06/01/2023 Dr. Angelika Claussen, co-chair of the German section of IPPNW and the federation‘s regional vice president for Europe, gave the following speech in Germany’s national parliament, the Bundestag, on  8 May, the anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe. She talks about the effects on the climate of a nuclear war and the global consequences of their use, providing concrete steps for the German government to take.

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01/24/2023 Two years ago today, the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entered into force. To mark the occasion, doctors from IPPNW Europe today issued a joint statement on the current threat of nuclear war. At the end of their meeting in Hamburg, the doctors from all over Europe call on the nuclear weapon states to fulfill their disarmament obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to dismantle their nuclear arsenals and to clear the way for the ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

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06/23/2022 The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), with assistance from IPPNW leaders in Sweden, the US, the UK, Germany, and France, has released a report entitled No Place to Hide: Nuclear Weapons and the Collapse of Health Care Systems, demonstrating that the health care systems in 10 major cities around the world would be overwhelmed by the detonation of just one nuclear weapon.

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06/23/2022 A global petition to reject war and nuclear weapons - signed by more than 1,071,000 citizens worldwide - was delivered at United Nations Headquarters in New York on April 12.
Launched by IPPNW and 17 other Nobel Peace Laureates on the social media platform Avaaz, the open letter calls for "an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of all Russian military forces from Ukraine, and for all possible efforts at dialogue to prevent this ultimate disaster." The petition further calls on Russia and NATO "to explicitly renounce any use of nuclear weapons in this conflict, and ... call[s] on all countries to support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to ensure that we never again face a similar moment of nuclear danger."

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05/18/2022 In connection with the Social Democrats' announcement that they have changed their position on the issue of Swedish NATO membership, Swedish Doctors Against Nuclear Weapons make clear demands to ensure that Sweden remains nuclear-weapon-free - both territorially and in policy. A Swedish entry into NATO, which itself classifies itself as a nuclear weapons alliance, places great demands on Sweden to point out the conditions for the Swedish part, in order to distance itself from nuclear weapons as a member of the alliance.

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03/24/2022 We reject war and nuclear weapons. We call on all our fellow citizens of the world to join us in protecting our planet, home for all of us, from those who threaten to destroy it. The invasion of Ukraine has created a humanitarian disaster for its people. The entire world is facing the greatest threat in history: a large-scale nuclear war, capable of destroying our civilization and causing vast ecological damage across the Earth.

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Over the span of one week, two nations — Mongolia and Guinea-Bissau — became States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), and three major US cities — Boston, New York City, and Minneapolis — passed ICAN Cities Appeal resolutions.

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NVMP, the Dutch IPPNW affiliate NVMP Physicians for Peace together with organisation of the so called Balieberaad organised a webinar on December 13-th on the title ‘The Dutch commitment to a nuclear-weapon-free world, the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference and the TPNW’.

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10/17/2021 Being convinced of their quantitative and especially their qualitative superiority in weapons and military forces both Nato and US leadership today are objecting all motions towards disarmament and arms control. This concerns nuclear weapons – Nato has taken a strong negative attitude toward the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) – robotweapons, missile defence, weapons placed to space etc. Finland has in many occasions chosen the same line. Bilateral agreements with the US, co-operation with Nato and the option to seek membership in Nato are referred. These shall not be endangered at any cause, even though in the program of the current government there is a statement that Finland will work for an agreement to prohibit robotweapons. 

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12/15/2021 "The ministers of the so-called Stockholm Initiative emphasise that they are committed to a results-oriented Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference (NPT RevCon) in January. But without even factually acknowledging that the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) exists, there will be no meaningful outcome to the NPT RevCon. The nuclear-weapon-free states have a need for security and do not want to be threatened with nuclear weapons by nine states - only five of which are members of the NPT.

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12/10/2021 The ceremony of 2020 of the Greek Peace Award Nikos Nikiforidis (Non Nuclear) took place on 10/12/2021 (due to the quarantine) in the Ceremonial Hall of the Municipality of Athens with the participation of the Mayor of Athens Kostas Bakoyiannis the ex mayor George Kaminis, ambassadors and officials.

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800 activists formed a human chain at the Büchel nuclear base in Germany on September 5th, to call for the removal of the 20 US nuclear bombs that are stored there."The European peace movement is working together to put an end to the nuclear division of labour within NATO. There is a need for a policy of détente, which means that international cooperation in the field of climate must be extended to security and peace," said Angelika Claußen, president of IPPNW Europe and co-president of IPPNW Germany.

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06/07/2021 In advance of the first summit between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Joseph Biden in Geneva on June 16, a group of more than 30 American and Russian organizations, international nuclear policy experts, and former senior officials have issued an appeal to the two Presidents calling upon them to take steps to reduce and eliminate the threat of nuclear war.

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06/03/2021 The following letter was published on June 3 in the New York Times. Dr. Robert Gould is the North American Regional Vice President of IPPNW and President of the San Francisco Bay chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility.

The courageous disclosure by Daniel Ellsberg of the dangerous 1958 U.S.-China flash point over Taiwan provides a vivid warning of how easily we can precipitate a nuclear Armageddon by pursuing our strategy of heightened confrontation with China throughout the Pacific region.

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The first webinar on the “Roadmap to end nuclear sharing” on March 29, 2021, was a real success, with 87 people from all over Europe, and some from other continents, taking part. Our aim was to develop interactive connections and a common strategy for European peace and disarmament activists to approach governments.

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01/18/2021 On January 22, a UN agreement comes into force that bans nuclear weapons under international humanitarian law. Germany should contribute its part to ensure that this type of weapon disappears from arsenals worldwide.

For 75 years, the world has lived in the so-called nuclear age. With the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a new global hierarchy was established: States with nuclear weapons became virtually "untouchable". They were given veto power in the United Nations Security Council, and their political, economic and military interests suddenly stood above those of the rest of the world.

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10/26/2020 Honduras is the 50th. country to sign the ban on nuclear weapons. Now the treaty applies. A guest article by Lars Pohlmeier.

The small Honduras will be remembered by the world community for signing the Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty, which will now come into force with the signature of the Latin American state on January 22nd 2021. For with the 50th signature, the threshold for the treaty to become binding under international law has been reached. Further states will follow.

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07/17/2020 Although the United States signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996, and has refrained from testing nuclear weapons since 1992, the country has yet to ratify the treaty. If the US, however, resumes nuclear weapons testing, as the Trump administration is considering and the US Senate has passed the finances needed for carrying out such tests, this would trigger other nuclear powers like India, Pakistan or North Korea to recommence their testing activities as well, increasing the possibility of a new nuclear arms race. Indeed, it could be argued that once the United States breaches the CTBT, the ability to hinder other nations from conducting nuclear tests or to prevent any release of radiation into the environment and atmosphere would become negligible. For this reason, it is imperative that the Senate passes the Preserving Leadership Against Nuclear Explosives Testing (PLANET) Act and ratifies the CTBT without further hesitation.

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07/15/2020 As we recall the unprecedented horrors that the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki experienced on August 6 and 9, 1945, we reaffirm the determination of our organizations to ensure that nuclear weapons are never used again. In just two days, the two primitive atomic bombs dropped over Japan killed a quarter of a million women, children and men. Yet from the atomic ruins, an unwavering resolve has survived to bear witness to the personal human tragedy. For 75 years, the Hibakusha have spoken out as the voice of experience and hope for the urgent imperative of eliminating all nuclear weapons.

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06/29/2020 The global COVID-19 pandemic is making it clear that governments must rethink security. Our future challenges lie in establishing a good healthcare system in every country of our planet, in fighting climate change and in achieving the sustainable development goals defined by the United Nations.

