Need to divest funds from arms to health care
Participants in the IDPD seminar, The Landmark Treaty Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons: Opportunities and Challenges
by Arun Mitra
Saddened and disturbed on hearing about the devastation caused by the atom bombs thrown on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Mahatma Gandhi had said “I regard the employment of the atom bomb for the wholesale destruction of men, women and children as the most diabolical use of science. What is the antidote? Has it antiquated non-violence? No. On the contrary, non-violence is the only thing that is now left in the field. It is the only thing that the atom bomb cannot destroy. I did not move a muscle when I first heard that the atom bomb had wiped out Hiroshima. On the contrary, I said to myself, ‘unless now the world adopts non-violence, it will spell certain suicide for mankind.’” Read more…
Over the past few days in Delhi, I’ve had the privilege of joining an international seminar titled: “The Landmark Treaty Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons: Opportunities and Challenges.” Held in the augustly named Constitution Club, the seminar was organised by Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD), IPPNW’s Indian affiliate, together with the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace, and the All India Peace and Solidarity Organisation. The seminar was joined by former government Minister Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar, other former Members of Parliament, retired Major General Vinod Saighal, distinguished Indian scholars and campaigners for peace, medical students from across India, and prominent physicians and IPPNW leaders from Nepal and Bangladesh. IPPNW was well represented by International Student Representatives Franca Brüggen (Germany) and Kelvin Kibert (Kenya), as well as IPPNW co-presidents Ira Helfand (USA), Arun Mitra (India), and myself (Australia). Read more…
Although two out of three Americans oppose increasing US military spending, government Is boosting it to record levels
Early this February, the Republican-controlled Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed new federal budget legislation that increased U.S. military spending by $165 billion over the next two years. Remarkably, though, a Gallup public opinion poll, conducted only days before, found that only 33 percent of Americans favored increasing U.S. military spending, while 65 percent opposed it, either backing reductions (34 percent) or maintenance of the status quo (31 percent). Read more…
ICAN
partner organization PAX has published a new edition of the landmark report detailing global investments in companies that produce nuclear weapons. The 2018 update of Don’t Bank on the Bomb shows that 329 financial institutions from around the world have invested US $525 billion into 20 companies involved in the production, maintenance and modernization of nuclear weapons in France, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States since January 2014. Fourteen country profiles provide details about nuclear-weapons-related work of identified producers and the financial institutions that support this work. On the positive side, Pax researchers found that the number of institutions that have financial relationships with nuclear weapon producers has decreased since the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The complete 2018 Don’t Bank on the Bomb, as well as individual country profiles, are available online.
The French Red Cross and the Ban Treaty
Last month, the French Red Cross (CRF) organized its first panel discussion on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at its headquarters in Paris.
Kathleen Lawand, the legal advisor and head of the arms unit at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), joined Patrice Richard and Abraham Behar of IPPNW’s French affiliate, AMFPGN, and Jean Marie Colin of Initiatives for Nuclear Disarmament (IDN). Ms. Lawand recalled the ICRC’s constant struggle for the abolition of nuclear weapons since 1945. She explained that the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons and nuclear war, and the disproportionate nature of the nuclear threat were her reasons for supporting the Ban Treaty. Read more…
US Nuclear Posture Review gives strong arguments for a prohibition of all nuclear weapons
This is how I would summarize the new US Nuclear Posture Review, issued last week by the Trump administration:
- We can fight and win a nuclear exchange
- We are prepared to use nuclear weapons against a conventional attack, e.g. a cyberattack
- We may consider using nuclear weapons against a nuclear-weapons-free country
- We care not to mention our obligations under NPT Art VI
- We have never heard of the climate effects of nuclear war
“Service to humanity” is heartbeat of IPPNW Nigeria Radio Project
by Dr. David O. Onazi (IPPNW Board Member 2010-2014 & International Councilor SNDWM)
The IPPNW Nigeria Radio Project has at its heartbeat “service to humanity”- creating awareness of the threat armed violence poses to health and healthy communities and providing relevant information about public health approaches to preventing armed violence, thus equipping the public with knowledge that can drive peace building in society. Read more…
A gold-plated blueprint for nuclear war
The cover of the 2018 NPR conveys the Trump-brand obsession with gold. The “gold standard” motif frames the numerous photos of gleaming military hardware that accompany the report and that reinforce its hyper-aggressive posturing.
You’d be hard pressed to find a stronger case for the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty than the new US Nuclear Posture Review released last week by the Trump administration.
Not that the gloomy, unreconstructed apologists for US geopolitical, economic, and military dominance who authored this frontal assault on nuclear disarmament intended to make that argument. To the contrary, after portraying a world so relentlessly hostile to US interests that only a multi-billion dollar “recapitalization” of the nuclear weapons enterprise can keep the country’s adversaries from wreaking havoc, the authors dismiss the Treaty as an unrealistic and polarizing diversion that undermines the whole principle of nuclear deterrence.
Of course, they’re right about that last bit, which they know is the whole point. Read more…
IPPNW supports WMA condemnation of the arrest of Turkish Medical Association leaders
Since issuing the following statement on February 2, 2018, IPPNW has learned that the Turkish government has released the members of the Turkish Medical Association who were arrested last week.
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) joins the World Medical Association in expressing grave concern over the arrests of leaders of the Turkish Medical Association (TMA). Read more…
Remembering Victor W. Sidel
Victor W. Sidel, MD, a founder and president of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), a former co-president of IPPNW, and one of the world’s foremost experts on the medical consequences of nuclear war, died on January 30, 2018. Dr. Sidel was Chair of the Department of Social Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx from 1969-1985. He then became Distinguished University Professor of Social Medicine at Montefiore and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In 1985 he was elected President of the American Public Health Association. He was the author of numerous books and articles about the human consequences of war, international health, and the impact of poverty and deprivation on health and well being, including War and Public Health and Terrorism and Public Health, both co-edited with long-time collaborator Barry Levy. Read more…
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