The internet course for Medical Peace Work starts on its second round. The cost-free training offer for physicians, healthcare professionals and medical students is online since two years. The course is subdivided into seven modules, which provide the participants with new insights about the role of healthcare professionals in peace progress.

more ...[Online course on medicalpeacework.org]

The United States are seeking alternatives for depleted uranium (DU) ammunition. According to Dave Cullen from the “International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons” (ICBUW), the Maneuver Ammunition Systems – an government body which manages ammunition procurement for the US military  – intends to stop the use of DU in weapons.“This is a first step in the right direction. Depleted uranium was used systematically in both Gulf Wars and is most likely a main cause for the increased numbers of cancer among the Iraqi population”, says IPPNW chair Dr. Angelika Claußen. IPPNW urges the German government to follow the example of Belgium and to stop the production and use of DU.

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We typically define and talk about wars using the language of politics, but what happens when you bring in a doctor’s perspective on conflict? Can war be diagnosed like an illness? Can health professionals participate in its mitigation and prevention? The contributors to Peace through Health: How Health Professionals Can Work for a Less Violent World engage with these ground-breaking ideas and describe tools that can further peace once war is understood as a public health problem.

more ...[Kumarian Press homepage]

A new report, released today by Landmine Action in collaboration with Medact, shows that explosive weapons kill and injure more civilians than military personnel worldwide.

more ...[Link to Medact-article]

On July 8, 2009 a meeting of NGO’s and Press took place successfully in Athens about "War crimes in Gaza – the case of DU". Maria Arvaniti Sotiropoulou President of the Greek Affiliate of IPPNW explained why we organized this meeting. She made a short review of DU weapons. IPPNW Greece was the first NGO which published the issue (1991) and in 2001 informed the press about the use of these weapons in Yugoslavia before NATO did. In the same year we forced the Greek government to accept that that the Greek army not only possessed but had already used these weapons in exercises of the Greek Navy.

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IPPNW's new "Medical Voices Against Violence" project features stories of personal experiences with violence, especially gun violence, from IPPNW members - doctors, nurses, medical students and and other heath professionals. We will use these stories to educate others about the human costs of violence via IPPNW's "Aiming for Prevention" campaign, and to advocate for violence prevention using a public health approach.

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IPPNW notes with grave concern the use of white phosphorus by Israeli forces in the recent war against Gaza.  As physicians committed to reducing the suffering brought by warfare, we recognise the inhumane and indiscriminate effects of white phosphorus, and strongly condemn its use in armed conflict under any circumstances. 

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We, physicians who have the mission to protect life and promote health, cannot accept the present suffering and bloodshed taking place in Gaza. We urge all parties to immediately take all the necessary steps to achieve an immediate, complete, and stable ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the South of Israel, and to provide sufficient medical care for all the victims who suffer from severe injuries.

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On October 17, 2008 the South Bridge connecting the cities Lewiston and Aubury in Main, USA was renamed after the IPPNW-founder Bernard Lown. Governor John E. Baldacci of Main expressed his hope that by renaming the bridge future generations will remember Bernard Lown and be inspired by his “incredible humanitarian efforts”.

more ...[Link zum Artikel im "Sunjournal"]

On the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the NATO military organisation, we appeal to all people to come to Strasbourg and Kehl in April 2009, to protest against NATO’s aggressive military and nuclear policies, and assert our vision of a just world free of war. NATO is an increasing obstacle to achieving world peace. Since the end of the Cold War, NATO has reinvented itself as a tool for military action by the “international community”, including the promotion of the so-called “war on terror”.

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From September 12th to 14th IPPNW Germany held its 3rd Open Congress for a Culture of Peace in the Urania in Berlin.  For three days 700 participants and experts were debating to identify paths to recovery and to promote constructive proposals for more peaceful world order. More than 50 experts from all over the world gave lectures, from Ecuador, Kenya, Canada, South Africa or Palestine.

more ...[Congress Website]

An international journal for all those interested in political violence, health and human rights.  Abstracts and contents can be viewed through the web site  http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/mcs

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The armed conflict between Russia and Georgia is extremely dangerous and needs to be brought to a halt immediately. The impact on innocent civilians is mounting and, if allowed to continue, could spiral out of control. Further, were this territorial dispute to draw in neighboring European countries and the United States, the conflict could escalate into a confrontation between the two largest nuclear-armed states.

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The course is the world´s first of its kind and it applies the latest e-learning technology in offering seven separate but interlinked modules, available free of charge to physicians, health workers and students globally. The MPW-partnership is built on an already existing European network of medical peace organizations and teaching institutions that gathered during The Hague Appeal for Peace Conference in 1999 and the IPPNW World Congress in Paris in the year 2000.

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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.

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"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."

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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 ...[Rehabilitation under fire: health care in Iraq]

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.

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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.

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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 ...[Speech of Hans-Josef Fell]  [Speech of Inga Blum]  [Speech of Lars Hoeglund]

"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.

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