Good news just reached us from ICAN Spain: the left-wing political party Podemos got a commitment from the Spanish government to sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). However, the government has not yet announced how and when they will implement this decision. This was a result of lobbying by ICAN, IPPNW’s Spanish representative Aurora Bilbao and Carlos Umana from IPPNW Costa Rica. At a round-table on “Achieving a world without nuclear weapons,” Aurora gave a powerful presentation on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons. Spain’s signature would represent a significant breakthrough for the TPNW among NATO states.

[Read Pressenza article ]

Donald Trump announced on Saturday that the United States will withdraw from the 1987 Treaty on Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF), a decision confirmed by national security adviser John Bolton earlier this week. The following is a statement issued today by IPPNW’s executive committee.

[Read the full Statement here.]

Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass extermination. In light of the terrible humanitarian and environmental effects that such weapons have, doctors and scientist have always warned the global society that such weapons must never be used again, and should be abolished. This weekend (October 5-6), I had the privilege to represent IPPNW at the general assembly of the World Medical Association in Reykjavik, Iceland. The WMA is a federation of 114 national medical associations from all over the world.

[Read the full report here]

On 22nd September Medact members tok part in the ‘Nae Nukes Anywhere’ peace rally at the Faslane Nuclear Base – home to the UK’s Trident submarines. Our Medact contingent joined hundreds of protestors on the stretch from the Peace Camp to the North Gate, and inspiring speakers included Makar Jackie Kay (Scottish poet laureate) and fellow poet, US ICAN co-ordinator and longtime friend of Medact Timmon Wallis. Medact members brought the health voice with our banners, placards and by handing out “prescriptions for nuclear disarmament” to interested members of the public.

[More Photos...]

IPPNW and IFMSA have enjoyed informal working relationships for years, and over the next month, I worked with the team at the IFMSA to create a session dubbed “Youth-led Nuclear Disarmament.” The session was going to explore how youth and students can speak against nukes as we all push governments to sign the TPNW. This opportunity reminded me of how our IPPNW founding fathers must have felt when they first united to speak against these nukes. I imagine they found seemingly insurmountable hurdles, but, like us, did not give up.

[Read the full article at the peace and health blog]

On 8 July 2018 Dr. Taipale delivered this address to President Trump and Putin from the balcony of the Old Student House in Helsinki, Finland: "You have awakened humanity from years of deep hibernation. And let’s not forget the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un. Together you have reminded the peoples of the world about the existence of nuclear weapons. The greatest threat today is not global warming but nuclear weapons and the danger of nuclear war. Your colourful speeches have let the genie out the bottle. The spirit of nuclear disarmament has escaped, and can no longer be shut away. 122 countries have signed the United Nations’ Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Read Full Text 

[https://peaceandhealthblog.com/2018/07/17/common-threats/]

The US conducted 105 atmospheric and underwater tests at its Pacific Ocean proving ground from 1946-1962. Massive amounts of radioactive fallout from those tests spread across the Pacific, causing severe health effects that have continued to this day.

One of the best-known incidents from this reckless and shameful history was the fate of the Japanese fishing boat the Lucky Dragon. Despite being 90 miles away from ground zero, all 23 crew members were covered in thick layers of fallout from the March 1, 1954 Castle Bravo explosion, which, at 15 megatons, was the largest US nuclear test. The entire crew suffered from acute radiation sickness and were hospitalized for months. One crew member died from his injuries.

[https://peaceandhealthblog.com/2018/07/13/sea-of-death/]

The national affiliates of IPPNW in France, Germany, and the UK, and IPPNW’s international leadership, have appealed to officials in the three governments to stand by the agreement that they made with Iran on their nuclear program. In a letter to President Macron, Chancellor Merkel, and Prime Minister May, reprinted here, IPPNW has urged the leaders to continue working closely with Iran’s government to ensure the obligations of the agreement continue to be met by all remaining parties to it.(June 18, 2018)

[Letter to Macron, Merkel and May]

There is general concern about the impulsive behaviour of the current President of the USA and this article addresses ways of de-escalating the danger of a nuclear exchange.

The 12 kiloton bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 caused total obliteration over a distance of 3.2 km, and fires across 11km2. Some 70-80 thousand people or 30% of the population of Hiroshima died either immediately or over the next few weeks of blast, firestorms or radiation.

[Talk given by Dr. Elizabeth Waterston]

IPPNW condemns the withdrawal of the United States from the international nuclear weapons agreement with Iran, announced today by Donald Trump.
The decision by the US President to ignore key advisers and allies and to pull out of the nuclear agreement with Iran immediately increases the chances of new and intensified conflict in the Middle East and could provoke Iran into resuming its nuclear weapons program.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has certified Iran’s compliance since 2015, when the agreement to halt all activities that could lead to development of nuclear weapons was reached with the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, and China, Germany, and the European Union.

[Read the full article at the peace and health blog!]

The International Committee of the Red Cross and the World Medical Association have issued important and very timely calls for states to join and implement the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. On April 23, ICRC president Peter Maurer, reiterating the ICRC’s long-standing appeal “to all States, global leaders and citizens to act on the increasing risk of the use of nuclear weapons,” said that “States should take the necessary steps to adhere to the 1972 NPT, the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and other nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation treaties to which they are not yet party and fully implement their provisions.”

[Read the full article at the peace and health blog!]

ICAN partner organization PAX has published a new edition of the landmark report detailing global investments in companies that produce nuclear weapons. The 2018 update of Don’t Bank on the Bomb shows that 329 financial institutions from around the world have invested US $525 billion into 20 companies involved in the production, maintenance and modernization of nuclear weapons in France, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States since January 2014. Fourteen country profiles provide details about nuclear-weapons-related work of identified producers and the financial institutions that support this work. On the positive side, Pax researchers found that the number of institutions that have financial relationships with nuclear weapon producers has decreased since the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

[Don't Bank on the Bomb!]

IPPNW Board member Dr. Sue Wareham has received the first Chief Minister’s Rotary Peace Prize in Canberra. Attorney-General and Minister for the Arts and Community Events, Gordon Ramsay presided over the award ceremony at the unveiling of the Canberra Rotary Peace Bell in February. Dr. Wareham called on Australia to rethink the policy of building an economy on war profiteering and having a vested interest in wars and instability. “Going to war should not be the thing that Australia is good at and the thing that Australians recognise as central to their identity,” she said.

[Read the full article at Riot Act!]

The IPPNW Nigeria Radio Project has at its heartbeat “service to humanity”- creating awareness of the threat armed violence poses to health and healthy communities and providing relevant information about public health approaches to preventing armed violence, thus equipping the public with knowledge that can drive peace building in society.

Read the full article on the Peace & Health Blog

From November 6th to 17th, 2017 the UN Climate Conference was held in Bonn, Germany. During the conference the nuclear industry was intensively lobbying for access to climate funding mechanisms such as the UN Green Climate Fund for its outdated and dangerous nuclear technology. The international campaign “Don’t nuke the climate” forwarded a letter to the German environmental minister Barbara Hendricks which was signed by 70 scientists. In this letter scientists argue that nuclear energy is not the solution to climate change: It is too dirty, too dangerous and also would take too long to be a meaningful answer to global warming.
Moreover, the new nuclear power plant Hinckley Point in the UK is being built – not to solve energy problems, but to hide the costs for the British nuclear weapons program.

Read the scientists' letter

On November 18, 2017 IPPNW and ICAN and the Berlin peacemovement organized a great action for the ban of nuclear weapons and asked chancellor Merkel to sign the ban treaty. 700 people built a human chain between the US embassy and the North Korean embassy. Two person dressed up as Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un together with their specific nuclear bombs which they moved all the way between the two embassies. In the Middle, in front of the Brandenburger Tor, they had to meet with UN General secretary Antonio Gutérres and chancellor Merkel. Merkel was convinced to sign the weapons ban treaty this way.

[Express UK]

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was adopted on July 7 by 122 non-nuclear-weapon states, has opened for signature on September 20 at the United Nations. Nearly 50 heads of state have announced that they will sign on the first day at the General Assembly. The ban treaty, which prohibits the possession, development, production, testing, acquisition, use, and threatened use of nuclear weapons, will enter into force once it has been ratified by 50 nations. The opening of the Signature Ceremony was webcast live on Wednesday, September 20, beginning at 8:00 am New York time. The speakers included UN Secretary General António Guterres, ICRC president Peter Maurer, and ICAN executive director Beatrice Fihn. Over 50 states have already signed the ban treaty during the first week following the opening ceremony.

The leading international federations representing millions of doctors, nurses, and public health professionals have joined with IPPNW in calling for swift entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The World Medical Association, the International Council of Nurses, the World Federation of Public Health Associations, and IPPNW, in a statement released on September 18, said the treaty “completes the process of stigmatizing and delegitimizing nuclear weapons,” and urged the nuclear-armed and nuclear-dependent states to eliminate weapons “which threaten the security of everyone….The establishment of a new international norm prohibiting nuclear weapons,” the organizations concluded, “is a crucial step toward their elimination, but it is only a first step.” The WMA, the ICN, and the WFPHA collaborated with IPPNW last year on a joint working paper that presented the health and environmental evidence in support of the ban treaty process.

