operations of any kind.

We emphasize that cyber operations do not occur in a normative void or a law-free zone. As recognized by the United Nations General Assembly, international law, and in particular the Charter of the United Nations, is applicable and essential to maintaining peace and stability and promoting an open, secure, stable, accessible and peaceful information and communications technology environment.

Guided by these considerations, we agree that the following rules and principles of international law protect medical facilities against harmful cyber operations.  We encourage all States to consider these rules and principles when developing national positions as well as in the relevant multilateral processes and deliberations:

1. International law applies to cyber operations by States, including those that target the health-care sector.

2. International law prohibits cyber operations by States that have serious adverse consequences for essential medical services in other States.

3. International human rights law requires States to respect and to ensure the right to life and the right to health of all persons within their jurisdiction, including through taking measures to prevent third parties from interfering with these rights by cyber means.

4. When a State is or should be aware of a cyber operation that emanates from its territory or infrastructure under its jurisdiction or control, and which will produce adverse consequences for health-care facilities abroad, the State must take all feasible measures to prevent or stop the operation, and to mitigate any harms threatened or generated by the operation.

5. During armed conflict, international humanitarian law requires that medical units, transport and personnel must be respected and protected at all times. Accordingly, parties to armed conflicts: must not disrupt the functioning of health-care facilities through cyber operations; must take all feasible precautions to avoid incidental harm caused by cyber operations, and; must take all feasible measures to facilitate the functioning of health-care facilities and to prevent their being harmed, including by cyber operations.

6. Cyber operations against medical facilities will amount to international crimes, if they fulfil the specific elements of these crimes, including war crimes and crimes against humanity.

7. The application of the aforementioned rules of international law is without prejudice to any and all other applicable rules of international law that provide protections against harmful cyber operations.

List of Signatories

The current list of signatories and their affiliations (for identification purposes only) is below. International lawyers who wish to append their name to the statement should send an email to [email protected]:

1. Nele Achten, Adviser at ICT4Peace foundation; affiliate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society

2. Mark D. Agrast, Executive Director, American Society of International Law

3. Dapo Akande, Professor of Public International Law, Co-Director, Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law & Armed Conflict (ELAC), University of Oxford

4. Katya Alkhateeb, Senior Research Officer, School of Law & Human Rights Centre, University of Essex

5. Daniel Álvarez-Valenzuela, Professor of Law, University of Chile School of Law, Academic Coordinator, Centre for Information Technology Law Studies (CEDI)

6. Diane Marie Amann, Emily & Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law and Faculty Co-Director, Dean Rusk International Law Center, University of Georgia School of Law

7. Catherine Amirfar, Partner, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, former Counselor on International Law, U.S. State Department (2014-2016)

8. Joshua Andresen, Deputy Head of School and Senior Lecturer in National Security and Foreign Relations Law, School of Law, University of Surrey

9. Mahnoush H. Arsanjani, Former Director, Codification Division, Office of Legal Affairs, United Nations

10. Aslı Bâli, Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law

11. Eyal Benvenisti, Whewell Professor of International Law, University of Cambridge, C C Ng Fellow, Jesus College, Director of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law

12. Daniel Bodansky, Regents’ Professor, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Arizona State University

13. Kristen Boon, Professor of Law, Seton Hall Law School

14. Russell Buchan, Senior Lecturer in International Law, University of Sheffield

15. Nicolás Carrillo-Santarelli, Associate Professor of International Law, La Sabana University, Colombia

16. Koldo Casla, Lecturer, School of Law, University of Essex

17. Anthony E Cassimatis, Professor of Law, University of Queensland

18. Kalliopi Chainoglou, Assistant Professor of International Law and International institutions, Department of International and European Studies, University of Macedonia (Greece)