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05/21/2020 The COVID-19 pandemic has upended lives worldwide and disrupted plans for nearly all organizations and governments. While the need for united effort to combat global threats has never been more obvious, getting governments to focus on the threat posed by nuclear weapons and nuclear war has become more challenging. Nevertheless, in the last few months, two new countries—Belize and Nauru—have signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and three countries—Antigua and Barbuda, Namibia, and Paraguay—have ratified the nuclear ban treaty.

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05/21/2020 Seventy-five years have passed since Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed by atomic bombs in August 1945. Approximately 210,000 people died, while a comparable number—known since then as hibakusha—survived. Both cities were demolished and it was several decades before they were restored to modern cities.

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05/19/2020 Caribbean support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) continues to grow, with Belize ratifying the landmark agreement on 19 May. Belize is the seventh member of the Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, to become a party, following Guyana, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, and Antigua and Barbuda. Caribbean nations have been vocal supporters of the TPNW, reflecting their longstanding support for diplomatic efforts to achieve a more peaceful world free from the threat of nuclear weapons.

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02/27/2020 In the past month, the Trump Administration has confirmed the deployment of low-yield nuclear warheads for its submarine-launched ballistic missiles.  These warheads have an explosive capacity smaller than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and were created with the intent to be used preemptively or in a “limited” nuclear war.

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02/27/2020 Earlier this month, ICAN held a forum in Paris, “How to Ban Bombs and Influence People,” to further empower the next generation of activists who are fighting to end nuclear weapons.  About 300 students, young professionals and youth organizers sat down with seasoned campaigners to explore and strengthen the links between disarmament work and the movements for women's rights, racial justice, and climate.

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As 2019 came to a close, there was an increase in momentum for the TPNW to become international law. Antigua & Barbuda became the 81st nation to sign (or accede to) the Treaty, while Nauru became the 34th nation to complete the ratification process.

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IPPNW has been deeply troubled by the escalation of hostilities between India and Pakistan over the long-disputed Kashmir region. Three of the four wars the two countries have fought since partition in 1947 have started in Kashmir. With both sides now armed with nuclear weapons, a fifth major war could plunge the region–and the entire world–into Armageddon. 

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12/12/2019 On their 50th anniversary the Dutch IPPNW affiliate Dutch physicians for Peace (NVMP) organized an impressive peace conference on nuclear disarmament. It took place on the 26th of November 2019 in the beautiful Peace Palace in The Hague in collaboration with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It aimed to be a wakeup call on the growing risks of a new nuclear arms race, and the possibility of an (un)intended nuclear war. The unspeakable medical-humanitarian harm, without any hope for help – is the reason for the NVMP-physicians to raise their voice and to connect with other relevant partners.

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10/03/2019 New research on the consequences of a limited, regional nuclear war, published this week in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances, concludes that casualty levels and long-term impacts on the global environment will be far more severe than previously believed.

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09/25/2019 We, the Nobel Peace Laureates and Peace Laureate Organisations, gathered at the XVIIth World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates from 19 – 22 September 2019, wish to thank the State of Yucatán, the city of Mérida and the nation of Mexico for hosting this World Summit. We are inspired by being able to meet in a city and state with such warmly hospitable people, with such a rich Mexican and Mayan cultural heritage and surrounded by such natural beauty.

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04/02/2019 The south Asia affiliates of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) gathered at Kathmandu for dialogue with decision makers to emphasize upon the governments to take steps towards nuclear disarmament, reduction of small arms and resolution of issues through dialogue. They held meetings with the foreign minister, the speaker and advisor to the Prime Minister.

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03/07/2019 For the last week I attended the 68th General Assembly of IFMSA (the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations) in Slovenia. Over 1000 Medical students from all around the world gathered here, to exchange ideas, to discuss and to gain inspiration from each-other. After a very long bus-ride from Berlin to Portoroz, I was warmly welcomed by Hiba Ghandour, Liasion officer for human rights and peace(SCORP).

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Between 1952 and 1958, Aotearoa New Zealand military personnel participated in nuclear weapon tests carried out by the UK and the US, in Australia and Kiribati. Members of Aotearoa New Zealand’s armed forces were also exposed to radiation during the Allied occupation of Japan following the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and later, when protesting against France’s nuclear testing in French Polynesia. Aotearoa New Zealand nuclear veterans claim that their health, and their descendants’ health, were adversely affected by exposure to ionizing radiation. Their concerns are supported by independent medical research.

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08/28/2018 LOS ANGELES – On Tuesday, August 28, the California Senate voted to approve AJR 33, a resolution introduced by Assemblymember Monica Limón that urges the U.S. to embrace the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and implement important protective nuclear policies. The Senate also approved AJR 30, a resolution introduced by Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry that supports federal legislation to restrict the President’s sole, unchecked authority to launch a first nuclear strike. Both resolutions passed the Assembly last week.

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08/08/2018 Los Angeles has added its name to a growing number of individuals, organizations, and cities that are calling for the United States to take action to prevent nuclear war. On August 8, the Los Angeles City Council voted to approve a resolution that urges the U.S. to embrace the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and implement important protective policies such as ending the President’s sole, unchecked authority to launch a nuclear attack, taking U.S. nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert, and canceling U.S. plans to replace its entire nuclear arsenal with enhanced weapons. The resolution was introduced by Councilmembers Paul Koretz and Mike Bonin.

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08/08/2018 The Traditional international open tournament in Moscow, dedicated to the memory of the victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was won by physicists. On the day of the open tournament 19 athletes-students, staff, alumni of Lomonosov Moscow state university (MSU), other Moscow universities and students from China participated. This event is originally dedicated in memory of the Hiroshima Nagasaki Atomic bomb victims of 1945, after the United States air force bombed the two cities during 6-9 August of the same year.

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Sam Husseini, a journalist with The Nation, was forcibly ejected from the press conference held at the conclusion of the US-Russia summit in Helsinki. A piece of paper that he held on which the words “nuclear weapon ban treaty” were written, seen briefly on video as he was being dragged from the room by Finnish security, provided a pretty big clue as to why he was unwelcome.

07/07/2018 In the year since it was passed at the United Nations, 59 states have signed and 12 have ratified the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Once 50 ratifications are reached, the treaty will enter into force. “Even before the Treaty enters into force, responsible financial institutions are taking note,” said IPPNW’s Dr. Tilman Ruff in the Australian Institute of International Affairs.   “Since the treaty’s adoption, the Norwegian Pension Fund, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund with assets over US$1 trillion, the largest Dutch pension fund ABP, Deutsche Bank, and major Belgian bank KBC have announced that they will exclude from their investments companies that produce nuclear weapons.”

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05/08/2018 15,000 nuclear weapons remain in existence in 2018 despite the 1970 commitment by UN member States to disarm. With 100 nuclear weapons exploding on cities, a nuclear winter can be created that is capable of killing up to 2 billion human beings, saying goodbye to human civilisation as we know it in the process. With 1000 nuclear weapons we can say goodbye to the human species.

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03/28/2018 Over the past few days in Delhi, I’ve had the privilege of joining an international seminar titled: “The Landmark Treaty Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons: Opportunities and Challenges.” Held in the augustly named Constitution Club, the seminar was organised by Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD), IPPNW’s Indian affiliate, together with the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace, and the All India Peace and Solidarity Organisation. The seminar was joined by former government Minister Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar, other former Members of Parliament, retired Major General Vinod Saighal, distinguished Indian scholars and campaigners for peace, medical students from across India, and prominent physicians and IPPNW leaders from Nepal and Bangladesh. IPPNW was well represented by International Student Representatives Franca Brüggen (Germany) and Kelvin Kibert (Kenya), as well as IPPNW co-presidents Ira Helfand (USA), Arun Mitra (India), and myself (Australia).

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03/15/2018 The Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, released in February, marks a continuation of the nuclear weapons programs, priorities, and budgets from the past decade or so. The main additions to an already enormous and expensive arsenal — at a cost of $1.2 trillion over the next three decades — are a “low-yield” submarine-launched  ballistic missile and a sub-launched cruise missile.