[Read the full article on the Peace & Health Blog]

Participants in IPPNW’s 22nd World Congress arrived at York University in the UK to news that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea had conducted a test of what it said was a hydrogen bomb on September 3. The new nuclear test, along with recent tests of intercontinental and medium-range missiles, were seen as a response to joint military exercises by the US and South Korea, and added to heightened tensions in the region. IPPNW issued a statement from the Congress on September 5, calling on the US and the DPRK “to enter into direct negotiations without preconditions to resolve this dangerous crisis.

[Read the full article on the Peace & Health Blog]

“Health Through Peace 2017,” the joint Medact forum and 22nd IPPNW World Congress, was a resounding success. More than 400 participants from the UK and from IPPNW’s global network of affiliates gathered at York University for three days of in-depth discussions about the new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the impacts of armed violence on health and security, and the role of health professionals in building a medical peace movement. The Congress statement, read by co-president Tilman Ruff during the opening plenary, celebrated the achievement of the ban treaty: “With this powerful new legal, moral, and political tool in hand, we can increase the pressure on the nuclear-armed and nuclear-dependent states and bring them into compliance with the Treaty through the complete and irreversible elimination of all nuclear weapons, delivery systems, and infrastructure. Only then will we achieve our goal of abolishing nuclear weapons as the only sure way to prevent nuclear war.” 

[Read the full article on the Peace & Health Blog]

A group of medical students and doctors from all over the world (Kenya, India, Pakistan, Germany, Nepal, Nicaragua and Russia) came together here in Scotland today to cycle to this year’s “Health Through Peace” conference and IPPNW Congress in York. On the way they aim to discuss global nuclear disarmament, causes of conflicts and weapons, and the effects on individual and public health with people they meet on the way. 

[Read the full article on the Peace & Health Blog]  [More information on the bike tour]  [Find out more about the participants]

2.200 students participated in the first round of the MPW MOOC (massive open online course) on the role of healthcare in maintaining and building peaceful societies. The course included two hours of training per week and helped to understand how violence affects health in multiple ways and how medical peace work has an impact on health, violence prevention and peace-building. Many participants came from UK, Germany, Canada, USA, Kenya etc.

The next MOOC-round will take part on October 2, 2017.

Register now at: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/medical-peace-work

[More information]

At the end of June, 2017, UNICEF and WHO released a statement declaring that Yemen is “facing the worst cholera outbreak in the world”.¹ The statement points out that the outbreak is caused by the civil war that began in 2015, but it does not suggest that one party is more responsible than another, simply noting that “two years of heavy conflict” have resulted in “collapsing health, water and sanitation systems”. Nor does it point to one side being more affected by the outbreak, stating that “cholera has spread to almost every governorate”.

[Read the full article on thelancet.com]

On August 9, 2017, the journal „Medicine, Conflict and Survival“ published the article „Healing under fire – medical peace work in the field“ from Louisa Chan Boegli and Maria Gabriella Arcadu. Both authors have been instrumental in defining and launching the World Health Organisation´s Health as a Bridge to Peace programme in the 1990s, and are now involved in the MPW partner organization 4Change, whose focus is on the education of health professionals in reducing violence and performing peacebuilding actions. In their article, Louisa Chan Boegli and Maria Gabriella Arcadu write about lessons from a project in Southern Thailand and three asessments carried out in Myanmar, along the Syrian Borders and in Iraqi Kurdistan.

[Read more on Taylor & Francis Online]

The world now has an international treaty making it illegal for ratifying states to possess any nuclear weapons. Yet the UK continues to keep and modernise its nuclear weapons at huge cost and risk to life, and is increasingly seen as out of step with the rest of the world.

On July 7th 2017 the UN General Assembly adopted, by a vote of 122 to 1, the text of a legally binding ‘instrument’ to prohibit nuclear weapons.

[Read the whole article here]  [Download A Safer World – treating Britain’s harmful dependence on nuclear weapons]

07.07.2017 It is with deep sorrow that we announce the death of Jef De Loof, founding father and president of the Flemish Belgian affiliate. Jef died peacefully at home after a short disease, at the age of 90, on July 7th, the day the Nuclear Ban Treaty was adopted in the UN. Jef dedicated his life to peace and to the abolition of nuclear weapons, with unrelenting commitment and energy. He always advocated non-violent conflict resolution on every level, from family to world politics. We will miss him very much but he will continue to inspire us. We offer our deepest condolences to his wife Rita and to his family.

01.07.2017 On Wednesday 26 June, the UN conference to negotiate a treaty banning nuclear weapons undertook the first read-through of a revised draft treaty text prepared by the conference president, Costa Rican ambassador Elayne Whyte. Now two weeks into this final round, many in the room expressed some frustration at this further exchange of positions and views. With the clock ticking towards the conference end and target date for adoption of an agreed treaty text on 7 July, many delegates expressed their desire to get stuck into negotiating treaty text, paragraph by paragraph, line by line.