19. Benarji Chakka, Professor of International Law, VIT-AP University School of Law (VSL), VIT-AP University, India

20. Lilian Chenwi, Professor of Law, University of the Witwatersrand School of Law

21. Alejandro Chehtman, Professor of International Law at Di Tella University, Argentina

22. Roger S. Clark, Board of Governors Professor, Rutgers Law School

23. Sarah H. Cleveland, Louis Henkin Professor of Human and Constitutional Rights, Columbia University Law School, Former Vice Chair, UN Human Rights Committee

24. Antonio Coco, Lecturer in Public International Law, University of Essex and Visiting Fellow at ELAC, University of Oxford

25. Rebecca Crootof, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Richmond School of Law

26. Federica D’Alessandra, Executive Director of the Oxford Programme on International Peace and Security, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

27. Lori Fisler Damrosch, Hamilton Fish Professor of International Law and Diplomacy, Columbia University Law School

28. Tom Dannenbaum, Assistant Professor of International Law, The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts

29. Jean D’Aspremont, Chair in Public International Law, University of Manchester; Professor of International Law, Sciences Po School of Law

30. Talita de Souza Dias, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, ELAC, University of Oxford

31. Erika De Wet, Professor of International Law and Head of the Institute of International Law and International Relations, Faculty of Law, University of Graz

32. François Delerue, Research Fellow in Cyberdefense and International Law at the Institut de Recherche stratégique de l’École militaire (IRSEM) and Adjunct Lecturer at Sciences Po, Paris, France

33. Diane Desierto, Associate Professor of Human Rights Law and Global Affairs, Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame

34. William S. Dodge, Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Law and John D. Ayer Chair in Business Law, University of California, Davis, School of Law

35. Pavan Duggal, Advocate, Supreme Court of India, Founder-cum-Chancellor, Cyberlaw University

36. Brian Egan, Partner, Steptoe & Johnson LLP, Washington DC, former Legal Adviser, US Department of State, 2016-17

37. Kristen Eichensehr, Assistant Professor of Law, UCLA Law School

38. Itay Epshtain, Senior Humanitarian Law and Policy Consultant, Humanitarian Policy

39. Carlos Espósito, Professor of International Law, Catedrático de Derecho internacional público, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

40. Martin Faix, Senior Lecturer in International Law, Palacký University Olomouc/ Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic

41. David P. Fidler, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Cybersecurity and Global Health, Council on Foreign Relations

42. Eric Fripp, Barrister, Lamb Building, Temple EC4Y, London, UK; Senior Visiting Fellow, Refugee Law Initiative, School of Advanced Study, University of London

43. Robin Geiss, Professor and Chair of International Law and Security, University of Glasgow; Director, Glasgow Centre for International Law and Security (GCILS)

44. Geoff Gilbert, Professor of International Human Rights & Humanitarian Law, School of Law and Human Rights Centre, University of Essex

45. Chiara Giorgetti, Professor of Law, Richmond Law School; Chair, Academic Council, Institute for Transnational Arbitration

46. Laurent Gisel, Senior Legal Adviser and Cyber Team Leader, Legal Division, International Committee of the Red Cross

47. Richard Goldstone, former Prosecutor International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, former Judge Constitutional Court of South Africa

48. Guy S. Goodwin-Gill, Professor of Law, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW, Emeritus Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford

49. Claudio Grossman, Professor of Law, Dean Emeritus, American University Washington College of Law

50. Oleg Gushchyn, Professor, Military Law Department, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine

51. Ondrej Hamuľák, Senior lecturer in EU law, Faculty of Law, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic

52. Adil Haque, Professor of Law and Judge Jon O. Newman Scholar, Rutgers Law School

53. Jakub Harasta, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Masaryk University, Czech Republic

54. Oona A. Hathaway, Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law, Counselor to the Dean, and Director of the Center for Global Legal Challenges, Yale Law School

55. Mohamed S. Helal, Assistant Professor of Law Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University; Member, African Union Commission on International Law

56. Kevin Jon Heller, Professor at Australian National University and Associate Professor of Public International Law at the University of Amsterdam

