Helfand holds Nobel Peace Laureates summit “spellbound”
IPPNW co-president Ira Helfand spoke about the medical and environmental consequences of nuclear war at the Nobel Peace Laureates Summit, held in Rome this weekend.
“For the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) Ira Helfand held the hall spell-bound as he described the horrific consequences should a major nuclear exchange take place today. They include the vaporisation of everything in an immediate 3kms radius of the explosion in 1000th of a second, complete destruction within a 6kms radius, the burning of everything flammable within a 25kms radius and the consumption of all oxygen within a 50kms radius. In Rome 3 million would die instantly. In New York it would be 12 million. Temperatures would plunge for several days. The world ecosystem would be disrupted to the extent that food production would be severely curtailed.
Helfand said:
“The continued existence of these weapons alone is a threat, but human beings built them, so human beings can also take them apart. We can all work on this; let’s all help to do it.”
His presentation was met with a long ovation.”
Firearms used in half of global homicides says new WHO report
Reducing access to guns one of “best buys” for reducing violence
Firearms were used in about half of the 475,000 murders committed worldwide in 2012, according to the new Global status report on violence prevention 2014 released yesterday by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations (U.N.) Development Programme (UNDP), and the U.N. Office of Crime and Drugs (UNODC). Sixty percent of those killed were males aged 15-44, “making homicide the third leading cause of death for males in this age group.” Rates of firearm use in homicides varied quite a bit between regions, ranging from a high of 75% of all homicides in the low-middle-income countries in the Americas, to 25% in the same income-level countries in Europe. Read more…
Austria pledges to work for a ban on nuclear weapons
Humanitarian initiative on nuclear weapons must initiate treaty process in 2015
(9 December 2014, Vienna) After 44 states called for a prohibition on nuclear weapons at a conference in Vienna on the humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons, Austria delivered the “Austrian pledge” in which it committed to work to “fill the legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons” and pledged “to cooperate with all stakeholders to achieve this goal.” Read more…
Indiscriminate weapons get banned
ICAN statement to the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons
9 December 2014, Vienna
[Read by Nadja Schmidt, ICAN Austria]
I am speaking on behalf of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a coalition of over 360 organizations in more than 90 countries. We are a global campaign determined to achieve the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons. We organized the weekend forum for over 600 people on the courage to ban nuclear weapons. Read more…
The Austrian Pledge
Alexander Kmentt, the Vienna Conference chair, reads the Chair’s Summary.
The Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons concluded today with a major step forward for ICAN and all those States that are now ready to join in a political process to ban nuclear weapons. The Austrian government closed the Conference with an unexpected and extraordinary pledge: to cooperate with all stakeholders “to identify and pursue effective measures to fill the legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons” (which can only mean one thing), and “to cooperate with all relevant stakeholders, States, International Organisations, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movements, parliamentarians and civil society, in efforts to stigmatise, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons in light of their unacceptable humanitarian consequences and associated risks” (which means exactly what it says).
“The Austrian Pledge” means that we can now begin the real work of bringing willing States together around a political process to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons. At least 42 States signaled their readiness to join such a process during the general debate today, and others are likely to do so once an actual process begins to take shape. Read more…
Vienna conference builds on foundation laid in Oslo and Nayarit
Alex Rosen with IPPNW’s Hibakusha Worldwide exhibition, which stands outside the conference hall.
The Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons opened yesterday with more than 160 States in attendance (we’re still waiting for confirmation of the exact number), and with far more than 300 representatives of international organizations, civil society, and academia crowded into a beautiful ballroom in the Hofburg Palace.
Our Austrian hosts, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and Pope Francis minced few words in asserting that the factual evidence about the overwhelmingly destructive nature of nuclear weapons has to provide the framework for their elimination, and that not nearly enough is being done to implement the nuclear disarmament obligations established by the NPT and international law. Read more…
More than 150 states gather in Vienna for global conference on nuclear weapons
In a demonstration of overwhelming support from the international community, representatives from more than 150 states are gathering in Vienna, Austria for the third international conference to examine the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons.
Prior to the government talks, more than 500 activists assembled in the biggest gathering of civil society on a treaty to ban nuclear weapons. Read more…
CSF Vienna—day two: the writing on the wall
ICAN volunteers celebrate (and are celebrated!) at the conclusion of the Civil Society Forum in Vienna.
Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu set the tone for the second day of the ICAN Civil Society Forum in Vienna during a video message at yesterday’s opening session:
“The writing should be on the wall for the nuclear powers,” said Archbishop Tutu. “A treaty banning nuclear weapons is on the way. The momentum is unstoppable.”
More than 600 civil society campaigners from around the world filled the Aula der Wissenschaften (Hall of Sciences) for the first day of the ICAN Civil Society Forum in Vienna yesterday. “The courage to ban nuclear weapons,” is both the theme of the two-day campaign gathering, and also the message that campaigners intend to bring to the third Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons hosted by the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The conference begins on Monday, and 150 States have already registered, exceeding the numbers that came to the previous HINW conferences in Oslo and Nayarit. Read more…
Nuclear weapons: the road to prohibition
Nuclear weapons are the greatest threat to the health and survival of mankind. This statement from the World Health Organisation in the 1980s is echoed in the recent call to action from the International Red Cross: Nuclear weapons must be abolished.
But climate change? Is that not the greatest danger? OK, let’s not argue. Climate change is already here and experienced by most of us. We know that if strong and decisive action is not taken soon by all states we will face grave problems for mankind, in this century and worse in the next. But as far as we can prophesize, mankind and human civilisation will survive the climate catastrophes, maybe with tremendous losses. 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
IPPNW peace and health blog 