From 11th to 13th April 2025 the European IPPNW Meeting took place in Geneva, one of the main venues of diplomacy and international relations, organized by IPPNW’s Geneva office. The conference stood in light of this year’s title “Finding Clarity in Chaos: Creating a vision of Peace and Security”, which already hints at the complexity of the current state of the world we live in. During those three days, medical professionals, activists, scientists and students from many European IPPNW affiliates met to follow engaging workshops, to discuss, exchange, connect and plan for the future, with the main aim of ameliorating European collaboration in peace work. Main topics were the risk of nuclear war, the political situation in Europe and other continents, global health and peace work, the intersectionality of the nuclear threat with climate change and feminism and a rapidly changing geopolitical landscape through old and new conflicts and artificial intelligence.
Despite the heightened tensions in the current political world and its unsettling nature for most individuals, I am fascinated and pleased to see the high motivation and momentum in the room, that will undoubtedly bring countless fruitful collaborations and projects within IPPNW Europe.
The following article is written from a medical student perspective who was lucky enough to participate in this unique event and learn from a variety of experts in this movement.
The weekend commenced Friday evening with exciting keynote speakers, followed by a social gathering at the beautiful Palais Anna et Jean-Gabriel Eynard, which gave us all the opportunity to meet, greet, reconnect and newly connect. For the students, this was especially exciting as a lot of us hadn’t met before. At the same time, we also used the time to speak to all generations present. Dr. Angelika Claußen and Dr. Marianne Begemann, the European IPPNW-Vice-Presidents, set the tone of the evening with their first introductory speech that highlighted the times of current crisis and threat to peace and security, especially tensions between the US, Russia and China and recent situations of disregard of the International Court of Justice.
Christina Kitsos, Mayor of the City of Geneva, appealed to all IPPNW members to keep reminding the world of the danger that nuclear threats pose, while also alluding to the intersectionality of the topic, including climate change, the crisis of democracy, economic inequality and additional dangers due to AI and nuclear weapons. In this way, she urged the audience to continue to work to bring scientists back to the heart of the debate, while being so often falsely excluded from political discussions, as one of the major steps to creating a path towards lasting peace, however narrow it may be. The past Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey approached the topic from another angle by stating that changes in the debate environment could be the solution by demystifying nuclear weapons and making the latter irrelevant to global security debates, as it is simply unrealistic to rely on dissuasion theories. Simultaneously, she acknowledged that the war in Ukraine shattered all norms of the European peace order and underlined the importance of nuclear disarmament in an end to this war.
Next to those important remarks on the current state of global nuclear security, Dr. Zhanat Kenbayeva of the Radiation and Health Program at WHO, told us her story of being a survivor of nuclear “testing”, which is actually a gross euphemism of nuclear bombing, at Semipalatinks in Qasaqstan until 1989. Hearing such survivor testimonies reminds everyone in the room of how critical it is to remember historical events as warning for future risks and why working towards the abolishment of nuclear weapons is so important. We owe it to the survivors and their communities, who show themselves as so extraordinarily courageous, determined to keep this battle going and who should always be at the centre of discussion. The consequences of nuclear testing history don’t end with human deaths and environmental destruction, but go as far as health consequences for generations, loss of indigenous culture, traditional ways of life and therefore food insecurity, leading to socioeconomic difficulties with reliance on food imports and subsequent chronic disease.
At the same time, Zhanat Kenbayeva highlighted the huge success of Chuck Johnson and Melissa Parke in working to renew the WHO report on the “effects of nuclear weapons and nuclear war on health and health services” and ICAN’s work in regards of the TPWN, for which they were rewarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017. Already half of the world’s countries have signed the treaty and several are lined up for signature! And the renewed scientific report will serve as an extremely important tool to show the urgency of the topic in the 21st century and pursue activism on the basis of evidence-based research right now.
While the latter successes, together with the recent Nobel peace prize for Nihon Hidankyo, are a reason to celebrate, we are all aware of the persisting threat that nuclear weapons pose. The height of this danger might be comparable to the climate crisis, with the difference that nuclear weapons can kill us much faster.
We also got to hear Melissa Parke speak, ICAN’s executive director, who put numbers onto the threats being discussed: even a limited nuclear war would not only kill millions directly, but lead to more than two billion deaths due to nuclear winter, making it crystal clear that nuclear weapons are a threat to human civilization and the whole planet. Her picture was quite clear: The world is at crossroads right now – one way downward a spiral of heightened tensions and nuclear threats, and the other route towards international dialogue, collaboration and disarmament. Dinosaurs had no choice to eliminate the asteroid that destroyed them, but nuclear weapons are certainly not part of our natural habitat and all that’s required is political will and leadership to dismantle those weapons of mass destruction. She appealed to Switzerland, the host country of this conference, to sign the TPNW – there is an important initiative collecting signatures at the moment, in order to push the Swiss government to do so.