57. Stacey Henderson, Lecturer, Adelaide Law School, The University of Adelaide

58. Lawrence Hill-Cawthorne, Associate Professor in Public International Law, School of Law, University of Reading

59. Moshe Hirsch, Professor of International Law, Maria Von Hofmannsthal Chair in International Law, Faculty of Law & Department of International Relations, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

60. Tamás Hoffmann, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Social Sciences Institute for Legal Studies; Associate Professor, Corvinus University of Budapest

61. Duncan B. Hollis, Laura H. Carnell Professor of Law, Temple University School of Law

62. Tawanda Hondora, Solicitor and Executive Director, World Federalist Movement – Institute for Global Policy (WFM-IGP)

63. Zhixiong Huang, Professor of International Law & Vice Dean, Wuhan University School of Law, China

64. Karen Hulme, Professor and Head of the School of Law, University of Essex; Peace, Security and Conflict Specialist Group Chair, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

65. Rebecca Ingber, Associate Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law (current); Professor of Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (as of July 1)

66. Eric Talbot Jensen, Robert W. Barker Professor of Law, Brigham Young University

67. Valentin Jeutner, Associate Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, Lund University

68. Derek Jinks, A.W. Walker Centennial Chair in Law, University of Texas School of Law

69. Stian Øby Johansen, Associate professor at the Centre for European Law at the University of Oslo

70. Kate Jones, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford

71. Kadri Kaska, Head of Law Branch, NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence

72. Ido Kilovaty, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Tulsa College of Law

73. Stefan Kirchner, Associate Professor of Arctic Law and Adjunct Professor (dosentti) of Fundamental and Human Rights, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland

74. Harold Hongju Koh, Sterling Professor of International Law, Yale Law School,  Legal Adviser (2009-13) and Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (1998-2001), US Department of State

75. Claus Kreß, Professor and Director, Institute of International Peace and Security Law, University of Cologne

76. Heike Krieger, Professor of International and Public Law, Freie Universität Berlin

77. Masahiro Kurosaki, Associate Professor of International Law and Director of the Study of Law, Security and Military Operations, National Defense Academy of Japan

78. Aigerim Kussaiynkyzy, Senior lecturer of International law, Suleiman Demirel University, Kaskelen, Kazakhstan

79. O-Gon Kwon, President, Assembly of States Parties, International Criminal Court, former Judge and Vice President, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (Seoul, Republic of Korea)

80. Patryk I. Labuda, Postdoctoral Scholar, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy; Non-Resident Fellow, International Peace Institute

81. Henning Lahmann, Digital Society Institute, ESMT Berlin, Germany

82. Anthony Lester QC, Blackstone Chambers, London

83. Eliav Lieblich, Senior Lecturer, Buchmann Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University

84. Rain Liivoja, Associate Professor of Law, University of Queensland

85. Marco Longobardo, Lecturer in International Law, University of Westminster

86. Asaf Lubin, Affiliate, Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University; Associate Professor, Indiana University Maurer School of Law (beginning Fall 2020)

87. Doreen Lustig, Senior Lecturer, Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law

88. Fabrizio Marrella, Full Professor of International Law, University “Ca’ Foscari” Venice, Italy

89. Brianne McGonigle Leyh, Associate Professor of Human Rights Law and Global Justice, Utrecht University

90. Maurice Mendelson QC, Blackstone Chambers Barristers; Emeritus Professor of International Law in the University of London

91. Bonita Meyersfeld, Associate Professor of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

92. Tomohiro Mikanagi, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan

93. Marko Milanovic, Professor of Public International Law, University of Nottingham School of Law

94. Samuel Moyn, Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence, Yale University

95. Harriet Moynihan, Senior Research Fellow, International Law Programme, Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs)

96. Sean D. Murphy, Manatt/Ahn Professor of International Law, George Washington University Law School

97. Andre Nollkaemper, Professor of Public International Law and Dean of the Amsterdam Law School at the University of Amsterdam

