By Lawrence S. Wittner
A Treaty to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
5/05/08 Although few people are aware of it, there has been considerable progress over the past decade toward a treaty to abolish nuclear weapons. For many years, there had been a substantial gap between the pledges to eliminate nuclear weapons made by the signatories to the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty of 1968 and the reality of their behavior.
more...Launch of e-learning course
Medical Peace Work
11/3/2008 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. more...
Indian VP inaugurates world congress
India aspires for atomic weapons-free world
9/3/2008 The Vice President of India Hamid Ansari said, "India aspires for a world that of a non-violent world, free from the scourge of nuclear weapons. We have always held that progress towards nuclear disarmament will require mutual confidence in the international community to conclude universal, non-discriminatory and verifiable prohibitions on nuclear weapons leading to their complete elimination." more...
Mayors for Peace
Mayors demand ban of all nuclear weapons by 2020
January 28th, 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. 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...Appeal by health professionals
Independence for WHO
20/12/2007 The World Health Organization (WHO) works towards the resolution of public health problems and to this end, it is mandated «to assist in developing an informed public opinion» (WHO Constitution, 7 April 1948). However, since the WHO/IAEA Agreement (WHA12-40) was signed on 28 May 1959, the WHO appears to be subordinate to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). As health professionals, we support the request that WHO, in line with its constitution, recover its independence in the area of ionising radiation.
Australia: "no" to pro-nuclear government
German Greens say "yes" to ICAN
25/11/2007 The global momentum for a Nuclear Weapons Convention continued to build throughout November, with the adoption of a dynamic nuclear abolition resolution by the German Greens party, the ouster of a virulently pro-nuclear government in Australia, the passage of a broad plank of disarmament resolutions by the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, and the endorsement of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) by growing numbers of NGOs, grassroots activists, and prominent individuals. more...
IPPNW Sweden and Switzerland
Postcards for a Nuclear Weapons free Europe
October 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.
European IPPNW affiliate meeting
Campaign against Nuclear sharing of US Nukes
London, October 8, 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.
A new terenean Antinuclear link
Mediterranean No Nuclear Neighbourhood
2 October 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..." more...
Open letter to heads of states
US-India Deal "deeply flawed"
14.08.2007 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. more...
IPPNW Turkish Affiliate
Condemning the use of Nuclear Weapons
6/08/07 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. more...
The incidents were dangerous
Concerns Mount Over Nuclear Energy
27.07.07 Irregularities at nuclear reactors in Germany and Japan in recent weeks have rekindled safety fears and raised tough questions about nuclear energy amid increasing environmental concerns. Despite the recent slew of incidents at nuclear power stations, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the errors in Germany, Sweden and Japan were exceptions and certainly did not pose a danger. Critics of nuclear energy, however, don't buy the argument. Henrik Paulitz of IPPNW said the recent German incidents were dangerous. more...
Campaign To Abolish Nuclear Weapons
ICAN Launched!
April 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. more...
From threat to preventive action
Nuclearisation in Europe and the Middle East
27 March 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. more...
German affiliate of IPPNW
Clara Immerwahr Award goes to Osman Murat Ülke
18. 01. 2007: This year’s Clara Immerwahr Award will be given to Osman Murat Ülke who has consistently defended his right to conscientious objection in Turkey. Because of this he has faced extreme personal disadvantages over many years. On March 3, 2007, the German affiliate of IPPNW (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War) will present the award to Coskus Üsterci, Ülke’s representative, in the Georges Casalis Room of the Französische Friedrichsstadt Church in Berlin. Ülke himself has not been allowed to leave Turkey for several years. more...
Article in the Washington Post
A World Free of Nuclear Weapons
January 4, 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. more...
Towards a nuclear-free future
Nuclear Weapon Free - My Cup of Tea
May 1st 2008 A small table, cookies, tea bags, some thermos flasks of hot water and a lot of information materials on Nuclear Weapons, these are the basic ingredients of «Nuclear Weapon Free - My Cup of Tea», a new project seeking to raise public awareness concerning nuclear disarmament. Wearing their white coats, the medical students from Sweden, Germany and Switzerland arranged this event in cooperation with Ban All Nukes Generation (BANg), a youth disarmament network in Europe.
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Dehli Declaration
World Congress calls for a nuclear weapons free world
20/03/08 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.
You can help spread the message
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
30/1/2008 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. more...
2007 «KiKK» Study
IPPNW Physicians Issue Warning
11.01.2008 «Young children develop cancer more frequently when they live near nuclear power plants (NPP). It has to be assumed that radioactive emissions from NPP stacks are indeed not as harmless as previously believed. Now it is time to act.» more...
Report WEU Interparliamentary Assembly
The future of nuclear non-proliferation
3/1/2008 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.
German study
More Childhood Cancer Near Nuclear Power Plants
08/12/2007 The german section of IPPNW has initiated a study, which approves that children under the age of five living near nuclear power stations have contracted cancer at a greatly higher rate than the national average. The study was paid for by the German Federal Radiation Protection Agency (BfS) the government's main adviser on nuclear health. It was conducted by the German Register of Child Cancer, an office in Mainz which is funded by the 16 German states and the federal Health Ministry. The risk of cancer increased by 60 percent for children living less than five kilometres(three miles) from a nuclear power plant, according to the study. more...
My cup of tea
Nuclear Weapon Free
18/11/2007 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. more...
International conference in London
Doctors Warn Of Climate Havoc and Global Famine
3 October 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. more...
28.09. - 30.09.2007
Overriding Trident Tour
October 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. more...
Medact´s 15th year
A right to health for all
September 2007 In 2006 Medact promoted the right of all people to the highest attainable standard of health inmany diverse situations. This is a right not even guaranteed to some of the most vulnerable people in the UK. Through the Refugee Health Network and the Reaching Out Project, Medact tried to ensure that ‘failed’ asylumseekers have access to healthcare. Meanwhile the NHS continues to benefit from health professionals trained overseas, often by far poorer governments than our own.
By Gunnar Westberg and John Loretz
A Hiroshima Day Appeal for Nuclear Abolition
August 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. more...
Sign the e-card at www.iaea.ippnw.de
IPPNW launches worldwide e-Card Campaign
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. more...
Meta-analysis of Baker P.J. & Hoel D.G.
Childhood leukaemia and nuclear facilities
July 2007 In response to the cluster of childhood leukaemia reported near the Sellafield nuclear site in Great Britain in 1984 there have been numerous studies assessing the possible risk of childhood leukaemia due to irradiation from nuclear sites. While many studies have found positive associations, few results have been significant. Although there is little doubt that exposure to radiation increases the risk of developing leukaemia there is disagreement as to whether the amount of exposure received by children living near nuclear sites is sufficient to increase risk.
Mayor Itoh of Nagasaki
An Open Letter to the Murderers
April 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. more...
Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Convention
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
March 2007 The nuclear policies of the United States continue to dominate the beginning of the 21st century, but the proliferation of nuclear weapons to other countries, the possibility of nuclear terrorism, and the erosion of the treaty frameworks that have slowed the spread of nuclear weapons have created new dangers and new obstacles to the goal of disarmament. IPPNW has launched an International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) to mobilize a groundswell of global support for the elimination of nuclear weapons. more...
Nuclear weapons are illegal
Doctor protests against nuclear weapons
22/1/07 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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