WMA DECLARATION OF TOKYO – GUIDELINES FOR PHYSICIANS
CONCERNING TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR
DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT IN RELATION TO
DETENTION AND IMPRISONMENT
Adopted by the 29th World Medical Assembly, Tokyo, Japan, October 1975
Editorially revised by the 170th WMA Council Session, Divonne-les-Bains, France, May 2005
and the 173rd WMA Council Session, Divonne-les-Bains, France, May 2006
Revised by the 67th WMA General Assembly, Taipei, Taiwan, October 2016

PREAMBLE
It is the privilege of the physician to practise medicine in the service of humanity, to preserve and restore bodily
and mental health without distinction as to persons, and to comfort and to ease the su ering of his or her
patients. The utmost respect for human life is to be maintained even under threat, and no use is to be made of
any medical knowledge contrary to the laws of humanity.
For the purpose of this Declaration, torture is de ned as the deliberate, systematic or wanton in iction of
physical or mental su ering by one or more persons acting alone or on the orders of any authority, to force
another person to yield information, to make a confession, or for any other reason.

DECLARATION
1. The physician shall not countenance, condone or participate in the practice of torture or other forms of cruel,
inhuman or degrading procedures, whatever the o ense of which the victim of such procedures is suspected,
accused or guilty, and whatever the victim’s beliefs or motives, and in all situations, including armed con ict and
civil strife.
2. The physician shall not provide any premises, instruments, substances or knowledge to facilitate the practice
of torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or to diminish the ability of the victim to
resist such treatment.
3. When providing medical assistance to detainees or prisoners who are, or who could later be, under
interrogation, physicians should be particularly careful to ensure the con dentiality of all personal medical
information. A breach of the Geneva Conventions shall in any case be reported by the physician to relevant
authorities.
4. As stated in WMA Resolution on the Responsibility of Physicians in the Documentation and Denunciation of
Acts of Torture or Cruel or Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and as an exception to professional con dentiality,
physicians have the ethical obligation to report abuses, where possible with the subject’s consent, but in certain
circumstances where the victim is unable to express him/herself freely, without explicit consent.
5. The physician shall not use nor allow to be used, as far as he or she can, medical knowledge or skills, or
health information speci c to individuals, to facilitate or otherwise aid any interrogation, legal or illegal, of those
individuals.
6. The physician shall not be present during any procedure during which torture or any other forms of cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment is used or threatened.
7. A physician must have complete clinical independence in deciding upon the care of a person for whom he or
she is medically responsible. The physician’s fundamental role is to alleviate the distress of his or her fellow
human beings, and no motive, whether personal, collective or political, shall prevail against this higher purpose.
8. Where a prisoner refuses nourishment and is considered by the physician as capable of forming an
unimpaired and rational judgment concerning the consequences of such a voluntary refusal of nourishment, he
or she shall not be fed arti cially, as stated in WMA Declaration of Malta on Hunger Strikers. The decision as to
the capacity of the prisoner to form such a judgment should be con rmed by at least one other independent
physician. The consequences of the refusal of nourishment shall be explained by the physician to the prisoner.

9. Recalling the Declaration of Hamburg concerning Support for Medical Doctors Refusing to Participate in, or to
Condone, the Use of Torture or Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, the World Medical
Association supports, and encourages the international community, the National Medical Associations and
fellow physicians to support, the physician and his or her family in the face of threats or reprisals resulting from
a refusal to condone the use of torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
10. The World Medical Association calls on National Medical Associations to encourage physicians to continue
their professional development training and education in human rights.