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From De Gaulle to Obama

Written by Maria Arvaniti Sotirpoulou

 

The following text is the translation from an article, which was published in the greek press. The author Maria Arvaniti Sotirpoulou is President of the “Panhellenic Medical Society for the Protection of the Environment and against the Nuclear andBiochemical Threat”, the greek section of the IPPNW.


There could be no better conjunction!  Just as the American President, who was honored with the nobel prize also for his promises with regard to a nuclear-free world, announces the construction of the first nuclear power station since thirty years, we hear from France about their nuclear experiments on soldiers. These soldiers were not only watching the atmospheric nuclear test in Algeria, but also ordered to enter "Ground Zero", so that the effects of radioactivity on fighting men could be subjected to scientific scrutiny.

 

 

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40th Anniversary of the Non-Proliferation Treaty

ICAN statement

03/11/2010 

March 5th marked the 40th anniversary of the entry into force of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. It was an opportunity for governments and civil society to reflect on the current challenges facing the treaty before the Review Conference in May, and to consider ways to fulfil the promise at the core of the NPT — a nuclear-weapon-free world.

more ...[Remarks by Dr. John Burroughs, IALANA]  [Remarks by Tim Wright, ICAN]  [ICAN’s press release to mark the anniversary]

New ICAN-UK website launched at CND International Conference

ICAN-statement

01/12/2010 

CND's International Conference took place on October 10th at Mary Ward House in Central London. The day focused on the 2010 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and how campaigners can make an impact on negotiations towards abolition.

more ...[Link to ICAN-article]

IPPNW presses for a nuclear-weapons-free Europe

IPPNW statement

12/03/2009 

One of the hallmarks of IPPNW’s work is engaging with nuclear decision makers about the medical consequences of nuclear war and the urgency of ridding the world of nuclear weapons. In pursuit if this kind of physician diplomacy, IPPNW held a seminar on nuclear disarmament with European Parliamentarians on October 13, 2009 in Brussels.

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IPPNW Press Release, 26. Oktober 2009

Important milestone reached in the campaign "our future – nuclear weapon-free"

Coalition agreement between the CDU/CSU FDP parties in Germany

10/26/2009 

The new conservative-liberal government in Germany declared yesterday in their newly published coalition agreement that they would advocate the withdrawal of the remaining nuclear weapons in Germany. This means that the national campaign "our future – nuclear weapon-free" has reached an important milestone. The german section of IPPNW is one of a coalition of 50 German peace organisations and groups running this campaign.

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Nobel Laureate Physicians Applaud Obama Prize

IPPNW statement

10/09/2009 

As they did 24 years ago, when they awarded a group of physicians the Nobel Peace Prize for their work to stop the nuclear arms race, the Nobel Committee has once again used their power to leverage action on nuclear disarmament.  In attaching "special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons" the Nobel Committee understands the significance of the transformational change that is necessary.

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IPPNW Response to the US Decision on Missile Defenses in Eastern Europe

IPPNW statement

09/18/2009 

President Barack Obama’s decision to cancel US missile defense deployments in the Czech Republic and Poland ends a controversial and wasteful program that never should have been started in the first place. As a remnant of the Reagan-era ballistic missile defense scheme that came to be known as Star Wars, the proposed array of radars and interceptors was technically unsound, had become an obstacle to negotiations on strategic arms reductions with Russia, and was an unfortunate symbol of a domineering attitude in foreign affairs that President Obama had pledged to correct. On all three counts, he has done the right thing.

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IPPNW Responds to the Moscow Summit

07/09/2009 

In March 2009, just before the historic first meeting between US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War sent the two leaders a letter signed by more than 300 of the world’s top physicians, appealing for leadership toward a world without nuclear weapons. Our hopes and expectations were raised by the statements issued from the London meeting, and by President Obama’s speech in Prague a few days later, when he pledged “America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons” and added that “as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act.”

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IPPNW response to the nuclear test by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

IPPNW Statement

05/25/2009 

International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War regrets the nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). As an organization of doctors, we deplore the squandering of scarce resources of all the nuclear powers in the time of world wide economic recession on the development of weapons — especially weapons of mass destruction — instead of investing in health, education, economic development and other social needs that provide true security.