ICAN representatives were not the only Nobel laureates in the room. Jacques Dubochet was also present, who was awarded the Nobel prize in chemistry the same year. He delighted the audience with a short but important speech during the Saturday lectures.
The opening remarks of all those important figures in the room, were complemented by Dr. Kati Juva and Dr. Carlos Umaña, both IPPNW co-presidents. An important topic here was the current geopolitical state and race of militarism in Europe, including discussions of a “eurobomb” and the idea of extending the French nuclear umbrella into other countries. Dr. Juva also spread hope in pointing out that at the bottom of this topic, people’s hearts and moral ethics are on our side. Dr. Umaña expanded on this by quoting a Hibakusha: We need a shift of public understanding of this matter – nuclear weapons are not necessary for security. “Nuclear weapons are not a necessary evil, they are the ultimate evil.” He put all this into the bigger picture of our societies by highlighting that we ought to strengthen the rule of law and ensure that humanitarian agreements are held up unconditionally on a global level, while we need strong institutions and equitable healthcare systems on a local level.
The evening was continued under the weight of such heavy but important words, however in a beautiful location and filled with many reunions of IPPNW members, as well as new faces that were welcomed with open arms. As students, this gave us a wonderful opportunity to mingle and plan student activities for the upcoming conference days.
Saturday morning commenced with a session on the “Current global risk of nuclear war – specifically in Europe”, which complemented the speeches of the night before. On this panel were Tarja Cronberg from SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute), Prof. Dr. Laurent Goetschel who is the director of Swiss Peace, Prof. Univ. Basel Reiner Braun, the past director of the International Peace Bureau, Dr. Carlos Umaña and Sergey Batsanov, the director of Pugwash. The session was centred around the question of how we can create long lasting security in a time in which the post-Cold War arms control treaties are ending (with the New Start treaty ending february next year) and the fear of nuclear war in Europe increasing. A very important talking point here were negotiations over peace in Ukraine and the current risk of Russia using a tactical nuclear weapon in the near future, also considering Russia’s relationship with the BRICS states and especially China, the change in Russia’s nuclear doctrine. At the same time it is highly worrisome that in the end, it is a few men who are able to decide over the use of nuclear weapons. Additionally, the discussion touched on the fact that peace in Ukraine is so deeply imbedded in European peace and could rewrite the peace order between east and west, which could be an opportunity for trust building and a long lasting peace. This also means that new arms control and disarmament treaties need to be negotiated as soon as possible. Additionally, one mustn’t forget to consider developments within countries and in terms of democracy, in order to understand the current geopolitical order, such as the current rise of right-wing extremist views in Europe. Here, deterrence theories oppose nuclear disarmament – we need to demystify the ideology of nuclear deterrence, support the TPNW and clarify within society that the only acceptable risk of nuclear weapons to be used is zero!
The second event of the morning touched on WHO’s “Global Health and Peace Initiative” and “Health professionals’ role in prevention of conflict”. This session really highlighted how closely intertwined conflicts and health emergencies, through direct trauma but also disease outbreaks, socioeconomic consequences of destruction and subsequent inequality, are.
A central question to be asked is therefore how health can be put into the centre of discussion in achieving peace. Decisive here are women as part of peace negotiations: The International Peace Institute found that women’s participation increases the probability of a peace agreement lasting at least two years by 20% and a peace agreement lasting fifteen years by 35% (https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/womens-participation-peace-processes-is-not-only-right-its-way-to-lasting-peace)! This also means that peace and the status of women are intricately interlinked – we need to work to take down patriarchal structures, support feminist policies and work towards equal rights! Returning to the topic of nuclear weapons, these have a disproportionately high impact on women and children, emphasising the intersectionality of this topic and another reason why they need to be abolished as soon as possible.
Simultaneously, non-governmental civil societies play an important role as the basis of social capital and trust in societies and therefore for peacebuilding on a larger scale. Dr. Bettina Borisch, Professor of Public Health at the University of Geneva and executive director of WFPHA (World Federation of Public Health Associations) stressed that we live in a world where conflicts that are solved diplomatically are not sufficiently reported on, stating an example of a conflict between Namibia and Botswana in 1996 with involvement of the International Court of Justice.
