World Medical Association, Statement on Economic Sanctions or Boycotts (1988)

Adopted by the 40th World Medical Assembly
Vienna, Austria, September 1988


WHEREAS academic sanctions or academic boycotts are discriminatory restrictions on academic, professional and scientific freedoms which deny or exclude physicians and others from educational, cultural and scientific meetings and other opportunities for the exchange of information and knowledge, the purpose of such restrictions being to protest the social and political policies of governments.
WHEREAS such restrictions are in direct conflict with the major objectives of the WMA, viz., - To achieve the highest international standards in medical education, medical science, medical art and medical ethics, and
WHEREAS such restrictions will adversely affect health care, particularly of the disadvantaged, and will therefore thwart the WMA's objective of obtaining the best possible health care for all people of the world, and
WHEREAS such restrictions will discriminate between physicians and between patients on grounds of political persuasion or of political decisions taken by governments and is therefore in conflict with the WMA's Declaration of Geneva, Declaration on Human Rights and Individual Freedom of Medical Practitioners and also the WMA's Statement on Freedom to attend Medical Meetings; and
WHEREAS the basic rule of medical practice, as taught by Hippocrates, is "premum non nocere", i.e. first, do no harm
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the WMA regards the application of such restrictions as expedient, arbitrary, political decisions designed to deny international scholarly exchange and to blacklist particular physicians or bodies of physicians because of their nationality or because of the political policies of their governments. As the purpose of the WMA is to serve humanity by endeavouring to achieve the highest international standards in medical education, medical science, medical art, medical ethics, and health care for all people of the world, and as these objects would be thwarted by such restrictions, the WMA is unalterably opposed to such restrictions and calls on all national medical associations to resist the imposition of such restrictions by every means at their disposal and to heed the WMA's Declaration on Human Rights and Individual Freedom of Medical Practitioners and the WMA Statement on Freedom to Attend Medical Meetings.