[Read the article on the Peace & Health Blog]

29.06.2017 The humanitarian case for prohibiting and eliminating nuclear weapons has been built upon the scientific evidence about medical and environmental consequences. IPPNW has brought that evidence into all three inter-governmental "humanitarian impacts" conferences and into the UN Working Group that preceded the historic negotiations on the Ban Treaty.

On June 26, IPPNW organized an event at the UN negotiations, at which co-president Dr. Ira Helfand and science advisor Prof. Alan Robock of Rutgers University reinforced the findings that a limited nuclear exchage, as might occur between India and Pakistan, would severely disrupt the global climate and agriculture and result in a nuclear famine, placing as many as two billion people at risk of starvation. The draft text of the Treaty warns that the catastrophic consequences of nuclear weapons have “grave implications for human survival, the environment…[and] food security.”

27.06.2017 As I write this, a nuclear ban treaty is within reach. And yet, the optimism I should be feeling is tempered by the knowledge of the people, lands, waters, cultural traditions, and innocence that have been lost to the scourge of nuclear weapons.

On Sunday afternoon, June 18, during an ICAN strategy and planning meeting, many voiced opinions on various aspects of the ban treaty. There was much discussion about the victims of nuclear testing, with Roland Oldham (President of Moruroa e Tatou) offering the perspective of the inhabitants of French Polynesia. At the conclusion of the meeting, Roland offered the booklet “Moruroa La Bombe et Nous” to anyone interested. He seemed apologetic as he admitted that it was available only in French.

Thus began my virtual journey to French Polynesia.

[Read the full article on the Peace & Health Blog]

The joint MEDACT Forum and IPPNW World Congress will be held September 4-6, 2017, at the University of York, United Kingdom. In addition to a packed program during the main Forum/Congress, the IPPNW International Council and Board of Directors meetings will be held on Sunday, Sept 3 and on Thursday, Sept 7.

[Find out more about the Congress here]

09.06.2017 The Swiss IPPNW, the Association of Swiss Lawyers for Nuclear Disarmament, the International Centre for Comparative Environmental Law (CIDCE), the Uranium Network as well as the Basel Peace Office are organising an international congress on the topic of Human Rights, Future Generations and Crimes in the Nuclear Age, which will take place at the University of Basel from 14th to 17th September 2017. Bringing together lawyers, physicians and experts on nuclear weapons as well as victims of nuclear accidents and nuclear testing, the congress aims to create an interdisciplinary dialogue about topics that are especially relevant in these times of increased geopolitical tension and uncertainty.

[Please find further information on the congress, as well as the online registration form, here.]

28.04.2017 The persistent tensions on the Korean peninsula are rapidly escalating into a crisis fueled by mutual fears, provocations, and the volatile temperaments of two unpredictable, nuclear-armed heads of state. The current US administration seems determined to “resolve” the situation through shows of force and military threats. The government of Kim Jong-un is accelerating its efforts to test and build nuclear weapons and missiles, while promising “massive” retaliation should the US follow through on those threats.

[Full article on peaceandhealthblog.org]

07.03.2017 On February 21th, an international delegation of IPPNW physicians visited Moscow and met with Russian IPPNW the Russian Pugwash Committee at a symposium on Global Security in the Russian Academy  of Sciences (RAS). On this special occasion, the IPPNW US and Russian Co-Presidents personally delivered a letter to Russia's Prime Minister Medvedev. In this letter they urge him to join the negotiations on a treaty banning nuclear weapons and to provide leadership for this process.

[The letter to Dmitri Medvedev]

24.01.2017 IPPNW welcomes the statement by Chinese President Xi Jinping that “nuclear weapons … should be completely prohibited and destroyed over time to make the world free of them.” President Xi’s remarks, made during a speech on January 18 at the United Nations in Geneva, were consistent with China’s long-standing official support for nuclear disarmament, and come as the UN is preparing to convene negotiations on a new treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons.

China gave a positive signal at the UN General Assembly last month, unlike its other P5 partners, when it abstained from, rather than voting against, a resolution authorizing negotiations for a treaty banning nuclear weapons. The resolution was carried by a majority of over three to one.

[Full article on peaceandhealthblog.com]

The looming advent of the Trump administration in Washington threatens to worsen an already deeply troubling international situation. Bitter wars are raging, tens of millions of refugees have taken flight, relations among the great powers are deteriorating, and a new nuclear arms race is underway. Resources that could be used to fight unemployment, poverty, and climate change are being lavished on the military might of nations around the world―$1.7 trillion in 2015 alone. The United States accounts for 36 percent of that global total.

Given this grim reality, let us consider an alternative agenda for the new administration―an agenda for peace.

[read full article on peaceandhealthblog.com]