18th World Congress of IPPNW
Health Hazards of Use of Depleted Uranium in Wars
March 10, 2008 We, the health specialists, who have been working for peace, disarmament and nuclear abolition from all over the world, have been deeply concerned about the potentially harmful effects on the environment and human health, which may be caused by the radioactive and chemical toxicity of DU following the use of DU weapons. more...
Report by Medact
Iraq healthcare in disarray, report says
16/1/2008 Iraq's healthcare is in disarray with doctors and nurses fleeing abroad and child death rates soaring, according to a report on Wednesday. Up to 75 percent of Iraq's doctors, pharmacists and nurses have left their jobs since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. More than half of those have emigrated, the report by health organisation Medact said.
more...Preventing the consequences
War and Public Health
October 2007 Oxford University Press has just published the second edition of a comprehensive, authoritative and all-new book on the public health consequences of war by two long-time IPPNW leaders. War and Public Health, edited by Barry S. Levy and Victor W. Sidel, explores the effects of war on health, human rights, and the environment, and describes what health professionals can do to minimize those consequences and help prevent war altogether. The health and environmental impact of both conventional weapons and weapons of mass destruction—nuclear, chemical, and biological—is described in detail. more...
If you want peace, work for health!
Congress Statement
10.09.2006: 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. more...
Set up a UN Mediation Commission on Iran!
Appeal to Kofi Annan
March 14, 2006 A group of prominent individuals and non-governmental organisations are today appealling to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to intervene in the crisis over Iran’s nuclear programme. Professor Victor Sidel, Head Representative to the New York City site for the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), the organization awarded the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize, is delivering the appeal to the Secretary-General’s office this morning. The appeal asks the Secretary-General to set up a UN commission to mediate with the parties in conflict and to deescalate the crisis.
Speech of Susan George
Globalisation and War
10/3/08 "IPPNW was founded in the context of the Cold War and the nuclear arms race. So it may seem to many of you a kind of heresy to say that those times, although surely terrifying in their own way, also provided a strange kind of stability. No place on earth could be considered unimportant by the super-powers because any place could become a base, a staging area, a strategic pawn for the other side. Today the situation is utterly changed. There are a great many places that are not worth bothering about; they are full of losers, of the excluded, the hundreds of millions of rubbish people."
more...
IPPNW researchers document
Effects of small arms violence
November 2007 The Journal of Public Health Policy has published an important new series of articles on small arms in Africa written by IPPNW researchers active in the Aiming For Prevention program on small arms and light weapons (SALW) violence. All of the articles in the special section of the November issue of JPHP, entitled "Small Arms and Light Weapons in Africa - A Major Challenge to Public Health and Development," were made freely available online for the first month of publication as part of a broader initiative by the Council of Science Editors. more...
Health Personnel in Violence Prevention
Medical Peace Work
«The role of physicians and other health workers in the preservation and promotion of peace is the most significant factor for the attainment of health for all.»
(World Health Assembly, Resolution 34.38, 1981) With the Medical Peace Work project we wish to strengthen a new field in medicine and health sciences that deals with the role and professional responsibility of health workers in violence prevention and sustainable peace building. more...
Renounce Plans for Nuclear Strikes
IPPNW calls on US
April 10, 2006 IPPNW is appalled by revelations contained in a New Yorker article by journalist Seymour Hersh that the US is actively considering plans to attack Iranian underground nuclear installations with nuclear weapons, and has called on President George W. Bush to renounce the "nuclear option" as a response to concerns over Iran’s nuclear program. IPPNW Co-President Gunnar Westberg condemned any use of nuclear weapons as "a crime against humanity." He cited studies previously published by IPPNW and its US affiliate, Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), refuting claims that nuclear-armed earth penetrating weapons could be used without causing massive casualties and environmental damage.
