US, UK, France insult Nobel Peace Prize

PSR, Medact, and AMFPGM—national affiliates of IPPNW—have responded jointly to the announcement by the US, UK, and French governments that they will be sending only lower level representatives to the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in Oslo on December 10. Their statement follows:

American, British, and French physicians condemn their governments’ protest of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony

We the undersigned are ashamed that our governments are insulting this year’s Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in Oslo, Norway on 10th December by sending only junior diplomats. The award is for ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, and follows the overwhelming vote of 122 nations at the United Nations General Assembly in July this year to adopt the nuclear weapons ban treaty. Surely we can pause to listen and reflect on the words of Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who will be addressing that ceremony, and to consider what ICAN, the United Nations and the Nobel Committee are all saying: for the health and safety of all the people of the world, it is time to prohibit and eliminate all nuclear weapons.

Signed

Jeff Carter (Physicians for Social Responsibility, USA)

Elizabeth Waterston (Medact, UK)

Abraham Behar, Association des Médecins Français pour la Prévention de la Guerre Nucléaire (AMFPGM, France)

National affiliates of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.