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IPPNW at 2009 NPT PrepCom

May 4-15, 2009, New York, New York

05/16/2009 

IPPNW was one of more than 75 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) participating in the 2009 Preparatory Committee meeting for the 2010 Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty at UN Headquarters in New York. The two-week PrepCom made important strides toward strengthening the disarmament and non-proliferation "pillars" of the NPT, which had come under enormous strain during the eight years of the Bush administration in the US.

more ...[IPPNW peace and health blog]

Nuclear Weapons, Violence and Health

European IPPNW meeting in Helsinki

04/27/2009 

The IPPNW joint European – Russian /CIS meeting and Symposium "Nuclear Weapons, Violence and Health" took place in Helsinki, Finland from 23.-26.4.2009. The Particpants from Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Netherlands, UK, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Russia, Georgia, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan and Ukraine discussed a common European-Russia-CIS campaign on nuclear disarmament as part of the IPPNW ICAN campaign.

more ...[View the conference on video]

A nuclear-weapons-free world

Champions, detractors, and the urgency of getting to zero

02/06/2009 

Most of the world is already finished with the idea of nuclear weapons. Public opinion polls in country after country—even in the nuclear-weapon states—reflect broad and growing support for a nuclear-weapons-free world. Serious mainstream politicians and diplomats, including US President Barack Obama, have embraced the goal of zero nuclear weapons, though they mostly advocate near-term— though important — incremental steps such as dealerting and making deeper cuts in the US and Russian arsenals, and stop short of calling for negotiations on a comprehensive, universal agreement—a nuclear weapons convention similar to the treaties that already ban chemical and biological weapons.

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Obama Reasserts Pledge for a Nuclear Weapons Free World

His First Week in Office

01/29/2009 

During its first week in office, the new US administration of President Barack Obama published its foreign policy agenda on the revamped White House website. A summary of steps that Obama took as a US Senator to address the nuclear threat is followed by a series of explicit pledges to stop the development of new nuclear weapons, to take existing weapons off hair trigger alert, and to strengthen the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

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US Election and Global Nuclear Disarmament

Yes you can Abolish Nuclear Weapons

11/16/2008 

After eight dark years of neo-con rule, the American people voted for hope and change, backed by global demand for progressive new US leadership. It feels like a new dawn. The election of President Barack Obama brings newfound hope that the United States will become a champion for peace. During the campaign, President-Elect Obama pledged to end the Iraq war, to restore the rule of law, to close Guantánamo Bay, to reaffirm the Geneva Conventions, to pursue diplomacy, and to respect and participate in the United Nations.

more ...[What you can do]

Learn about Nuclear Weapons

01.11.2008 

The problem is not exactly a lack of material on nuclear weapons and disarmament. However, sometimes it is difficult to sift through all information available and to find what you are looking for. The Swedish Physicians against Nuclear Weapons and the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society offers you the material Learn about Nuclear Weapons, for anyone looking for a basic or in-depth knowledge of nuclear weapons and disarmament issues. To create a global movement towards nuclear disarmament, it takes a strong public opinion.

[more details]

Piraeus Appeal

A Nuclear Free World and a Nuclear Free Europe

10/14/2008 

63 years have passed since the nuclear bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which must be remembered for the excruciating human agony and devastating destruction of a kind never seen before. The “Global Voyage for a Nuclear-Free World – Peace Boat Hibakusha Project” has brought 102 Hibakusha (survivors of the atomic bombings) to Piraeus, Greece as part of the worldwide voyage to share their testimonies and the universal message of the Hibakusha that nuclear weapons must be abolished in order to never again allow their use. To this end, we join the global civil society call for a world free from nuclear weapons, underpinned by a Nuclear Weapons Convention.

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Prescription for Survival: A Doctor´s Journey to End Nuclear Madness

Nobel Prize winner Bernard Lown launches his new book

Speaker of IC Herman Spanjaard congratulates Prof Lown on booklaunch.09/25/2008 

“How close we came to extinction, and it is forgotten now.” So begins Nobel Prize-winner Bernard Lown’s story of his fight against the nuclear symptom of what he calls “the disease of militarism.” It is still active and highly contagious, as witnessed by events in Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, and all too many other places. And it can only be stopped, as this extraordinary memoir vividly demonstrates, by concerned citizens working together.

more ...[Flyer of the book]

"A Gaping Hole in the Non-Proliferation Treaty"

Disarmament network deplores decision of the Nuclear Suppliers Group

09/08/2008 

The US-India Deal Working Group of the international disarmament network, ABOLITION 2000,  in which IPPNW is involved, deplores the decision of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to approve a special exemption for India from its nuclear trade rules.
The exemption will allow India to participate in international nuclear trade, but, contrary to the claims of its advocates, it will not bring India further into conformity with the nonproliferation behavior expected of the member states of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

more ...[Letter to Ambassador Lüdeking, January 2008]  [Letter to Minister Steinmeier, August 2008]