98. James C. O’Brien, Vice Chair, Albright Stonebridge Group

99. Phoebe Okowa, Professor of Public International Law, Queen Mary, University of London

100. Anne Peters,  Director, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg, Germany

101. Alexandra Phelan, Assistant Professor at the Center for Global Health Science & Security, Georgetown University School of Medicine; Adjunct Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC, United States

102. Mónica Pinto, Professor Emerita, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Derecho, Argentina

103. Stephen Pomper, Senior Director for Policy, International Crisis Group; former U.S. State Department Assistant Legal Adviser for Political-Military Affairs

104. Michael Posner, Jerome Kohlberg Professor of Ethics and Finance, NYU Stern School of Business; Former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (2009-2013)

105. Anni Pues, Lecturer in International Law, Glasgow Centre for International Law and Security, University of Glasgow

106. Dainius Puras, UN Special rapporteur on the right to physical and mental health

107. Steven R. Ratner, Bruno Simma Collegiate Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School

108. Paul S. Reichler, Partner, Chair of the International Litigation and Arbitration Department, Foley Hoag LLP, Washington, DC

109. Michael Reisman, Professor, Yale Law School

110. Antonio Remiro Brotons, Emeritus Professor of Public International Law, Universidad Autónoma Madrid

111. Przemysław Roguski, Lecturer in Law, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland

112. Gabor Rona, Professor of Practice, Cardozo Law School

113. Helene Ruiz-Fabri, Professor, Director of the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for Procedural Law

114. Barrie Sander, Fellow, Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Brazil

115. Clara Sandoval, Professor, Co-Director – Essex Transitional Justice Network (ETJN), School of Law and Human Rights Centre, University of Essex

116. Andrew Sanger, University Lecturer in International Law, University of Cambridge

117. Ben Saul, Challis Chair of International Law, Sydney Law School

118. Sergey Sayapin, Associate Professor of International and Criminal Law, School of Law, KIMEP University, Kazakhstan

119. Michael Schmitt, Professor of International Law at the University of Reading and Francis Lieber Distinguished Scholar at the United States Military Academy (West Point)

120. John Shattuck, Professor of Practice in Diplomacy, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (1993-98); Ambassador to the Czech Republic (1998-2000); President Emeritus, Central European University

121. Bruno Simma, Judge at the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal; former Judge at the International Court of Justice; Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor, U.S.A (on leave)

122. Alfred H.A. Soons, Professor emeritus of public international law, Utrecht University School of Law, The Netherlands

123. Carsten Stahn, Professor of International Criminal Law and Global Justice, Leiden Law School and Queen’s University Belfast

124. David P. Stewart, Professor from Practice, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington DC

125. Elizabeth Stubbins Bates, Junior Research Fellow in Law, Merton College, Oxford; Early Career Fellow, Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, University of Oxford; Research Fellow, ELAC

126. Knut Traisbach, Adjunct Professor of Public International and Human Rights Law, University of Barcelona and University Ramon Llull, ESADE, Barcelona, Spain

127. Tuba Turan, Lecturer in Law, School of Law and Human Rights Centre, University of Essex

128. Liis Vihul, Founder and CEO, Cyber Law International

129. John Paolo Roberto A. Villasor, Dean and Professor of Law, UNO-Recoletos School of Law, Philippines

130. Michael Waibel, Professor of International Law, University of Vienna, Austria

131. Marek Jan Wasinski, Associate Professor, University of Lodz, Poland

132. Philippa Webb, Professor of Public International Law, King’s College London

133. Leah West, Lecturer, Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University, Canada

134. Alex Whiting, Professor of Practice, Harvard Law School

135. Ralph Wilde, Associate Professor of International Law, University College London, University of London

136. Elizabeth Wilmshurst, Distinguished Fellow, International Law Programme, Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs)