Medical Groups Petition UN Over "Pediatric ER Raid," Citing "Threat to Right to Life"

Three organizations, including the Korean Medical Association, file urgent petition
Report case to international human rights groups... seek solidarity with medical organizations

Medical groups, including the Korean Medical Association, have submitted a petition to the United Nations. They say the police raid on the Pediatric Emergency Medical Center at Ajou University Hospital violated patients' right to life and medical professionals' human rights.

According to Yonhap News and medical groups on November 13, three organizations—the Korean Medical Association, the Korean Society of Emergency Physicians, and the Korean Society of Pediatric Emergency Medicine—recently filed an urgent petition with the UN Special Rapporteur at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) over the police raid on the Pediatric Emergency Medical Center at Ajou University Hospital.

Kim Taekwoo, president of the Korean Medical Association, stages a one-man protest in front of the National Police Agency in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, on the 30th of last month, condemning the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency's search and seizure of the pediatric emergency center at Ajou University Hospital. Provided by the Korean Medical Association, Yonhap News Agency.

The organizations described the raid as a serious human rights violation by state authorities and a threat to patients' right to life. They criticized it, saying, "A police raid on an emergency center is an abuse of state authority with few, if any, precedents anywhere in the world, and a national disgrace."

In their urgent petition, the organizations said, "The police obstructed care in an emergency room where patients were being treated, depriving them of access to and the safety of essential health services. This is a flagrant violation of the right to health under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR." They also said, "For investigative authorities to label an unavoidable clinical death a criminal offense and treat medical professionals as violent criminals violates their legitimate professional autonomy and fundamental human rights." They also asked the UN to urge the South Korean government to explain the legal grounds for the raid and revise its national investigative guidelines.

The organizations said they would use this UN petition as a starting point to bring the situation to the attention of international medical organizations, including the World Medical Association (WMA) and the International Pediatric Association (IPA), as well as international human rights organizations such as UNICEF and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), and seek their solidarity.

On September 30, the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency raided the Pediatric Emergency Medical Center at Ajou University Hospital as part of an investigation into the death of a child patient. The medical community strongly protested, saying the raid took place while care was being provided and endangered patient safety. The police, however, said they had coordinated with the hospital in advance and carried out the search in an unoccupied treatment room, and that no actual disruption to care occurred. The police later decided to limit searches in emergency rooms and other essential medical fields and to execute warrants within the narrowest necessary scope.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.