World Congress calls for a nuclear weapons free world

Dehli Declaration

20.03.2008 

More than 600 doctors and medical students from 44 countries brought IPPNW's call for the abolition of nuclear weapons and for the prevention of war and small arms violence to India, when they gathered in New Delhi for the 18th World Congress from March 9-11. IPPNW and Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD) met with President Pratibha Devisingh Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, cabinet ministers and parliamentarians to promote the Nuclear Weapons Convention and to appeal for a return to the spirit of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's 1988 Action Plan for a nuclear weapons free world.

Ansari adresses the World Congress of IPPNW

Text of the Vice President of India

03/10/2008 

I am happy to be here at the inauguration of the 18th World Congress of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. The pioneering work of the organisation and its efforts for peace, health and development need no mention here; it has been awarded the Noble Peace Prize. Conferences of this nature help in better understanding of the causes of armed conflict, especially from a public health perspective, and build grassroots awareness of the immense health and environment consequences of nuclear war.

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Mayors demand ban of all nuclear weapons by 2020

Mayors for Peace

01/28/2008 

At a press conference in Hiroshima, Japan, Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba announced that the 2020 Vision Campaign of Mayors for Peace is successful in preparing for the Decisive Decade for Nuclear Disarmament. Mayor Akiba, also President of Mayors for Peace, declared, "An ambitious membership drive which begun last January has come to fruition: we now have 2,028 Mayors in 127 countries rallying for the 2020 Vision!". Over 400 new members joined Mayors for Peace during 2007.

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International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

You can help spread the message

01/30/2008 

ICAN-UK is a new consortium of groups facilitated by Medact as the UK affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. ICAN´s aim is to draw attention to the feasibility of nuclear abolition through the model treaty outlined in Securing our Survival, the Case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC), and to generate political will for nuclear disarmament through educating and engaging the public and policy makers.

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The future of nuclear non-proliferation

Report WEU Interparliamentary Assembly

03.01.2008 

In June 2006 the Assembly of WEU adopted a report on "The non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction". That report provided a very full description of the various non-proliferation regimes for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons and contained detailed sections on EU and transatlantic non-proliferation efforts.This new report concentrates on nuclear weapons, the future role of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), nuclear terrorism and new instruments and future trends in nuclear non-proliferation. The report also discusses the link between non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament.

Nuclear Weapon Free

My cup of tea

11/18/2007 

On Sunday the 18th of November the Mayor of Hiroshima Hadatoshi Akiba visited Stockholm, Sweden. For his visit Swedish students in IPPNW arranged the first "Nuclear Weapon Free - my cup of tea" event. This is a new activity that can be done all over the world in IPPNW as a contribution to the ICAN campaign. There are still 27.000 nuclear weapons in the world. The purpose of each and every one of them is their potential of causing a major disaster. But in fact, they are causing disaster every day.

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Postcards for a Nuclear Weapons free Europe

IPPNW Sweden and Switzerland

15.10.2007 

The NATO doctrine ist outdated and detrimental to European security. European Non Nuclear Weapons States should raise their voice for elimination of Nuclear Weapons in Europe. We need a Nuclear Weapons free Europe! Join us in our fight for a Nulcear Weapons free Europe! IPPNW Sweden and Switzerland have produced four Postcards  for a Nuclear Weapons free Zone.

Overriding Trident Tour

28.09. - 30.09.2007

10/15/2007 

From September 28th-30th of 2007, a group of more than 30 medical students, doctors and political activists cycled the English countryside from Dover to London in order to reach this conference, informing the public on their way about the dangers of nuclear weapons, holding Target X installations and meeting with mayors and media on the way. Background of the tour was the decision of the British parliament to renew the Trident nuclear weapons program for an estimated cost of £25 billion.

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Campaign against Nuclear sharing of US Nukes

European IPPNW affiliate meeting

08.10.2007 

60 physicians und medical students from all over Europe met to discuss and develop joint projects. The European IPPNW meeting followed the international conference "Nuclear Weapons: The Final Pandemic - Preventing Proliferation and Achieving Abolition" in cooperation with the Royal Society of Medicine. On the agenda was an exchange about European IPPNW issues, for example the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from Europe, the ICAN campaign to demand a Nuclear Weapons Convention and the IPPNW contribution to lasting peace in the Mediterranean region.

