Global medical and public health organizations call for immediate end to war in Ukraine and critical need to prevent nuclear escalation

10 March 2022
Global medical and public health organizations call for immediate end to war
in Ukraine and critical need to prevent nuclear escalation
Representing doctors, public health professionals and medical students worldwide, we call
for an immediate cease fire and the withdrawal of all invading and occupying military forces
and an urgent negotiated end to the current war in Ukraine. The alarmingly acute and
growing danger of nuclear escalation must be reversed and nuclear war prevented by the
urgent elimination of nuclear weapons.
Already, a growing humanitarian crisis has been unleashed. Civilians suffer most from war
and the long-lasting harm it causes.
We are deeply disturbed by credible reports of attacks on health personnel and hospitals in
Ukraine. Such attacks are an assault against our shared humanity. The obligation to protect
health personnel and facilities, enshrined in the Geneva Conventions and international
regulations, has been accepted by all nations. We insist that all parties to the conflict respect
the neutrality of health professionals whose sacred obligation is to protect lives and provide
care for all on the basis of need, without fear or favour. Anyone injured or otherwise in need
must be able to access care.
Each of Ukraine’s 15 operating nuclear power reactors and the high level radioactive waste
stored near them contain massive amounts of extremely hazardous and long-lived
radioactive material. Direct attack, cyber or physical damage to their operation, including
interruption of the power and water needed for constant cooling of both reactors and spent
fuel ponds, would risk fires and explosions that could cause a radiological disaster across
Eurasia. The safe operation of nuclear facilities must be guaranteed by all sides, and such
facilities must never be targeted.
As the World Health Organisation has stated, nuclear weapons pose the greatest immediate
threat to human health and welfare. They are primed to unleash a final epidemic for which
there could be no effective treatment.
Russian and other nuclear armed leaders confirmed as recently as January that a nuclear
war cannot be won and must never be fought. Even a limited nuclear war in one region
would be a global catastrophe. Russia and NATO must explicitly renounce the use of nuclear
weapons in the current war in Ukraine.
Ultimately such catastrophe can only be completely prevented by the elimination of nuclear
weapons.
Therefore all nations should join and implement the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear
Weapons.
*Our organizations:
● International Federation of Medical Student Associations (IFMSA) envisions a world
in which medical students unite for global health and are equipped with the
knowledge, skills and values to take on health leadership roles locally and globally.
Founded in 1951, it is one of the world’s oldest and largest student-run organizations.
It represents, connects and engages a network of 1.3 million medical students from
145 national member organizations in 134 countries.
● International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) is a federation
of health professional organizations in 56 countries dedicated to the eradication of
nuclear weapons (Nobel Peace Prize 1985).
● World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA) is an international
federation of 130 national and regional public health associations, representing 5
million public health professionals worldwide. WFPHA is the only worldwide
professional society representing and serving the broad field of public health
internationally.
● World Medical Association (WMA) is an international organization representing
physicians, with 115 national member organizations and thousands of associate
members worldwide.