Dr. Andrew Haines from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine emphasized the determination of health by socioeconomic, cultural and environmental factors, which are all negatively impacted by militarism and conflict. This is where the role of health professionals comes in by making direct and indirect effects of conflict on health visible, exposing unjust financial flows, education and therefore countering the militaristic mindset and reframe security through promoting a culture of peace and health. We need to emphasize that global health still needs to be further decolonized, vividly shown by the fact that net finance flows to countries described as “developing countries” have turned negative in 2023, which is a disaster for public health, resource allocation and work towards decolonization of global health. The fact that the WHO’s pandemic agreement has taken years to discuss shows how much work still needs to be done to overcome mistrust and build stronger bridges between the global south and north.
Moving on from this, Dr. Erin Downey’s new paper on “Strategic Concept Desing: IPPNW Engagement with the Global Health and Medical Community” was of high importance in this session, as it identifies entrance points of collaboration between the latter two, as well as underscoring the aforementioned significance of women in peace negotiations, as well as indigenous populations and people with disabilities. In addition, she pointed out the importance of language in health education, in order to adapt content to specific communities and all generations.
The afternoon was continued with discussions about “Informing and mobilizing the international health community on health effects of nuclear weapons”, more specifically “the objective of the WHA resolution for renewed studies of the health and environmental effects of nuclear weapons. Chuck Johnson, IPPNW’s policy director, is the main driving force of this project, which aims to reach from emergency response capacity and immediate health effects to generational effects, nuclear winter and climate effects, as well as the role of health professionals. This will finally update the now rather old WHO reports from the 1980s and 90s. Important to point out is also that 153 scientific journals, including The Lancet, the British Medical Journal and the New England Journal of Medicine, have come together to call for health professionals to work to prevent a nuclear war.
This panel also included Counsellor Augustine Sokimi from the Permanent Mission of the Republic of the Marshall Islands who highlighted the nuclear legacy of the Marshall Islands and therefore the importance in support of nuclear testing survivors from the international community. Dr. Eirini Giorgou expanded on what the pursuit of truth in search for justice for survivors: “Human legacies are not stories of wars and weapons, but stories of justice, life and health.”
The final event of the main day of this conference touched on war, climate and energy policy in terms of “Setting global goals and priorities for survival in the 21st century”. R. Andrew Haines vividly depicted the relationship between climate change and rising conflicts, shown in the paper by Hsiang et al. 2013 in Science (https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1235367). It is drastic to see that exorbitant sums of money are being invested into militarization when this money could be used for climate protection, calling for an urgent shift in resource allocation. Military emissions account for 5,5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, which makes it the fifth largest emitter on the planet, and this is most likely a large underestimation, as supply chain emissions are not included in this number. These numbers were backed up by other speakers on this panel, including Dr. Angelika Claussen, the European IPPNW Vice-president, Dr. Bimal Khada, IPPNW Board member, Rudolf Rechsteiner who is a former MP of Switzerland and the aforementioned Nobel prize winner Dr. Jacques Dubochet.
It is by far impossible to capture all the complexities of geopolitics in nuclear disarmament activism and the vast number of intersectional ties of nuclear threat, such as with climate, feminism and decolonialism. However, this day was a unique opportunity for European IPPNW affiliates to unite, to exchange perspectives, share important knowledge and built this community, in order to continue our work towards long lasting peace and abolition of nuclear weapons. In this way, the last day of the European IPPNW meeting was more focused on future collaboration between the different European IPPNW members. A past survey of affiliates identified successes as well as gaps and clarified the current state of IPPNW in terms of activism activity and number of members, which opened the door to a fruitful conversation in the room, that brought promising ideas for future projects. At the same time, this showed clearly how much momentum and motivation there is in the movement right now, so that many of us returned home with a renewed sense of hope despite such difficult times.
A matter of high importance here is the student involvement within IPPNW. The largest section of students represented Germany, followed by Austria and Sweden. It was wonderful to see that the community is highly focused on student involvement and intergenerational peace work and collaboration. We students played an active role in the discussions in the room and especially in finding strategies to expand IPPNW involvement within university campuses. Moreover, the students came together to vote new European IPPNW student representatives. We are pleased to congratulate Anna and Oliver for their new role and are looking forward to rebuilding the European IPPNW student community. We are already working on several projects and ideas for higher student involvement in the IPPNW and the disarmament movement.
To sum this up, I am incredibly fascinated by this strong and inspiring community, the new momentum and the atmosphere of hope despite such complicated and difficult geopolitical times.
As Melissa Parke stated in her opening speech: “Every day nuclear weapons exist, they present an unacceptable threat to human life.” And back to our role as physicians and the IPPNW: We must prevent what we cannot treat!
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