Doctors Warn Of Climate Havoc and Global Famine

International conference in London

10/03/2007 

Even a limited, regional nuclear war, such as an exchange between India and Pakistan, would cause world wide climate disruption and lead to global famine. This was one outcome of the international conference "Nuclear Weapons: The Final Pandemic -Preventing Proliferation and Achieving Abolition" of IPPNW in partnership with the Royal Society of Medicine. Dr Helfand and Professor Alan Robock and Dr Owen Toon, demonstrated that debris ejected into the atmosphere from the nuclear explosions and subsequent fires would cause sudden global cooling and decreased precipitation for up to 10 years.

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Mediterranean No Nuclear Neighbourhood

A new terenean Antinuclear link

10/02/2007 

In Rhodes was created a new terenean Antinuclear link named Mediterranean No Nuclear Neighbourhood (MN³). In the Secretariat Maria Arvaniti Sotiropoulou was elected representing the Greek Affiliate of IPPNW. Following you find the declaration of MN³. "We, the Organizations from 9 countries of the wider area of the Mediterranean gathered in Rhodes, September 27-29 2007, and signed the Protocol of Cooperation for the Creation of the Mediterranean No Nuclear Neighbourhood, address the citizens of our countries with a hopeful dream..."

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US-India Deal deeply flawed

Open letter to heads of states

08/14/2007 

The German affiliate of IPPNW has signed a letter from the global network "Abolition 2000" asking member states of the Nuclear Suppliers Group to veto the proposed US-India nuclear deal. The signatories of the letter view the deal as "deeply flawed" and regard the consequences for the internation non-proliferation regime to be so severe, that only the next Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty should take a decision on it.

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A Hiroshima Day Appeal for Nuclear Abolition

By Gunnar Westberg and John Loretz

08/15/2007 

More than 60 years ago, the world was put on notice by the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that we were living on borrowed time. More than 40 years ago, physicians and scientists described in frightening and comprehensive terms how a nuclear war would kill tens of millions of people indiscriminately, destroy entire societies and ecosystems, and cause cancers and genetic damage in unborn generations. In time we learned that, at its worst extreme, a nuclear exchange involving thousands of warheads could cause a nuclear winter that would lead to the extinction of humankind.

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Condemning the use of Nuclear Weapons

IPPNW Turkish Affiliate

08/06/2007 

On the 6th of August 2007 at the anniversary of Hiroshima massacre Derman Boztok (general secretary and international councilor of NUSED) and his colleague Dr. Mehmet Kum (deputy health director and president of locally active NGO) declared to press the Igdir Appeal of NUSED and several local NGOs of Igdir Province (the most eastern province) condemning the use and development of nuclear weapons, reminding IPPNW´s ICAN efforts globally and pointing out the very imminent threat posed locally by the Metsamor nuclear plant at the Armenian border.

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IPPNW launches worldwide e-Card Campaign

Sign the e-card at www.iaea.ippnw.de

07/29/2007 

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was founded on July 29th, 1957. On the occasion of this 50th anniversary IPPNW-Germany has created an electronic birthday card to the IAEA that criticizes the agency's role in promoting so-called peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The e-card can be viewed, personalized, and signed at www.iaea.ippnw.de. According to its founding statute, the aim of the IAEA is to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation while, at the same time, enlarging the peaceful use of nuclear energy. IPPNW believes that this is a self-contradictory mission.

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Swedish physicians and students visit North Korea

Swedish affiliate of IPPNW

06/12/2007 

SLMK - the Swedish affiliate of IPPNW sent a delegation of 3 students and 1 doctor to Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The delegation aimed at strengthening the relationship with the DPRK affiliate of IPPNW, spreading awareness on nuclear weapon issues to medical students and doctors, increasing our knowledge about the health care situation in DPRK.

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ICAN Launched!

Campaign To Abolish Nuclear Weapons

04/30/2007 

On April 30 ICAN was launched at the Vienna nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) meeting, along with the book Securing our Survival (SOS): the Case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention with a panel featuring Mayor Akiba of Hiroshima, Dr. Ron McCoy of IPPNW, Dr. Carlos Vargas of Costa Rica, as well as co-authors of the Nuclear Weapons Convention, Alyn Ware, Jurgen Scheffran and Felicity Hill.

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Nuclearisation in Europe and the Middle East

From threat to preventive action

03/27/2007 

Upon invitation of the Swiss chapter of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, an international conference on the topic of "Nuclearisation in Europe and the Middle East" took place on Monte Verità, Ascona, Switzerland from March 22nd to 25th 2007. In a time of high international tension in the Middle East, participants focused on the absolute necessity for high-level constructive dialogue between all the parties. Respect for mutual fears as well as the overcoming of misunderstandings due to cultural and historical differences should inherently be part of such dialogue.

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An Open Letter to the Murderers

Mayor Itoh of Nagasaki

04/17/2007 

On Tuesday, April 17, 2007 you killed a man who was apparently an obstacle to your criminal enterprises. We wonder if you have any idea what you have taken from the world. Mayor Iccho Itoh was born only two weeks before the atomic bombing of Nagasaki by the United States on August 9, 1945. Defined by that monstrous act of war along with the other hibakusha of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Mayor Itoh devoted his life to making sure that nuclear weapons would never be used again. Without rancor or ill will, he quietly and persistently went about the business of campaigning for the elimination of nuclear weapons from the world.

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Doctor protests against nuclear weapons

Nuclear weapons are illegal

01/22/2007 

Medact doctors join others at the Faslane submarine base in Scotland to protest against new nuclear weapons. Dr Trevor Trueman said: "The proposed replacement of Trident, when we have ratified a non-proliferation Treaty and are encouraging other countries to remain non-nuclear, is the height of hypocrisy. Nuclear weapons are indiscriminate and therefore illegal under international law."

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A World Free of Nuclear Weapons

Article in the Washington Post

01/04/2007 

Nuclear weapons today present tremendous dangers, but also an historic opportunity. U.S. leadership will be required to take the world to the next stage -- to a solid consensus for reversing reliance on nuclear weapons globally as a vital contribution to preventing their proliferation into potentially dangerous hands, and ultimately ending them as a threat to the world. Nuclear weapons were essential to maintaining international security during the Cold War because they were a means of deterrence. The end of the Cold War made the doctrine of mutual Soviet-American deterrence obsolete. Deterrence continues to be a relevant consideration for many states with regard to threats from other states. But reliance on nuclear weapons for this purpose is becoming increasingly hazardous and decreasingly effective.

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Britain´s New Nuclear Weapons

New Medact Briefing

06.12.2006 

In the foreward to the White Paper on 'The Future of the United Kingdom's Nuclear Deterrent' presented to Parliament on December 4th the Prime Minister says he 'is confident that [the resulting] debate will only confirm that maintaining our nuclear deterrent is in the best interests of the country's future security'. Medact fundamentally disagrees. Our briefing 'Britain's New Nuclear Weapons: Illegal, Indiscriminate and Catastrophic for Health' outlines why. It details the terrible health effects that even a one-kilotonne weapon would cause to reveal any nuclear weapon for what it is: indiscriminate and therefore illegal.

Statement by the Co-Presidents

IPPNW on DPRK Test

"Irresponsible and dangerous"

10/09/2006 

The Co-Presidents of IPPNW issued a statement today condemning the nuclear test by North Korea. "The test explosion of a nuclear weapon, announced today by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, was an irresponsible and dangerous action that can only be seen as a giant step backward for the people of North Korea and for the entire North Asian region" they said. The Co-Presidents strongly urged restraint by all parties.

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Briefing

On the Replacement of Trident

from Liz Waterston of Medact

08/04/2006 

Jack Straw Leader of the UK House of Commons announced on Friday 21st July that the House of Commons would vote on the issue of maintaining the Trident Missile System before the end of the year. The vote will be a 'three line whip vote' meaning MPs are expected to vote with the party leadership rather than with their conscience. Parliament is now in summer recess until October, which implies that the vote will occur in November or December this year.

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17th IPPNW World Congress Helsinki

Congress Statement

If you want peace, work for health!

09/10/2006 

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.

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She remains with us

Solange Fernex has died

09/11/2006 

Solange Fernex, a French pacifist and politician born in 1934 and resident in Biederthal (Alsace), died of cancer on 11 September at around 3pm. After living through some difficult stages and a recent short remission, she slipped away gently.

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Dialogues in Belgium and Russia

Raising Nuclear Awareness

04/15/2006 

IPPNW physicians and medical students participated in a new round of Dialogues with Decision Makers in Brussels and Moscow this March and April.

