21.09.2021 Physicians in the countries involved in the proposal announced on 16 September for Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines with UK and US assistance are concerned this plan will jeopardise global health and security. Under this proposal, Australia would become the seventh country to use nuclear propulsion for its military vessels, and the first state to do so which does not possess nuclear weapons, or nuclear power reactors.

09.09.2021 Climate Change not only intensifes existing conflicts; wars and military interventions are at the same time extremely harmful to the climate. Disarmament can therefore not only reduce emissions from arms production, but also free up financial ressources for climate protection. Governments worldwid should focus on a more sustainable security policy.

On August 9, the IPPNW Medical Student Movement hosted a discussion on The Vow from Hiroshima and the importance of medical student activism. The event featured remarks from Hibakusha and activist Setsuko Thurlow, the filmmakers of The Vow Mitchie Takeuchi and Susan Strickler, and five IPPNW medical student leaders; Shoki Hamada (Japan), Ulfat Pardesi (India), Franca Bruggen (Germany), Ekaterina Schelkanovtseva (Russia), and Joe Hodgkin (United States).

NAGASAKI -- The world took a major step towards becoming nuclear-free when the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons banning the use and possession of atomic arms went into effect in January.

Nuclear powers and countries like Japan which are under the U.S. nuclear umbrella have not signed the treaty, only going as far as joining the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), but the influence of the ban treaty on the NPT is enormous.

29.06.2021 IPPNW organised an online event with EU parliamentarians on 28 June 2021 as part of the Nukefree Europe alliance. Karl-Heinz Brunner, SPD Germany, Jasper van Dyke, Socialist Party Netherlands, Kris Verduyckt, Flemish Socialist Party and Kathrin Vogler from the Left Party Germany, discussed a roadmap to end nuclear sharing.

IPPNW, which along with Pugwash initiated the 7 June 2021 Russian-American High-Level Appeal to Presidents Biden and Putin on the issues of preventing nuclear war and nuclear disarmament, strongly welcomes the “U.S.-Russia Presidential Joint Statement on Strategic Stability,” adopted by the two leaders at their meeting in Geneva on 16 June 2021.

18.05.2021 Today, starting from 18 May, Palestinians across Palestine – including Palestinian citizens of Israel – are participating in a General Strike in an act of popular resistance in response to escalating Israeli political and military aggression.

We stand in solidarity with people in Palestine and in the diaspora who are resisting this aggression and decades of occupation and displacement. And we call on the UK government to apply pressure on Israel to end the air strikes, and immediately impose a two-way arms embargo with Israel.

18.02.2021 IPPNW mourns the loss of our co-founder Dr. Bernard Lown, just months short of his 100th birthday.

Dr. Lown was a tireless visionary and pragmatic activist whose example continues to inspire countless physicians, students, and citizens worldwide. Those who knew Dr. Lown know that he would insist that the most meaningful way to honor his memory will be to carry on his work.

To honor Dr. Lown, we invite people inspired by his legacy share your memories and express your thoughts to us.

Read the entire obituary here: peaceandhealthblog

15.12.2020 With innovative ways to stay connected, the IPPNW Associate Program is the new heartbeat of a growing global IPPNW movement. Whether or not you are connected to your local IPPNW affiliate, you are invited to join the Associate Program and become an IPPNW Nuclear War Preventer. As a Nuclear War Preventer, you will; be able to participate in the worldwide peace and health actions of IPPNW and our affiliate networks; be invited to special events, both digital and in-person international meetings; receive special appreciation and acknowledgement on our website and in our publications, and; receive a personalized, beautiful certificate signed by IPPNW leaders and an "IPPNW War Preventer" pin. Your contribution to become an IPPNW Associate will help us expand our activist and donor base to keep IPPNW growing, vibrant, and effective to strengthen our critical work to abolish nuclear weapons and advocate for peace.

15.12.2020 Forty years ago, a small group of visionary physicians gathered at the Hotel Le Richemond in Geneva from 5-7 December to lay the foundation for what is now IPPNW.  At this initial meeting of IPPNW founders, American physicians Bernard Lown, James Muller, and Eric Chivian and Soviet physicians Evgeny Chazov, Leonid Illyin, and Mikhail Kuzin resolved to set politics and ideology aside in order to address the greatest threat to human life of all time. Thus was born IPPNW's tireless effort to eradicate nuclear weapons. As we mark our 40th year of activism for a world without nuclear weapons, we also look forward to celebrating the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on 22 January 2021 – one of our most significant milestones yet.