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02/12/2018

You’d be hard pressed to find a stronger case for the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty than the new US Nuclear Posture Review released last week by the Trump administration.

Not that the gloomy, unreconstructed apologists for US geopolitical, economic, and military dominance who authored this frontal assault on nuclear disarmament intended to make that argument. To the contrary, after portraying a world so relentlessly hostile to US interests that only a multi-billion dollar “recapitalization” of the nuclear weapons enterprise can keep the country’s adversaries from wreaking havoc, the authors dismiss the Treaty as an unrealistic and polarizing diversion that undermines the whole principle of nuclear deterrence.

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01/29/2018 During Senate estimates in October last year, the Australian government dug further into the deep and dark moral abyss in which it is stuck in relation to the existential threat posed by nuclear weapons.

In questioning by Tasmanian Labor Senator Lisa Singh, DFAT Assistant Secretary Richard Sadleir sought to explain the circumstances in which under Australia’s security doctrine the government regarded use of nuclear weapons as appropriate: “extended nuclear deterrence is something which comes to the fore in a situation of extreme emergency of the sort that has been referred to in terms of self-defence”. Senator Singh was appropriately appalled that there were any circumstances in which the government considered that use of nuclear weapons was appropriate.

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01/26/2018 Citing “looming threats of nuclear war,” the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has reset the Doomsday Clock to two minutes to midnight—the closest the world has been to catastrophe since 1953.

While the Clock has come to represent the level of a number of global threats, including global warming and emerging technologies, the Bulletin attributed this year’s warning almost entirely to the urgent and growing risk of nuclear war.

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01/25/2018 For the first time in France, on Thursday, January 25, the French Red Cross (CRF) organized a panel discussion at its headquarters in Paris on the issue of the Nuclear Weapons ban treaty (NWBT).

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12/19/2017 On December 19th 2017 Tilman Ruff, IPPNW Co-President and also ICAN Campaigner visited the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea together with Tim Wright (ICAN), where they spoke to reporters about the urgent need for all nations to sign and ratify the nuclear ban treaty.

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12/04/2017 PSR, Medact, and AMFPGM have responded jointly to the announcement by the US, UK, and French governments that they will be sending only lower level representatives to the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in Oslo on December 10. Their statement follows: We the undersigned are ashamed that our governments are insulting this year's Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in Oslo, Norway on 10th December by sending only junior diplomats. The award is for ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, and follows the overwhelming vote of 122 nations at the United Nations General Assembly in July this year to adopt the nuclear weapons ban treaty.

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11/12/2017 Speaking at an international meeting on disarmament entitled "Perspectives for a world free of nuclear weapons", organized by the Vatican, the Nobel Peace Prize winner from Argentina, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, denounced the existence of nuclear submarines on the islands Malvinas: "It is outrageous what is happening, we can talk about many international treaties against nuclear weapons, but they are not respected. In Latin America we have the treaty for the banning of nuclear weapons from Tlatelolco, but we have nuclear submarines in the Malvinas Islands, occupied by the United Kingdom," he accused.

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10/06/2017 ICAN UK represents the British-based NGOs who are partners of ICAN, acivil society network of over 450 organisations in one hundred countries. Dr Rebecca Johnson, an original co-chair of ICAN and member of the International Steering Group based in the UK, said: “We thank the Nobel Committee for recognising and honouring ICAN and thethousands of people in our international network that have worked so hard to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons. The nuclear threats being issued by President Trump and North Korea remind us that nuclear sabre rattling can lead to nuclear war through arrogance or miscalculation.”

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09/28/2017 A few weeks ago, during a meeting with the Swedish ambassador in Helsinki, members of Finnish Peace organizations, including Physicians for Social Responsibility, dressed up as Pippi Longstocking to support Sweden's efforts towards a nuclear ban. The choice to dress up as the fictional character was motivated by her long-standing status as an idol for Scandinavian girls, who is known as the "world's strongest girl".

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09/19/2017 A four-day international conference of doctors, lawyers, scientists and nuclear experts from 27 countries concluded in Basel yesterday with the release of the Basel Declaration on human rights and trans-generational crimes resulting from nuclear weapons and nuclear energy.

The declaration draws from the scientific evidence presented to the conference, and the application of international law, to conclude that:

'the risks and impacts of nuclear weapons, depleted uranium weapons and nuclear energy, which are both transnational and trans-generational, constitute a violation of human rights, a transgression of international humanitarian and environmental law, and a crime against future generations.'

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08/14/2017 "There are thousands of nuclear warheads held by 14 countries, either kept in military bases, or freely circulating around the planet by air and sea. We cannot survive an armed conflict, even a regional one with a limited use of nuclear weapons. And thus, we all remain in harm's way. How is it then that even with this knowledge nuclear weapons still exist? How is it possible that these tools of the Cold War did not fade into history, even withstanding collective steps taken to reduce their diversity, proliferation and use in entire regions, from the first UN resolution in 1946 to the recently adopted Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons?"

Hector Guerra, Specialist in international relations and Latin American civil society advocate for nuclear disarmament, questions whether the abolition of nuclear weapons could be a conduit to revolutionizing world politics and whether a democratization of the latter could have positive consequences on the eradication of nuclear weapons.

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08/10/2017 The already dangerous crisis in Korea has escalated further with the reckless rhetoric emanating from both the United States and the Democratic Republic of Korea. The wild threats issued by both sides only inflame an already explosive situation. If acted on they could lead directly to the death of tens of millions of people in both countries and beyond their borders. They must stop.

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07.07.2017 History was made at the United Nations today when the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted by an overwhelming 122-1 vote by UN Member States determined to provide a legal basis for the elimination of the world’s worst weapons of mass destruction.
The ban treaty, negotiated by more than 140 states under the auspices of the UN General Assembly, prohibits development, testing, production, manufacture, acquisition, possession, stockpiling, use, and threat of use of nuclear weapons, and provides flexible pathways for nuclear-armed and nuclear-dependent states to comply with the prohibitions once they decide to join.

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29.06.2017 More than 125 nations are completing negotiations on a new treaty to ban nuclear weapons at the UN. IPPNW and ICAN are in the room as full civil society participants, advocating for the strongest possible language to condemn nuclear weapons and to create the legal and moral foundation for their complete elimination.

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12.06.2017 The second round of negotiations for a UN nuclear weapon ban is scheduled to start next Thursday, 15th June, in New York with more than 130 states taking part. Germany will not be one of them. Hoping to raise more public awareness for the ban, the German affiliate of the IPPNW (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War) organised an international symposium “Nuclear Weapon Ban: A European Point of View” on Sunday in Büchel, a military base in the west of Germany where US nuclear weapons are located, with 70 participants.

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21.05.2017 The first draft of the United Nations treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons was released in Geneva, Switzerland, on 22 May. Elayne Whyte Gómez, the Costa Rican ambassador who is presiding over negotiations of the historic accord, presented the text to diplomats and members of civil society, before answering questions from the media.

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05.02.2017 On March 27, negotiations will commence at the United Nations for a treaty to ban nuclear weapons. As Nobel Peace Laureates we applaud the UN General Assembly for convening this negotiating conference, fully support its goals, and urge all nations to work for the speedy conclusion of this treaty in 2017 and for its rapid entry into force and implementation.

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11/24/2016 71 years have passed since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is the call of the survivors, known as Hibakusha. Although their average age is now more than 80 years old, the Hibakusha have launched a signature campaign calling for an international treaty to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons, in the hope that noone will ever have to suffer as they have. They plan to continue to collect signatures until 2020 or until a nuclear ban treaty is concluded.

