01.12.2015 Armed conflict and militarization pose grave and escalating threats to health worldwide and must be tackled urgently, warned a coalition of leading health, peace, development and security organizations led by IPPNW UK affiliate Medact who met in London on the 13th & 14th November
The Health through Peace event, also supported by The Lancet, The BMJ, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and others, brought together over 700 doctors, nurses, scientists, frontline humanitarian workers, health science students, academics and others to discuss the reality on the ground of wars in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and to mobilize around a security agenda that focuses on the prevention of war, and includes protection from poverty and climate change. Medact Director and physician, Dr. David McCoy, called for parliament and the wider public to question and challenge current policies. “Our approach to national security which has seen us launch wars, directly and by proxy, has been ineffective and counter-productive, and a disaster for millions of people”. In the wake of recent attacks on healthcare facilities and providers in Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and Palestine, delegates staged a solidarity action in support of calls by the World Health Organization and International Committee of the Red Cross for governments to recommit to international humanitarian law, and wider calls for a more effective and just response to Europe’s worst displacement crisis since World War II.
See @Medact Twitter feed and Medact Facebook page for more.
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