24.10.2020 On October 24, Honduras became the 50th nation to ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). By crossing the 50 ratification threshold, this means that in 90 days, on 22 January 2021, the treaty will enter into legal force and become international law, binding on the states that have already ratified it, and all those which subsequently ratify the treaty. Honduras announced its ratification one day after Jamaica and Nauru joined the TPNW at the United Nations in New York. This is a historic achievement, an essential step to eliminate nuclear weapons, and an enormous win for planetary health.

16.10.2020 As states around the world continue to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, fears are mounting in many places for already disenfranchised and vulnerable communities. In Sri Lanka, a region that has been torn by decades of ethnic conflict and suffers from continued reports of human rights abuses, those fears have been particularly accentuated for the most oppressed on the island, as a spike of infections were reported this month. The government, headed by strongman and accused war criminal president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has taken on a markedly authoritarian approach to dealing with the crisis. And with coronavirus cases rising once more, that has worryingly placed human rights at further risk.

16.07.2020 You could be excused for having missed the fact that NATO is in the process of updating its nuclear strategy, including substantial and significant steps. These include technologically more ambitious weapons that can be used more easily. This is the implementation of a decision made at the NATO Warsaw Summit in 2016 to revise nuclear strategy. In order to follow what’s going on, you have to dig deep on the internet. While this is a little easier because of Covid-19, as a lot more is happening online and NATO is just a little bit more transparent that before the pandemic, it is still difficult because NATO discussions are still shrouded in secrecy.

11.05.2020 Across the world, scientists and public health experts are producing new ideas, knowledge and technologies to combat COVID-19. The degree of cross-border sharing of data, research methods and evidence has been heartwarming, and underlines the vital role played by trans-national communities of scientists and experts. However, the story of every epidemic is a story of the interplay between knowledge, ideology and politics. And within each of these stories, the role of government is crucial in determining how epidemics play out in populations. Not only do governments decide on how science and evidence informs policies and plans; they are central to how policies and plans are implemented.

12.06.2020 The COVID-19 pandemic teaches lessons we must embrace to overcome two additional existential threats: nuclear war and global warming. Health professionals need to send a message to those whose lives we have vowed to protect: all three threats result from forces of nature made dangerous by triumphs of human intelligence, and all three can be solved by human intelligence.

26.05.2020 The news that the Trump administration is considering resuming nuclear weapons testing is morally abhorrent. The current US moratorium on nuclear testing was put in place for many reasons, but we must not forget one crucial reason: In conducting explosive nuclear tests, the US government killed thousands of innocent people and sickened untold thousands more. The very suggestion of resuming nuclear testing is shocking and a slap in the face to testing survivors who have spent decades watching their loved ones pass away—survivors like Sandra Walsh, of Salt Lake City, who grew up in Parowan in southern Utah, which received high levels of fallout from the Nevada Test Site.

22.05.2020 This book provides a window into the work of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) health professionals, advocates and activists as they persuaded diplomats, parliamentarians, the media, and the public to ban nuclear weapons. Why are doctors speaking out about nuclear weapons and nuclear war, an issue that seems to be the exclusive province of diplomats, politicians, and security experts? This volume offers an answer in the unique perspective of health professionals on the nature of nuclear weapons, their medical and humanitarian consequences, and the responsibility to prevent what cannot be treated.

18.05.2020 The world is seized with tackling COVID-19 which is being perceived as biggest health threat to the humanity today. True, this virus is more lethal than other Corona viruses. There is an all out effort by the scientists around the world to develop vaccines to boost immunity in the body to enable it to fight back the infection. The world is hoping that soon we shall develop herd immunity so that the impact of COVID-19 gets reduced. Scientists and medical professionals have warned from time to time about various diseases and cautioned about the imminent health emergencies. They have also guided about the steps to be taken to prevent such happenings. The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) has warned the global community about a highly grave threat to humanity for which we have no remedy. This is from the nuclear weapons. The use of nuclear weapons would be the final epidemic. Prevention is the only way out as we do not have any remedy to offer in such an eventuality.

11.05.2020 Soon after the COVID-19 pandemic reached the UK, it became clear that the NHS was not sufficiently equipped or staffed to respond to the crisis. In March, the government put out a call for industry to convert its production to manufacture crucial medical equipment, such as ventilators and PPE for frontline workers. To date, a number of arms and defence companies have responded to this call – alongside existing companies that manufacture medical equipment and others. Workers at Lucas Aerospace called for exactly this kind of arms conversion back in 1976, when they produced an Alternative Corporate Plan – now known as the Lucas Plan. In this webinar we discussed what a ‘just transition’ from industries that cause destruction to those that support peace and public health could and should look like.