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08/19/2016 “There can be no doubt that a majority of UN members intend to pursue negotiations next year on a treaty banning nuclear weapons,” said Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
“This is a significant moment in the seven-decade-long global struggle to rid the world of the worst weapons of mass destruction,” she said. “The UN working group achieved a breakthrough today.”

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On the anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, IPPNW calls on NATO states and Russia to end the policy of nuclear deterrence, engage with the Humanitarian Initiative, and prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons. The recent military coup attempt in Turkey has once again raised the question of how secure US nuclear weapons really are, whether based at Incirlik or elsewhere in Europe. An even larger question is how nuclear weapons can be perceived to provide security at all when they are, in fact, the greatest threat to humankind.

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On the 19th  of April a NVMP-delegation handed over the Dutch Medical Appeal (and the BMJ-article) to the Committee of Foreign Affairs, with all the main spokesmen of our Parliament re NWs, with afterwards time for bilateral talks. It was remarkable how serious our medical arguments were taken – the strength of IPPNW! In collaboration with PAX we had waited with this handing over till it was clear when the parliamentary debate on a ban on NWs, forced by the 45.000 signatures collected by PAX, was planned: 10 days later.

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On January 6th 2016, North Korea announced its successful detonation of a ‘hydrogen bomb’ in its fourth nuclear-bomb test. Seismic detectors around the world revealed a 5.1 magnitude earthquake centred on the county’s only nuclear test site, at Punggye-ri. The estimated yield of about 10Kt was less than what might be expected from a full-blown hydrogen bomb; some experts (such as Frank von Hippel) feel that it was really a ‘boosted’ fission bomb amplified by a deuterium/tritium fuse to increase the yield of fission-inducing neutrons. But this development marked a significant step towards weapons-miniaturisation and hence missile carriage.

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01/19/2016 A fight now underway over newly-designed US nuclear weapons highlights how far the Obama administration has strayed from its commitment to build a nuclear-free world.

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12/07/2015 An unprecedented series of intergovernmental and civil society conferences has laid the foundation for a political process that could finally ban and eliminate nuclear weapons. Norway hosted the First Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons (HINW) in March 2013 in Oslo. A follow-up Second Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons was held in Nayarit, Mexico in February 2014. An all-important Third Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, held in Vienna in December 2014, produced a Humanitarian Pledge “to identify and pursue effective measures to fill the legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons.

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29.09.2015 On September 26 - the UN-declared International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons Full - also the medical world sets the this issue on the agenda. The Dutch affiliate of IPPNW, the NVMP, organised in De Balie in Amsterdam the symposium "Nuclear weapons, our one concern". The afternoon culminated with the presentation of a  Medical Appeal, where 100 influential healthcare people declared that the elimination of nuclear weapons is the only option to prevent unprecedented medical and humanitarian disasters.

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08/11/2015 On August 6th, 1945, the nuclear bomb “Little Boy” exploded over Hiroshima and turned the city into a burning inferno. Three days later, on August 9th, Nagasaki suffered the same fate. Tens of thousands died the day of the explosions, nearly 200,000 until the end of the year, hundreds of thousands more were marked for their whole life – by injuries, burns, the consequences of radiation exposure, the loss of loved ones, traumatization and stigmatization.

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11.08.2015 ICAN and the IPPNW’s French affiliate organized a non-stop demonstration from August 6 to 9, with one hundred fasting demonstrators in Paris, Valduc and Barp. Doctors from AMFPGN participated in all places, not only for support but also for medical monitoring. French radio stations, newspapers and TV stations were very interested in the activities and broadcasted a lot of interviews and commentaries. The physicians explained their reasons for supporting the ICAN campaign for a nuclear-weapons-ban treaty.

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14.07.2015 The agreement on Iran’s nuclear programs announced today by Iran and the United States is welcome news for a number of reasons. The terms of the deal, negotiated over a 20-month period by diplomats from Iran and six other States, should assure the international community that Iran will continue to abide by its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). There are no nuclear weapons in Iran today, and compliance with the agreement will make it far less likely that Iran can acquire nuclear weapons in the future. The US Senate, which has insisted upon its right to ratify the agreement, must now act responsibly and do so without delay or partisan bickering

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20.04.2015 The Uranium Symposium 2015 organised by a group of Canadian NGOs just ended in Quebec city (Canada). 2300 experts and activists from 20 countries and 5 continents participated, including an impressive representation of Indigenous Peoples from whole Canada and North America, Greenland, Australia as well as Africa.

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12/14/2014 The 14th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates was held in Rome this weekend. Co-presidents Ira Helfand and Tilman Ruff represented IPPNW. The Summit issued strong language condemning nuclear weapons and called for a treaty to ban them as part of a statement published at the conclusion of the meeting.

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12/09/2014 The Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons concluded today with a major step forward for ICAN and all those States that are now ready to join in a political process to ban nuclear weapons. The Austrian government closed the Conference with an unexpected and extraordinary pledge: to cooperate with all stakeholders “to identify and pursue effective measures to fill the legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons” (which can only mean one thing), and “to cooperate with all relevant stakeholders, States, International Organisations, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movements, paliamentarians and civil society, in efforts to stigmatise, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons in light of their unacceptable humanitarian consequences and associated risks” (which means exactly what it says).

12/09/2014 In a demonstration of overwhelming support from the international community, representatives from more than 150 states are gathering in Vienna, Austria for the third international conference to examine the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons.

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The third international conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons will take place in Vienna from December 8-9, 2014. Hosted by the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the conference is expected to build upon the scientific evidence presented at previous gatherings of States in Oslo and Nayarit, and to open up space for discussion about how to accelerate the pace of nuclear disarmament. 

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“We live in dangerous times, surrounded by challenges that can seem intractable. Yet we also see signs of hope. We leave Astana recommitted to achieving a world without nuclear weapons and without war, which provides for the health, safety, and security of all."

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Republic of Marshall Islands’ historic lawsuits charge the US, Russia, UK, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea with breaches of international law.

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Nuevo Vallarta, Nayarit, Mexico—The Second International Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, concluded today with a call from the Mexican hosts for states to launch a diplomatic process to ban nuclear weapons. Over 140 governments participated from all regions of the world.

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Governments from around the world will gather in Nayarit, Mexico on February 13 for the Second International Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons. IPPNW Co-President Ira Helfand has been invited to present our most recent findings that two billion people will face starvation if even a tiny fraction of existing nuclear weapons were ever used.  He will be joined by Prof. Alan Robock of Rutgers University, who will present the research about the climate effects of nuclear weapons use on which our nuclear famine studies are based. 

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For the last two years, Medact has parterned with the Nuclear Information Service on the 'Atoms for Peace' project: a ground-breaking investigation into links between the Atomic Weapons Establishment – where the UK's nuclear weapons are designed and made – and British universities.

Our study has found that more than fifty universities – over one third of all British universities – have received funding from the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), with AWE's 'Technical Outreach' programme with universities mainly supporting scientific research in the physics, materials science, high performance computing, modelling, and manufacturing disciplines.

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This conference, organised by the Arab Institute for Security Studies (ACSIS) and sponsored by the European Union, the Government of the Netherlands, the Government of Austria and Atomic Reporters was attend by many distinguished delegates including the Minister of Presidential Affairs Tunisia,  HE Adnen Mansur, The EU Special Envoy to the Middle East Process,  HE Andreas Reinicke and the Deputy Director to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Grace Asirwatham. Pierre Razoux, Research Director in charge of regional security studies at Institute for Strategic Research of the French War College gave the following information.

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As a result of highly effective campaigning by ICAN during the First Committee session in New York, a joint statement on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons was delivered by New Zealand today at the United Nations General Assembly. Expressing deep concern for the catastrophic consequences that any use of nuclear weapons would entail, as well as for their uncontrollable destructive capability and indiscriminate nature, the New Zealand statement was signed by 123 other member states.
 
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a campaign coalition with more than 300 members in 80 countries welcomes the statement and the initiative shown by non-nuclear-weapon states including some nuclear-umbrella states to drive a new discourse around the global humanitarian threat posed by nuclear weapons, a discourse that can only conclude with the decision to make these weapons illegal once and for all.

That nuclear weapons have not already been clearly declared illegal for all, alongside the other prohibited weapons of mass destruction, is a failure of our collective social responsibility. As a consequence a treaty banning nuclear weapons must be initiated by states that do not possess nuclear weapons. It will take courage and it will take the leadership by states free of nuclear weapons.

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In Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, North America and in the Pacific, for Nuclear Abolition Week 2013, ICAN campaigners organised bike trips, Target X actions, flag hoisting, parties, cabin trips, church services, beach days, press conferences, exhibitions, public meetings, round tables, meetings with government officials, social media outreach, film screenings, pub quizzes, and many other activities. In addition to this, more than five hundred people shared their shadows in solidarity with the victims of nuclear detonations, and several thousands signed ICAN’s online petition calling for a treaty banning nuclear weapons. This report outlines the main achievements of Nuclear Abolition Week 2013.

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05/06/2013 On May 6^th, the daily Swedish news show “Ekot” (broadcasted by Radio Sweden) interviewed a number of Swedish Members of Parliament (from the government coalition as well as from opposition parties) about Sweden’s policy on nuclear disarmament. The MPs directed criticism towards Sweden’s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt on various issues, amongst them the MFA’s decision to leave the New Agenda Coalition as well as their refusal to sign the humanitarian statement during the NPT PrepCom.

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02/12/2013 The IPPNW Executive Committee has issued the following statement in response to the nuclear test conducted by the Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea). 
 
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) confirmed today that it conducted a nuclear test with an estimated yield of six to seven kilotons. This was the DPRK’s third nuclear test since 2006, when the country declared itself a nuclear-weapon state, having withdrawn from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 2003.
 
IPPNW unconditionally condemns this test and the rhetoric that accompanied it, which does nothing to make the DPRK, the North Asia region, or the world more secure. To the contrary, by increasing the nuclear threat within the region, the government of Kim Jong-un has increased the level of tension with its neighbors, has invited more of the international hostility to which it understandably objects, and has further complicated efforts to achieve regional peace and security.

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12/17/2012 In Helsinki at this time of year, the sun rises just after 9am and sets again at 3pm. Our Finnish hosts told us that we were lucky that the snow had come already, to lighten up the all-pervading darkness by reflecting what little light there is. Already, after only a short time, the snow was very deep, much of it shovelled up by bulldozers to form piles shoulder high by the side of the road. There was something magic about it, like we were somehow closer to Christmas by being there. Indeed, Christmas filled all the restaurants and bars with office parties, people drunkenly swaying arm in arm on the street, or singing to the stars.

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On the historic occasion of IPPNW’s 20th World Congress, we are witnessing a sea change in global demand for a world free of nuclear weapons and free of the threat they pose to human survival. An emergent movement focused on the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons is bringing States and civil society together as partners in working for a global treaty to ban and eliminate the most abhorrent weapons ever created.

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03/05/2012 A groundbreaking report released today (5 March 2012) by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) identifies more than 300 banks, pension funds, insurance companies and asset managers in 30 countries with substantial investments in nuclear arms producers. The 180-page study, Don’t Bank on the Bomb: The Global Financing of Nuclear Weapons Producers, provides details of financial transactions with 20 companies that are heavily involved in the manufacture, maintenance and modernization of US, British, French and Indian nuclear forces.

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11/21/2011 The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has made a major commitment to confront the horrors of nuclear war, and IPPNW has been actively supporting a new ICRC initiative that will engage the vast global network of national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies in the struggle for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons.

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06/21/2011 Nuclear Abolition Day is an annual global day of action for a treaty to outlaw and eliminate all nuclear weapons. It is coordinated by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. The date changes from year to year depending on significant events. The first global day of action was held on 25 June 2010 in response to the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, which had just concluded.

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03/01/2011 On 28 February, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War(IPPNW) presented a side panel titled Control the Arms Trade: Improve Human and Environmental Health. Co-sponsored by the country of Zambia. Physicians from the United States, Zambia, and Austria spoke about the human health and environment dimensions of the full cycle of the arms trade and addressed how a robust Arms Trade Treaty can help promote health and reduce environmental contamination. 

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02/16/2011 As well as announced, on February, 1st, 2011 the multimediatic initiative "Senzatomica", by Soka Gakkai Italy, sponsored by AIMPGN (IPPNW Italy), PUGWASH, PNND (Parliamentarian Network for Nuclear Disarmament), has been officially represented in Rome, in the Conference Hall of Palazzo Marini, at the House of Deputies, one of the two branches of the Italian Parliament.

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01/31/2011 IPPNW’s co-presidents have sent the following letter to the presidents of the US and Russia, to mark the successful ratification of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), under which each country will limit the number of deployed strategic nuclear weapons to 1,550, with additional reductions in deployed and non-deployed launchers to 800 in each country. The treaty was ratified by the Russian State Duma on January 25, 2011 , by the Federation Council of Russia on January 26, and by the US Senate on December 22, 2010. The New START will enter into force in February, when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton exchange ratification papers.

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12/22/2010

International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War praised the US Senate for “doing the right thing” today in ratifying the New START agreement between the US and Russia, and called on the Russian Duma to quickly follow suit and bring the treaty into force.

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11/04/2010 IPPNW, the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA) and the International Peace Bureau (IPB) will receive the John and Chara Haas Award for International Peace and Social Justice on November 8, 2010, at the Nuclear Futures Conference in Philadelphia.

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08/27/2010 Sixty-five years ago this month, the United States exploded the first atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the world entered an age of unthinkable peril from which we have yet to free ourselves. A single nuclear weapon can destroy a city; 100 Hiroshima-sized warheads can kill tens of millions of people outright and disrupt the global climate so severely that a billion lives could be lost to famine and epidemic disease; an exchange of the thousands of nuclear weapons still deployed by the US and Russia would make the Earth itself an uninhabitable wasteland.

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“The danger that nuclear weapons will be used in the future is underestimated” warned Prof. Dr. Andreas Nidecker, President of the Organisation Committee for the Swiss affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, on the eve of IPPNW’s World Congress, taking place this year in Switzerland. As many as 800 doctors and medical students are expected to meet in Basel to discuss the status of disarmament efforts and debate how to reach a world without nuclear weapons.

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Over twenty years after the Cold War ended,
some 23,000 nuclear weapons remain. The nuclear weapon states cite nuclear deterrence doctrine as the final, indispensable justification for maintaining their nuclear arsenals. This drives the spread of nuclear weapons to paranoid regimes and extremists who are least likely to be deterred. The fallacies of nuclear deterrence must therefore be exposed and alternatives offered if there is to be any serious prospect of eliminating nuclear weapons.

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07/12/2010

COUNTDOWN TO ZERO is a stunning documentary about the escalating global nuclear arms crisis that premiered at Sundance Film Festival, was shown at TED Conference, screened at Cannes Film Festival and the Global Zero Summit in Paris. Produced by Academy Award winner Lawrence Bender (An Inconvenient Truth, Inglorious Basterds) and written and directed by Lucy Walker (The Devil’s Playground, Blind Sight), COUNTDOWN TO ZERO features an array of important international experts and statesmen and makes a case for worldwide nuclear disarmament.

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07/04/2010

In the nineteen sixties there were many who believed that there was a military threat from China against  Europe. “Optimists learn Russian, pessimists learn Chinese” was a common joke. “Whatever you say, China is hell on earth” I heard a respected politician say in 1965. So I went there to see for myself, together with about thirty other young persons, travelling the transsiberian railway. When after five weeks of travel in China I left Beijing, I cried. I cried because I thought I would never see this marvelous city again. I would be destroyed by a nuclear attack.