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Subcritical nuclear test in Nevada

Letter of protest

02/15/2006 

IPPNW played over many, many years the leadership role in advocating testing moratoria, and end to testing, and adoption of a CTBT. IPPNW's "CeaseFire" campaign generated thousands of letters of protest after each nuclear weapons test explosion. As you know, while full scale underground testing has been stopped - at least for now - testing does in fact continue - in the laboratory. The United Kingdom, in conjunction with the US, conducted a subcritical nuclear test at the American underground test site in Nevada on February 23.

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We condemn use of nuclear weapons

Letter to President Chirac

01/19/2006 

IPPNW condemns unequivocally any use or threatened use of nuclear weapons for any reason. We are therefore appalled at your statement on January 19 that France has reconfigured its nuclear forces in preparation for a tactical nuclear strike against any country that your government concludes had sponsored an act of terrorism against France. IPPNW does not condone terrorism in any form, nor would we deny the right of any government to use legitimate means to defend its people against acts of terrorism. The use of nuclear weapons, however, is not a legitimate means under any circumstances.

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Dialogues in UK and France

IPPNW talks to decision makers

11/29/2005 

An IPPNW delegation met for two hours with policy staff of the FCO Department of Counter Proliferation and the Ministry of Defence in the UK. The following day, another IPPNW delegation visited the Ministry of Defense and the Foreign Office in Paris and talked to officials there.

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Strong resolution on WMD

Parliament of the European Union

11/17/2005 

On November 17, 2005 the plenary of the EU parliament gathered in Strasbourg adopted a resolution called "European Parliament resolution on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction: A role for the European Parliament (2005/2139(INI)) " The resolution refers to The World Court opinion on Nuclear Weapons from June 1996, and gives a clear recognition from the Parliament that the governing bodies of the European Union has to integrate this advisory opinion in its strategy on nuclear weapons.

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Nobel Peace Prize 2005

Letter to Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei

10/14/2005 

The IPPNW Board of Directors released the following letter to Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei following his 2005 Nobel Peace Prize: "Congratulations to you personally and all your colleagues at the IAEA who have laboured so hard to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons on our planet. IPPNW also wishes to express particular gratitude for your commitment to preventing the invasion of Iraq. You provided the international community with factual information on the monitoring of Iraq's weapons programmes and took a strong stand against the false allegations made by a few nations. We hope that you can bring the facts to bear on the current crisis over Iran's nuclear intentions and that the call for multilateral solutions will prevail."

more ...

A famous nuclear weapons opponent

PSR Statement on the Death of Joseph Rotblat

09/01/2005 

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) mourns the death of Professor Sir Joseph Rotblat on August 31, in London, UK at the age of 96. Professor Rotblat, a 1995 Nobel Peace Laureate, and one of the first nuclear weapons opponents, was the only scientist to quit the Manhattan Project for moral reasons, when he learned from that Adolf Hitler and Germany were not developing a nuclear weapon. From that point on, he turned his immense talents and energy to nuclear medicine and a life-long campaign against nuclear weapons and war.

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Full circle - The Epic return to Trinity

Atomic bomb fire extinguished

08/10/2005 

The flame from Hiroshima has now been returned to its place of origin and extinguished. A flame was lit in 1945 from the members of the fires in Hiroshima that the atomic bomb started. The flame has been kept in a temple close to Nagasaki. Every year monks have walked from Hiroshima to Nagasaki, and there walked in circles to symbolize that this should be the last bomb. Now the monks have brought the flame across to California and walked through the desert to the place of the first atomic bomb explosion, called Trinity, near Alamogordo in New Mexico.

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There must be a timetable to end nuclear weapons

Interview with Mordechai Vanunu

07/07/2005 

I was privileged to meet Mordechai Vanunu, the dissident anti-nuclear Israeli who was released from 18yrs imprisonment last year for his advocacy on Israel's nuclear weapons, when staying in St George's guest house in Jerusalem in July. Although he is not supposed to meet foreigners or the press he was happy to talk about his views and indeed this is one of the reasons why he is staying in this particular setting.

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Two Sides of the Same Coin

Speech of Xanthe Hall

05/08/2004 

The International Atomic Energy Agency, which I will herafter refer to as IAEA, is best known by the general public for its inspections and subsequent discovery of secret nuclear programmes. But little is known about its actual mandate as an organisation and how it plays a significant role in the promotion of the so-called peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

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19th IPPNW World Congress in 2010

"For a nuclear weapon free world -  For a future"
Basel, Switzerland,
August 25 - 30, 2010
University of Basel

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