05.05.2020 COVID-19 has brought into the public consciousness the inherent interconnectedness of public health globally. When public health is threatened in one country or amongst one community, the ripple effects are felt across the world. Despite this, some countries that have or may be heavily impacted by the pandemic have not met with support from the international community. Amongst these, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela continue to face US-led sanctions programmes, whilst the Israeli Government has enforced a blockade of the Gaza Strip for the last 13 years. Sanctions have been weakening the public health systems of these countries for decades and, if they are not lifted, they will have grave impacts on their ability to tackle COVID-19. But sanctions also represent a threat to the global struggle to treat the pandemic: with nations imposing them failing to realise that the global community must be united to minimise the spread of COVID-19.

02.05.2020 This year we commemorate 75 years since the end of World War II. I was born 24 years after the end of it, in the city of Bremen in Germany. When I was young I thought: “The war? What a long time ago.” Now, at the age of 51, I realize how little time had passed. Of course I have no personal memories or experiences of wartime, but my life was influenced by those who had suffered. It is important to keep the memories and the debate alive, so that history will not repeat itself. This is why I wrote this text.

21.04.2020 The nuclear industry is trying yet again to advertise nuclear power as a form of "clean energy" that can allegedly save the climate. The facts however, tell a different story. Both fossil and nuclear energy exploit limited natural ressources, cause environmental destruction and pose health risks, severely violating human rights. The German affiliate of the IPPNW therefore advocates a rapid phase-out of both fossil and nuclear energy generation and has released an informative fact sheet explaining the reasons why nuclear energy should not be seen as a viable option for the future.

17.04.2020 As doctors responding to this crisis, the past few weeks have been filled not just with treatment and crisis management but with frustration. Frustration because the Covid-19 pandemic did not just "sneak up on us." Public health experts have been warning us for decades; we simply chose not to listen. The Trump administration has been rightly criticized for its epically inept response to this crisis.

07.04.2020 We live with a profound paradox. Our lives are powerfully affected by worldwide economic, communications, transportation, food supply, and entertainment systems. Yet we continue an outdated faith in the nation-state, with all the divisiveness, competition, and helplessness that faith produces when dealing with planetary problems.

09.03.2020 On February 13th, 2020, the Oversight Committee of  the  Fukushima  Health  Management  Survey presented the new set of thyroid cancer data (up until September 30th, 2019). After the initial screening of approximately 300,000 children who were living in Fuku-shima  Prefecture  at  the  time  of  the  multiple  nuclear meltdowns or were born shortly thereafter (2011-2014), follow-up examinations were carried out every two years. The second examinations has already been completed, the third one is in its final phase and the fourth series of examinations has now been underway since 2018.

15.01.2020 Women have always and everywhere been part of the history of uranium processing and nuclear technology—as workers in uranium production, as residents in the vicinity of mines, or as victims of military and civilian nuclear disasters. Women are particularly vulnerable to the health effects of uranium production because they are twice as sensitive to radiation as men. Indigenous women suffer doubly, because uranium extraction and nuclear weapons testing takes place in large part in (formerly) colonial areas. Resistance against uranium mining and nuclear technology is supported by female doctors, physicists, and journalists all over the world, who raise awareness about the consequences, which are otherwise often whitewashed or inadequately documented. Nevertheless, women’s role in organizing the struggle against nuclear weapons and energy remains extremely underexposed.

14.10.2019 The strongest reasons to oppose expanding nuclear technology are the military links and weapons proliferation. Although the world will get more energy-hungry, reliable and cheaper renewables could rapidly replace fossil fuels with no need to expand the uneconomic nuclear option. Coordinating renewables’ expansion with poverty alleviation, especially in Africa, offers a win-win for promoting peace and reversing anthropogenic climate change through nuclear-free decarbonization.
To correspond with the recent publication of the paper ‘How Nuclear Power powers the Bomb’, co-authored by Angelika Claussen (European regional vice president of IPPNW), Frank Boulton (Medact) and Alex Rosen (IPPNW-Germany), Medact published a blog by Frank Boulton outlining the financial, environmental, health and geo-political arguments around nuclear power.