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06/11/2010

Beating the Bomb is a documentary charting the history of the British peace movement against the backdrop of the atomic age, framing the nuclear weapons issue within the wider context of global justice. It was produced and directed by Meera Patel and Wolfgang Matt of MADD Movies: www.maddmovies.co.uk

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05/26/2010

Dr. Ira Helfand was interviewed by NPT-TV this month about the health and climate effects of nuclear war. Dr. Helfand was in New York as part of the IPPNW delegation at the 2010 NPT Review Conference, and participated in an expert panel to launch IPPNW's new publication, "Zero Is the Only Option."

05/26/2010

When the five-year review of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) convened in New York from May 3 - 28, 70 IPPNW doctors, medical students, and activists from 20 countries joined hundreds of other civil society representatives to demand fulfillment of the Treaty’s disarmament obligation some 40 years since its entry into force. 

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05/26/2010

Rutger's University Press has just published Apocalypse Never: Forging the Path to a Nuclear Weapon-Free World, by IPPNW Writing Fellow Tad Daley. US Rep. Dennis Kucinich has called Apocalypse Never "a book that explains in common sense language the process for bringing a nuclear weapon–free world from utopia to reality.”

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05/26/2010

This year's raffle will help a very special cause: youth organizing for a more peaceful world without nuclear weapons.
Support ongoing medical student activism and the 463 mile, 11 city 2010 BAN Tour and buy a raffle ticket before June 24!

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05/18/2010

PSR has sent the following letter to President Obama, calling on the US to support inclusion of a call for a Nuclear Weapons Convention in the outcome document of the NPT Review Conference.

You can follow all of IPPNW's NPT activities and commentaries on the month-long deliberations at peaceandhealthblog.com.

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04/07/2010

The long-awaited Nuclear Posture Review released yesterday by President Obama is the most important and thorough re-evaluation of US nuclear policy since the Cold War. While it is not a blueprint for rapid nuclear disarmament, it marks the first time the US has made the elimination of nuclear weapons a guiding principle, focusing more on reducing the dangers of nuclear weapons than on finding roles and rationales for them. This is a very welcome and long overdue course correction.

Like the New START agreement with Russia, the NPR begins to anticipate a world in which nuclear weapons no longer exist. Nevertheless, the pace for disarmament set by this review, which is intended to establish the framework for US nuclear policy for 10 years or more, is still too slow.

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03/26/2010 IPPNW, a physicians’ organisation distinguished with the Nobel Peace Price in 1985, welcomes the cross-party resolution for a world without nuclear weapons, passed today in the German Parliament. “It is a unique occasion in Germany history that the withdrawal of the US nuclear weapons from Germany and a reduced role of nuclear weapons within Nato finds support from all political parties” said IPPNW chair Dr. Angelika Claußen.

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 03/11/2010

The following text is the translation from an article, which was published in the greek press. The author Maria Arvaniti Sotirpoulou is President of the “Panhellenic Medical Society for the Protection of the Environment and against the Nuclear andBiochemical Threat”, the greek section of the IPPNW.

There could be no better conjunction!  Just as the American President, who was honored with the nobel prize also for his promises with regard to a nuclear-free world, announces the construction of the first nuclear power station since thirty years, we hear from France about their nuclear experiments on soldiers. These soldiers were not only watching the atmospheric nuclear test in Algeria, but also ordered to enter "Ground Zero", so that the effects of radioactivity on fighting men could be subjected to scientific scrutiny.

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03/11/2010 March 5th marked the 40th anniversary of the entry into force of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. It was an opportunity for governments and civil society to reflect on the current challenges facing the treaty before the Review Conference in May, and to consider ways to fulfil the promise at the core of the NPT — a nuclear-weapon-free world.

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 03/09/2010

IPPNW has produced a major new briefing paper summarizing current medical and scientific knowledge about nuclear war and its consequences. Zero is the only option: Four medical and environmental cases for eradicating nuclear weapons draws extensively from the work of climate scientists including Alan Robock, O. B. Toon, and Michael Mills, who have documented the climate effects of regional nuclear war.

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 03/06/2012

When the five-year review of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) convenes in New York on May 3, 70 IPPNW doctors, medical students, and activists from 20 countries will join hundreds of other civil society representatives to demand fulfillment of the Treaty’s disarmament obligation some 40 years since its entry into force. In the months leading up to the Review Conference, IPPNW affiliates and ICAN activists have been bringing a clear message to their governments – that NPT member states should call for work on a Nuclear Weapons Convention to begin as soon as the conference ends.

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01/12/2010 CND's International Conference took place on October 10th at Mary Ward House in Central London. The day focused on the 2010 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and how campaigners can make an impact on negotiations towards abolition.

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12/03/2009 One of the hallmarks of IPPNW’s work is engaging with nuclear decision makers about the medical consequences of nuclear war and the urgency of ridding the world of nuclear weapons. In pursuit if this kind of physician diplomacy, IPPNW held a seminar on nuclear disarmament with European Parliamentarians on October 13, 2009 in Brussels.

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10/26/2009 The new conservative-liberal government in Germany declared yesterday in their newly published coalition agreement that they would advocate the withdrawal of the remaining nuclear weapons in Germany. This means that the national campaign "our future – nuclear weapon-free" has reached an important milestone. The german section of IPPNW is one of a coalition of 50 German peace organisations and groups running this campaign.

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10/09/2009 As they did 24 years ago, when they awarded a group of physicians the Nobel Peace Prize for their work to stop the nuclear arms race, the Nobel Committee has once again used their power to leverage action on nuclear disarmament.  In attaching "special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons" the Nobel Committee understands the significance of the transformational change that is necessary.

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09/18/2009 President Barack Obama’s decision to cancel US missile defense deployments in the Czech Republic and Poland ends a controversial and wasteful program that never should have been started in the first place. As a remnant of the Reagan-era ballistic missile defense scheme that came to be known as Star Wars, the proposed array of radars and interceptors was technically unsound, had become an obstacle to negotiations on strategic arms reductions with Russia, and was an unfortunate symbol of a domineering attitude in foreign affairs that President Obama had pledged to correct. On all three counts, he has done the right thing.

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07/09/2009 In March 2009, just before the historic first meeting between US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War sent the two leaders a letter signed by more than 300 of the world’s top physicians, appealing for leadership toward a world without nuclear weapons. Our hopes and expectations were raised by the statements issued from the London meeting, and by President Obama’s speech in Prague a few days later, when he pledged “America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons” and added that “as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act.”

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05/25/2009 International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War regrets the nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). As an organization of doctors, we deplore the squandering of scarce resources of all the nuclear powers in the time of world wide economic recession on the development of weapons — especially weapons of mass destruction — instead of investing in health, education, economic development and other social needs that provide true security.

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05/16/2009 IPPNW was one of more than 75 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) participating in the 2009 Preparatory Committee meeting for the 2010 Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty at UN Headquarters in New York. The two-week PrepCom made important strides toward strengthening the disarmament and non-proliferation "pillars" of the NPT, which had come under enormous strain during the eight years of the Bush administration in the US.

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04/27/2009 The IPPNW joint European – Russian /CIS meeting and Symposium "Nuclear Weapons, Violence and Health" took place in Helsinki, Finland from 23.-26.4.2009. The Particpants from Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Netherlands, UK, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Russia, Georgia, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan and Ukraine discussed a common European-Russia-CIS campaign on nuclear disarmament as part of the IPPNW ICAN campaign.

