Joint International Health Statement for the first Meeting of States Parties to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

Together with the world’s top health organizations, we speak with a united voice on the urgent need to eliminate nuclear weapons as a matter of global health and survival. Updated evidence on the catastrophic consequences of any use of nuclear weapons, the acute and growing danger of their use, and the impossibility of any effective humanitarian and health response following nuclear explosions on populations, should underpin the work of the upcoming first Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

As the World Health Organisation has stated, nuclear weapons pose the greatest immediate threat to human health and welfare. The elimination of nuclear weapons is the only way to put an end to this preventable and intolerable threat.