Shadows of doom
Soviet MIG-21s at Rumbula airfield in Latvia, abandoned at the end of the Cold War
Peter Handberg, a writer and translator, has in the years since the end of the Cold War traveled many times in the Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. He has visited many sites where nuclear weapons were kept, ready to destroy the world. Handberg has also spoken to military officers who once watched over these instruments of Armageddon. He has written an important book on the subject, Undergångens skuggor (Shadows of Doom). The book is not translated but a documentary film is planned.
Recently he led a group from Sweden to some of these bases, abandoned since 1987. Read more…
In wake of Orlando slaughter, medical calls to action to prevent more killing by gun violence
The IPPNW delegation to last week’s United Nations Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons 6th Biennial Meeting of States returned to our homes this past weekend to the horrifying news of the slaughter of 49 innocent people at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and the wounding of another 50 or more. The weapons used by a lone gunman to wreak this carnage against members of the LGBT community included a semi-automatic assault rifle designed to kill many people quickly and easily. It was purchased legally under current US firearm regulations, by a person with a known propensity for violence. Read more…
The theme connecting the dots between health, human security and sustainable development resonated throughout yesterday’s side event to the Sixth Biennial Meeting of States on the Programme of Action (PoA BMS6) on Small Arms co-organized by IPPNW. The panel, featuring doctors and parliamentarians, was hosted by the Swedish Mission to the United Nations and co-convened with the Stockholm-based Parliamentary Forum on Small Arms and Light Weapons (PFSALW). How health professionals and parliamentarians can work together to reduce armed violence and advance the PoA and the Sustainable Development Goals, specifically SDG 16 on reducing all forms of violence, was the starting point for the conversations. Read more…
IPPNW responds to Obama Hiroshima visit
[IPPNW’s co-presidents have sent the following letter to US President Barack Obama in response to his speech in Hiroshima on May 27.]
Dear President Obama:
We applaud your decision to bear witness to the ghastly horrors that befell the citizens of Hiroshima, and to meet with Hibakusha. However, we deeply regret that you made no commitments to ensure that nuclear weapons are never used again. Read more…
A call to do things differently
The A-Bomb Dome seen through the Cenotaph in Hiroshima.
President Obama made an historic visit to Hiroshima today—the first sitting US president to do so since the US atomic bombing of that city on August 6, 1945, followed three days later by the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
As he did in Prague, in 2009, President Obama gave a very moving and meaningful speech about the impact of nuclear weapons, reflecting upon the experience of the victims of nuclear warfare—the Hibakusha.
“Their souls speak to us,” he said. “They ask us to look inward, to take stock of who we are and what we might become.” Read more…
“The proposition that nuclear weapons can be retained in perpetuity and never used — accidentally or by decision — defies credibility”
This unanimous statement was published by the Canberra Commission in 1996. Among the commission members were internationally known former ministers of defense and of foreign affairs and generals.
The nuclear-weapon states do not intend to abolish their nuclear weapons. They promised to do so when they signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1970. Furthermore, the International Court in The Hague concluded in its advisory opinion more than 20 years ago that these states were obliged to negotiate and bring to a conclusion such negotiations on complete nuclear disarmament. The nuclear-weapon states disregard this obligation. On the contrary, they invest enormous sums in the modernization of these weapons of global destruction. Read more…
The more we know, the worse it looks
IPPNW co-president Tilman Ruff
[Co-president Tilman Ruff addressed the Open-Ended Working Group on nuclear weapons on May 13 in Geneva, on behalf of IPPNW’s Australian affiliate, MAPW, and ICAN. His remarks follow.]
Given some views expressed here in recent days, I feel a medical responsibility to highlight for representatives in this room some crucial evidence on the weapons under discussion.
Public policy should be based on evidence—especially in relation to the most acute existential threat that has ever lain in human hands. Read more…
Divergence and consensus at the OEWG
Understanding the code words of diplomacy
ICAN protest in front of Australian embassy during the OEWG. Photo: ICAN
Those of you who attempted to follow the discussion in real-time over the last two weeks at the Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) at the United Nations in Geneva may have been non-plussed at the language in the speeches, especially if you were reading in the 140 character condensed form of Twitter posts. Those of us commenting and reporting from the “front-line” do our best not to overdo the acronyms and use plain speech, but it is easy to get sucked into diplo-speak. So here are a few personal definitions to help you understand what lies behind some of the frequently used code words in the many statements and in over sixty working papers submitted to the May session of the OEWG. Read more…
The right side of history
The gavel has come down on the May meetings of the UN Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on nuclear disarmament and, to paraphrase our friend and colleague Carlos Umana, if democracy has anything to do with it, we’re only one or two steps away from negotiations on a treaty banning nuclear weapons. Read more…
Democracy has come to nuclear disarmament
Carlos Umana of Costa Rica, at the ICAN campaigners meeting in Geneva preceding the OEWG.
[Carlos Umana, the president of IPPNW’s Costa Rican affiliate, spoke on behalf of IPPNW and ICAN at today’s meeting of the Open-Ended Working Group on nuclear disarmament at the United Nations in Geneva.]
Mr. Chairman,
Thank you for permitting me to take the floor. I speak on behalf of IPPNW Costa Rica, a partner organization of ICAN.
This OEWG attests to the fact that democracy has, indeed come to nuclear disarmament, as it is clear that the majority of nations are unsatisfied with the status quo and are ready to pursue truly effective measures conducive to nuclear disarmament. Echoing Jamaica’s statement today, “Yes, we can take forward multilateral negotiations.” Nuclear disarmament is feasible, if we work for it. And that is what we are here to do. Read more…
Bimal Khadka
Bjorn Hilt
Charles K. Johnson
Gunnar Westberg
IPPNW
John Loretz
Lawrence Wittner
Maria Valenti
mollymcgint
Sue Wareham
Tilman Ruff
Tim Wright
Xanthe Hall
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