International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons
(ICAN)
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PO Box 1379, Carlton, Victoria, 3053, Australia
Tel: + 61 (0) 3 9347 4795
Fax: + 61 (0) 3 9347 4995
info@icanw.org
WORLD PHYSICIANS ISSUE APPEAL TO OBAMA, MEDVEDEV
TO ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Monday, 23 March 2009: On the eve of Prime Minister Rudd’s meeting with US
President Barack Obama, more than 300 of the world’s top physicians have called on
the US President and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev to “end the nuclear weapons
era once and for all.”
Prominent Australians to sign the letter include four Australians of the Year, Professors
Fiona Stanley, Sir Gustav Nossal, Nobel laureate Peter Doherty and Ian Frazer. The
letter is signed by senior faculty and deans of medical schools, heads of medical
associations, health ministers, medical journal editors, and Nobel laureates from 38
countries. It will be delivered to Presidents Obama and Medvedev today by International
Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and its US and Russian affiliates,
Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Russian Physicians for the Prevention of
Nuclear War.
Professor Fiona Stanley said, “The potential disastrous effects of nuclear weaponry not
only on this generation but on the health of generations to come, demands that we have
a complete ban.”
Sir Gustav Nossal also commented saying, “The major nuclear powers, USA, Russia,
UK, and France, must give the lead for nuclear non-proliferation to be credible. There
has never been a better time for large reductions in weapons stockpiles”.
Dr. Ira Helfand, a US physician who was a principal organizer of the campaign, said that
the 25,000 nuclear weapons in the world’s arsenals are “the most urgent and immediate
threat to the health and survival of humankind. And, unlike the other major health threats
of our time—climate change, poverty, AIDS and other epidemic diseases—this one can
be eradicated with nothing more than a firm decision to do so.”
Noting that a world without nuclear weapons is now championed by experts and
diplomats across the political spectrum, the physicians called on the US and Russian
presidents to lead the world by starting negotiations on a worldwide agreement “that will
abolish all nuclear weapons.”
Associate Professor Tilman Ruff, Chair of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear
Weapons said, “Prime Minister Rudd has an important opportunity to encourage and
support President Obama who has placed nuclear abolition as a central priority of his
foreign policy.
Mr. Rudd has consistently argued that Australia wants to be a more
active and multilaterally engaged middle power.”
Presidents Obama and Medvedev will meet for the first time in London on April 1, on the
eve of the G-20 summit. Nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation measures, including
proposals for substantial reductions in US and Russian nuclear arsenals, are expected
to be high on their agenda.
In making the letter public today, IPPNW urged the leaders to put recent strains in US-
Russian relations aside and to make the most of “what may be the best and last
opportunity we have to rid the world of the only weapons capable of destroying all
humanity.”
“A thousand years from now,” the signatories to the letter tell Presidents Obama and
Medvedev, “no one will remember most of what you will do over the next few years; but
no one will ever forget the leaders who abolished the threat of nuclear war.”
“Prime Minister Rudd’s meeting with the US President tomorrow could be of crucial
importance in relation to nuclear weapons abolition. Mr. Rudd should fulfill the Labor
Party’s election promise and support and advocate early negotiations for a nuclear
weapons convention as outlined in the Labor Party’s national policy,” Associate
Professor Ruff concluded.
To access the text of the letter and a complete list of signatories contact Teri Calder
below or they are available at www.ippnw.org from noon, Monday 23 March 2009.
Media contacts:
Teri Calder, ICAN Media Officer: +61 (0)425 230 679 / teri@icanw.org
Associate Professor Tilman Ruff, ICAN Chair: +61 (0)438 099 231
NEWS 