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02/06/2009 Most of the world is already finished with the idea of nuclear weapons. Public opinion polls in country after country—even in the nuclear-weapon states—reflect broad and growing support for a nuclear-weapons-free world. Serious mainstream politicians and diplomats, including US President Barack Obama, have embraced the goal of zero nuclear weapons, though they mostly advocate near-term— though important — incremental steps such as dealerting and making deeper cuts in the US and Russian arsenals, and stop short of calling for negotiations on a comprehensive, universal agreement—a nuclear weapons convention similar to the treaties that already ban chemical and biological weapons.

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01/29/2009 During its first week in office, the new US administration of President Barack Obama published its foreign policy agenda on the revamped White House website. A summary of steps that Obama took as a US Senator to address the nuclear threat is followed by a series of explicit pledges to stop the development of new nuclear weapons, to take existing weapons off hair trigger alert, and to strengthen the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

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11/16/2008 After eight dark years of neo-con rule, the American people voted for hope and change, backed by global demand for progressive new US leadership. It feels like a new dawn. The election of President Barack Obama brings newfound hope that the United States will become a champion for peace. During the campaign, President-Elect Obama pledged to end the Iraq war, to restore the rule of law, to close Guantánamo Bay, to reaffirm the Geneva Conventions, to pursue diplomacy, and to respect and participate in the United Nations.

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10/14/2008 63 years have passed since the nuclear bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which must be remembered for the excruciating human agony and devastating destruction of a kind never seen before. The “Global Voyage for a Nuclear-Free World – Peace Boat Hibakusha Project” has brought 102 Hibakusha (survivors of the atomic bombings) to Piraeus, Greece as part of the worldwide voyage to share their testimonies and the universal message of the Hibakusha that nuclear weapons must be abolished in order to never again allow their use. To this end, we join the global civil society call for a world free from nuclear weapons, underpinned by a Nuclear Weapons Convention.

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05/05/2008 Although few people are aware of it, there has been considerable progress over the past decade toward a treaty to abolish nuclear weapons. For many years, there had been a substantial gap between the pledges to eliminate nuclear weapons made by the signatories to the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty of 1968 and the reality of their behavior.

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09/25/2008 “How close we came to extinction, and it is forgotten now.” So begins Nobel Prize-winner Bernard Lown’s story of his fight against the nuclear symptom of what he calls “the disease of militarism.” It is still active and highly contagious, as witnessed by events in Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, and all too many other places. And it can only be stopped, as this extraordinary memoir vividly demonstrates, by concerned citizens working together.

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09/08/2008 The US-India Deal Working Group of the international disarmament network, ABOLITION 2000,  in which IPPNW is involved, deplores the decision of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to approve a special exemption for India from its nuclear trade rules.
The exemption will allow India to participate in international nuclear trade, but, contrary to the claims of its advocates, it will not bring India further into conformity with the nonproliferation behavior expected of the member states of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

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03/10/2008 I am happy to be here at the inauguration of the 18th World Congress of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. The pioneering work of the organisation and its efforts for peace, health and development need no mention here; it has been awarded the Noble Peace Prize. Conferences of this nature help in better understanding of the causes of armed conflict, especially from a public health perspective, and build grassroots awareness of the immense health and environment consequences of nuclear war.

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01/28/2008 At a press conference in Hiroshima, Japan, Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba announced that the 2020 Vision Campaign of Mayors for Peace is successful in preparing for the Decisive Decade for Nuclear Disarmament. Mayor Akiba, also President of Mayors for Peace, declared, "An ambitious membership drive which begun last January has come to fruition: we now have 2,028 Mayors in 127 countries rallying for the 2020 Vision!". Over 400 new members joined Mayors for Peace during 2007.

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01/30/2008 ICAN-UK is a new consortium of groups facilitated by Medact as the UK affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. ICAN´s aim is to draw attention to the feasibility of nuclear abolition through the model treaty outlined in Securing our Survival, the Case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC), and to generate political will for nuclear disarmament through educating and engaging the public and policy makers.

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11/18/2007 On Sunday the 18th of November the Mayor of Hiroshima Hadatoshi Akiba visited Stockholm, Sweden. For his visit Swedish students in IPPNW arranged the first "Nuclear Weapon Free - my cup of tea" event. This is a new activity that can be done all over the world in IPPNW as a contribution to the ICAN campaign. There are still 27.000 nuclear weapons in the world. The purpose of each and every one of them is their potential of causing a major disaster. But in fact, they are causing disaster every day.

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10/15/2007 From September 28th-30th of 2007, a group of more than 30 medical students, doctors and political activists cycled the English countryside from Dover to London in order to reach this conference, informing the public on their way about the dangers of nuclear weapons, holding Target X installations and meeting with mayors and media on the way. Background of the tour was the decision of the British parliament to renew the Trident nuclear weapons program for an estimated cost of £25 billion.

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10/03/2007 Even a limited, regional nuclear war, such as an exchange between India and Pakistan, would cause world wide climate disruption and lead to global famine. This was one outcome of the international conference "Nuclear Weapons: The Final Pandemic -Preventing Proliferation and Achieving Abolition" of IPPNW in partnership with the Royal Society of Medicine. Dr Helfand and Professor Alan Robock and Dr Owen Toon, demonstrated that debris ejected into the atmosphere from the nuclear explosions and subsequent fires would cause sudden global cooling and decreased precipitation for up to 10 years.

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10/02/2007 In Rhodes was created a new terenean Antinuclear link named Mediterranean No Nuclear Neighbourhood (MN³). In the Secretariat Maria Arvaniti Sotiropoulou was elected representing the Greek Affiliate of IPPNW. Following you find the declaration of MN³. "We, the Organizations from 9 countries of the wider area of the Mediterranean gathered in Rhodes, September 27-29 2007, and signed the Protocol of Cooperation for the Creation of the Mediterranean No Nuclear Neighbourhood, address the citizens of our countries with a hopeful dream..."

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08/14/2007 The German affiliate of IPPNW has signed a letter from the global network "Abolition 2000" asking member states of the Nuclear Suppliers Group to veto the proposed US-India nuclear deal. The signatories of the letter view the deal as "deeply flawed" and regard the consequences for the internation non-proliferation regime to be so severe, that only the next Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty should take a decision on it.

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08/15/2007 More than 60 years ago, the world was put on notice by the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that we were living on borrowed time. More than 40 years ago, physicians and scientists described in frightening and comprehensive terms how a nuclear war would kill tens of millions of people indiscriminately, destroy entire societies and ecosystems, and cause cancers and genetic damage in unborn generations. In time we learned that, at its worst extreme, a nuclear exchange involving thousands of warheads could cause a nuclear winter that would lead to the extinction of humankind.

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08/06/2007 On the 6th of August 2007 at the anniversary of Hiroshima massacre Derman Boztok (general secretary and international councilor of NUSED) and his colleague Dr. Mehmet Kum (deputy health director and president of locally active NGO) declared to press the Igdir Appeal of NUSED and several local NGOs of Igdir Province (the most eastern province) condemning the use and development of nuclear weapons, reminding IPPNW´s ICAN efforts globally and pointing out the very imminent threat posed locally by the Metsamor nuclear plant at the Armenian border.

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07/29/2007 The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was founded on July 29th, 1957. On the occasion of this 50th anniversary IPPNW-Germany has created an electronic birthday card to the IAEA that criticizes the agency's role in promoting so-called peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The e-card can be viewed, personalized, and signed at www.iaea.ippnw.de. According to its founding statute, the aim of the IAEA is to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation while, at the same time, enlarging the peaceful use of nuclear energy. IPPNW believes that this is a self-contradictory mission.

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06/12/2007 SLMK - the Swedish affiliate of IPPNW sent a delegation of 3 students and 1 doctor to Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The delegation aimed at strengthening the relationship with the DPRK affiliate of IPPNW, spreading awareness on nuclear weapon issues to medical students and doctors, increasing our knowledge about the health care situation in DPRK.

