IPPNW calls for immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Israel-Palestine war
Our goal is the health, peace and security of all people, whether they live amid the terror and destruction of war in Ukraine, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nagorno-Karabakh or anywhere else. We know it is civilians, especially women and children, who suffer most in war. Our profession has its roots deep in our ethical obligation to provide care to all on the basis of their shared humanity and their need.
We express our deep anguish at the ongoing violence which has so far resulted in the reported deaths of over 1,200 Israelis, and over 11,000 Palestinians in Gaza, almost 70% of them women and children, 40% of them children less than 15 years. In Gaza a child dies every 10 minutes.
Read more…by Dr. Arun Mitra
The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 78 years ago changed the concept of the impact of wars. The hope that the level of devastation would make the world think seriously about taking steps to give up the arms race and focus on human welfare did not materialise. The arms race continues unabated. From one nuclear weapons state in 1945, the number has increased to nine. Nearly 13,000 nuclear weapons present on earth are enough to extinguish humankind. This has raised serious concern among medical professionals resolving to preserve life and promote health, who are now coming together for the complete abolition of nuclear weapons.
Read more…The story of “A First Time”
Drs. David Onazi and Sally Ndung’u at the World Medical Association General Assembly 2023
By Dr. David Onazi, IPPNW Co-President
The FIRST TIME I became one of the co-presidents of IPPNW in April 2023 my passion was reborn to play a vital role in our cause for a nuclear free planet. It then became apparent that being African presented me with the opportunity to go to Kigali, Rwanda to attend the World Medical Association (WMA) General Assembly in October 2023, which also was the FIRST TIME Rwanda played host to the WMA and my FIRST TIME going to Rwanda.
Read more…Our goal must be peace, health, and the security of all people
[The following letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres was sent by IPPNW’s co-presidents in response to his speech on 13 October, in which he said “[T]he grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”]
October 28, 2023
Dear Mr Secretary-General Guterres,
We are writing to you as co-presidents of our Nobel Peace Laureate organization to express our heartfelt
support for your excellent speech on 13 October in the UN Security Council. It was balanced, and while stating the context, you also clearly rejected that context as justification for the “appalling attacks” of October 7th by Hamas on Israeli citizens. You said that those attacks, however, do not justify a collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
Most importantly, we wish to show solidarity with any and all people, like yourself, who stand with citizens who are suffering the terrible consequences of war, however it came about. As physicians, it is our duty, first and foremost, to do no harm. International humanitarian law, which came about through the work of a medical organisation – the Red Cross – extends this principle to all conduct in war. Citizens must not be harmed. Our work as health professionals to help citizens who are in harm’s way must not be made impossible by the threat of bombs falling on our workplace, lack of fuel to run our electricity for our equipment or to pump water to keep our patients alive. As you well know, while bombs are levelling Gaza, including health care centres, schools and UN shelters, people are dying from the effects of an inhuman blockade which will kill those who are not first hit by bombs.
We cannot sit by and watch this slaughter, even though we strongly support the call for hostages to come home. Blockading and levelling Gaza is not the way to get the hostages back, nor will it prevent such attacks in the future. On the contrary, it could nurture terrorism elsewhere, so that Israel is never safe and will never live in peace. Our goal must be peace, health, and security of all people .
We therefore applaud the resolution in the UN General Assembly for a humanitarian truce in Gaza that was passed yesterday evening.
Thank you for your brave words and thank you to the United Nations and its organisations for all you are doing. We stand by your side.
Yours,
Dr. Carlos Umana, Dr. Kati Juva, Assoc. Prof. Olga Miranova, and David Onazi
Co-Presidents.
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW)
Time to abandon international anarchy?
In December 1934, Arthur Henderson, a leader of the British Labour Party, declared in his speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize that the immense human suffering caused by World War I “led to the very clear realization that international anarchy must be abandoned if civilization was to survive.”
Unfortunately, that realization did not go very far or very deep. Although, since that time, international law has been refined, nations remain far from adhering to its provisions or accepting its enforcement by the United Nations.
Read more…IPPNW: “A fascinating case study of the power of medicalization”
[Dr. Scott Podolsky is Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a primary care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. Since 2006, he has served as the director of the Center for the History of Medicine based at the Countway Medical Library. He delivered the following remarks at an event co-sponsored by IPPNW and Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility at Harvard Medical School’s Countway Library on 21 October.]
Read more…“Reducing the risks of nuclear war—the role of health professionals”: the editorial’s impact
[In August, IPPNW reported that more than 100 (now more than 150) medical journals, including the Lancet, the British Medical Journal, the New England Journal of Medicine, and JAMA published a joint editorial entitled “Reducing the risks of nuclear war — the role of health professionals.” One of the authors of the editorial, Dr Chris Zielinski, has written the following report on the editorial’s reach and impact for IPPNW and the World Association of Medical Editors.]
Read more…The International Peace Bureau (IPB), Middle East Treaty Organization (METO), and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) are deeply concerned over the unprecedented Israeli-Palestinian violent escalation launched in the morning of Saturday, 7th October, which has already resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives. The resulting fear, panic, and uncertainty that the Israeli and Palestinian people feel in these moments demand our compassion and understanding, even as the extent to which the conflict will escalate remains unclear.
The death toll cannot continue to rise. The signatories to this statement therefore call for immediate global attention to deescalate the conflict and provide on-the-ground humanitarian assistance. Furthermore, we call on the international community to support the immediate cessation of attacks and abductions of civilians and attacks on non-military infrastructure. The UNSC must live up to its charter-mandated responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. It should urgently demand all parties to stop violence and respect and protect lives of civilians, especially children.
There is no military solution to the multifaceted and complex crisis between Israel and Palestine; we acknowledge the deep suffering of Palestinians and Israelis even under the status quo, including settler violence, terrorist attacks, economic violence, and a constant environment of fear under violation of international law. The root causes of the conflict are deep and can only be addressed when immediate and direct violence is not present.
Therefore, together we call for:
- An immediate cessation of violence–in particular the targeting of civilian infrastructure;
- The immediate exchange of hostages and prisoners under humanitarian concerns;
- The establishment of a humanitarian corridor for safe passage of emergency services and aid;
- The international community, in particular the League of Arab States, to engage in negotiations based on the Arab Peace Initiative (API), the only comprehensive solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict in the Middle East.
The abolition of nuclear weapons is an essential part of respecting and protecting all living things
A conversation with ICAN Executive Director Melissa Parke
[Melissa Parke is a lawyer and parliamentarian who has worked with the United Nations on international humanitarian and human rights issues in several conflict areas. She’s a former Minister for International Development and a former member of Parliament for the Labour Party in Australia. She was the Australian chair of Parliamentarians for Global Action and was founding chair of the Australia United Nations Parliamentary Group. She’s been deeply involved with nuclear issues since the 1990s, campaigning against the establishment of a global nuclear waste dump in her home state of western Australia. More recently, Ms. Parke has served as an ambassador for ICAN Australia, promoting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) since its adoption by the UN in 2017. On 1 September, Ms. Parke took a new position as executive director of ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
Read more…World peace and security require a stronger United Nations
Addressing the UN Security Council on September 20, 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a heartfelt plea “to update the existing security architecture in the world, in particular, to restore the real power of the UN Charter.”
This call for strengthening international security under the aegis of the United Nations makes sense not only for Ukraine―a country suffering from brutal military invasion, occupation, and annexation by its much larger, more powerful neighbor, the Russian Federation―but for the nations of the world.
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IPPNW peace and health blog 