Ukrainian and Syrian victims of Russian wartime attacks on hospitals should receive reparations via frozen Russian assets, experts say

Russian assets and funds that have been frozen should be used to compensate Syrians and Ukrainians who have been victims of Russia's healthcare facility bombing campaigns.

Gissou Nia, an international human rights lawyer with the Atlantic Council, co-authored a report in June urging the international community to do more to hold Russia accountable for bombing hospitals in Syria and Ukraine.

The World Health Organization says that Russian forces attacked 200 hospitals in the first 100 days of the war. According to Physicians for Human Rights, 600 medical facilities were attacked during the war in Syria.

Russia has used double-tap strikes in both Syria and Ukraine.

Hospitals and humanitarian corridors in both countries have not been targeted by Russia.

According to the Atlantic Council, the pattern of attacking hospitals during wartime undermines long-established and hard-won provisions under international humanitarian law that are intended to protect civilians.

In an interview with Insider about the report, Nia argued that bold solutions like offering reparations through seized Russian assets can be a way forward.

There's a lot of discussion about the seizure of Russian assets and the possibility of liquidating Russian assets. "We believe that part of that needs to go to the victims, and that's not only Ukrainian victims, that's also Syrians who have suffered violations by the same perpetrators groups." Any mechanism that is established to do that needs to take into account the recovery of hospital attack victims.

The approach to seizing Russian assets would depend on each country's framework, according to a lawyer for the Atlantic Council.

The Department of Justice is still limited to traditional asset forfeiture methods despite the creation of a legal mechanism to seize assets frozen under human rights sanctions. "Victims can apply for a portion of the seized assets but they would need to be a victim of the same crimes under which the assets were seized and they would need to prove a direct harm with documentation." Most human rights victims are not allowed to participate.

The DOJ doesn't have a formal way for Syrian or Ukrainian hospital attack victims to request that seized Russian funds be used to pay their medical bills. The US is looking into it despite the fact that it is not yet legal.

The US and allies have frozen hundreds of billions of dollars in Russian central bank assets.

The ideal would be to put the funds toward a US specific or global claims process to which victims could apply directly.

Repatriating seized Russian assets could be another solution. It could be a dead-end in the case of Syria or Ukraine.

"Repatriation is not realistic given that the current government cannot be trusted with funds, and in Ukraine, there is an ongoing risk that President Zelenskyy's government will fall to Russia, and in both countries, refugees who remain outside the country would not benefit," said Kmio In the case of Syria, organizations have more flexibility, but face limitations as to who they can reach, especially during ongoing wars.