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04/30/2007 On April 30 ICAN was launched at the Vienna nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) meeting, along with the book Securing our Survival (SOS): the Case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention with a panel featuring Mayor Akiba of Hiroshima, Dr. Ron McCoy of IPPNW, Dr. Carlos Vargas of Costa Rica, as well as co-authors of the Nuclear Weapons Convention, Alyn Ware, Jurgen Scheffran and Felicity Hill.

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03/27/2007 Upon invitation of the Swiss chapter of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, an international conference on the topic of "Nuclearisation in Europe and the Middle East" took place on Monte Verità, Ascona, Switzerland from March 22nd to 25th 2007. In a time of high international tension in the Middle East, participants focused on the absolute necessity for high-level constructive dialogue between all the parties. Respect for mutual fears as well as the overcoming of misunderstandings due to cultural and historical differences should inherently be part of such dialogue.

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04/17/2007 On Tuesday, April 17, 2007 you killed a man who was apparently an obstacle to your criminal enterprises. We wonder if you have any idea what you have taken from the world. Mayor Iccho Itoh was born only two weeks before the atomic bombing of Nagasaki by the United States on August 9, 1945. Defined by that monstrous act of war along with the other hibakusha of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Mayor Itoh devoted his life to making sure that nuclear weapons would never be used again. Without rancor or ill will, he quietly and persistently went about the business of campaigning for the elimination of nuclear weapons from the world.

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07/01/2008 On Tuesday July 1st 2008 12:00 noon at the EP in Brussels a cross-party group representing 69 Members of the European Parliament from 19 EU member states launched a "Parliamentary declaration in support of the Nuclear Weapons Convention". Their support marked the 40th anniversary of the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), and the unfulfilled promise of the official Nuclear Weapon States to move towards total elimination of their nuclear arsenals.

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01/22/2007 Medact doctors join others at the Faslane submarine base in Scotland to protest against new nuclear weapons. Dr Trevor Trueman said: "The proposed replacement of Trident, when we have ratified a non-proliferation Treaty and are encouraging other countries to remain non-nuclear, is the height of hypocrisy. Nuclear weapons are indiscriminate and therefore illegal under international law."

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01/04/2007 Nuclear weapons today present tremendous dangers, but also an historic opportunity. U.S. leadership will be required to take the world to the next stage -- to a solid consensus for reversing reliance on nuclear weapons globally as a vital contribution to preventing their proliferation into potentially dangerous hands, and ultimately ending them as a threat to the world. Nuclear weapons were essential to maintaining international security during the Cold War because they were a means of deterrence. The end of the Cold War made the doctrine of mutual Soviet-American deterrence obsolete. Deterrence continues to be a relevant consideration for many states with regard to threats from other states. But reliance on nuclear weapons for this purpose is becoming increasingly hazardous and decreasingly effective.

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10/09/2006 The Co-Presidents of IPPNW issued a statement today condemning the nuclear test by North Korea. "The test explosion of a nuclear weapon, announced today by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, was an irresponsible and dangerous action that can only be seen as a giant step backward for the people of North Korea and for the entire North Asian region" they said. The Co-Presidents strongly urged restraint by all parties.

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08/04/2006 Jack Straw Leader of the UK House of Commons announced on Friday 21st July that the House of Commons would vote on the issue of maintaining the Trident Missile System before the end of the year. The vote will be a 'three line whip vote' meaning MPs are expected to vote with the party leadership rather than with their conscience. Parliament is now in summer recess until October, which implies that the vote will occur in November or December this year.

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09/10/2006 The 17th IPPNW World Congress took place in Helsinki, Finland from 7th to 10 September 2006. The motto of the Congress was War or Health? Themes of the congress were: nuclear abolition; small arms and the public health impact of war; and energy security. A statement was issued at the close of the congress.

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09/11/2006 Solange Fernex, a French pacifist and politician born in 1934 and resident in Biederthal (Alsace), died of cancer on 11 September at around 3pm. After living through some difficult stages and a recent short remission, she slipped away gently.

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04/15/2006 IPPNW physicians and medical students participated in a new round of Dialogues with Decision Makers in Brussels and Moscow this March and April.

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02/15/2006 IPPNW played over many, many years the leadership role in advocating testing moratoria, and end to testing, and adoption of a CTBT. IPPNW's "CeaseFire" campaign generated thousands of letters of protest after each nuclear weapons test explosion. As you know, while full scale underground testing has been stopped - at least for now - testing does in fact continue - in the laboratory. The United Kingdom, in conjunction with the US, conducted a subcritical nuclear test at the American underground test site in Nevada on February 23.

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01/19/2006 IPPNW condemns unequivocally any use or threatened use of nuclear weapons for any reason. We are therefore appalled at your statement on January 19 that France has reconfigured its nuclear forces in preparation for a tactical nuclear strike against any country that your government concludes had sponsored an act of terrorism against France. IPPNW does not condone terrorism in any form, nor would we deny the right of any government to use legitimate means to defend its people against acts of terrorism. The use of nuclear weapons, however, is not a legitimate means under any circumstances.

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11/29/2005 An IPPNW delegation met for two hours with policy staff of the FCO Department of Counter Proliferation and the Ministry of Defence in the UK. The following day, another IPPNW delegation visited the Ministry of Defense and the Foreign Office in Paris and talked to officials there.

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11/17/2005 On November 17, 2005 the plenary of the EU parliament gathered in Strasbourg adopted a resolution called "European Parliament resolution on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction: A role for the European Parliament (2005/2139(INI)) " The resolution refers to The World Court opinion on Nuclear Weapons from June 1996, and gives a clear recognition from the Parliament that the governing bodies of the European Union has to integrate this advisory opinion in its strategy on nuclear weapons.

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10/14/2005 The IPPNW Board of Directors released the following letter to Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei following his 2005 Nobel Peace Prize: "Congratulations to you personally and all your colleagues at the IAEA who have laboured so hard to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons on our planet. IPPNW also wishes to express particular gratitude for your commitment to preventing the invasion of Iraq. You provided the international community with factual information on the monitoring of Iraq's weapons programmes and took a strong stand against the false allegations made by a few nations. We hope that you can bring the facts to bear on the current crisis over Iran's nuclear intentions and that the call for multilateral solutions will prevail."

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09/01/2005 Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) mourns the death of Professor Sir Joseph Rotblat on August 31, in London, UK at the age of 96. Professor Rotblat, a 1995 Nobel Peace Laureate, and one of the first nuclear weapons opponents, was the only scientist to quit the Manhattan Project for moral reasons, when he learned from that Adolf Hitler and Germany were not developing a nuclear weapon. From that point on, he turned his immense talents and energy to nuclear medicine and a life-long campaign against nuclear weapons and war.

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08/10/2005 The flame from Hiroshima has now been returned to its place of origin and extinguished. A flame was lit in 1945 from the members of the fires in Hiroshima that the atomic bomb started. The flame has been kept in a temple close to Nagasaki. Every year monks have walked from Hiroshima to Nagasaki, and there walked in circles to symbolize that this should be the last bomb. Now the monks have brought the flame across to California and walked through the desert to the place of the first atomic bomb explosion, called Trinity, near Alamogordo in New Mexico.

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07/07/2005 I was privileged to meet Mordechai Vanunu, the dissident anti-nuclear Israeli who was released from 18yrs imprisonment last year for his advocacy on Israel's nuclear weapons, when staying in St George's guest house in Jerusalem in July. Although he is not supposed to meet foreigners or the press he was happy to talk about his views and indeed this is one of the reasons why he is staying in this particular setting.

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05/08/2004 The International Atomic Energy Agency, which I will herafter refer to as IAEA, is best known by the general public for its inspections and subsequent discovery of secret nuclear programmes. But little is known about its actual mandate as an organisation and how it plays a significant role in the promotion of the so-called peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

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