Friends House to host major conference for health professionals
A conference on 'Health Through Peace' will take place in November
Friends House in London is to host a major two-day conference on ‘Health Through Peace’ in November.
A coalition of health and peace organisations – including Medact, The Lancet, the Oxford Research Group, Saferworld, the Religious Society of Friends and Kings College London – hope to bring one thousand people together for the event.
The conference will focus on the impact on health of armed conflict and violence. It is open to all health professionals, as well as those with an interest in peace and disarmament.
Speakers at the event include Corruption Watch UK executive director Andrew Feinstein, professor Andy Haines, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet medical journal. Topics to be covered include: the privatisation of warfare; the proliferation of autonomous weapons; Trident renewal; the roots of conflict in the Middle East; and Ukraine/Russia.
Medact programmes and finance manager Chris Venables told the Friend: ‘We hope to rebuild the movement of health professionals who campaign on the issues above; but, more concretely, there will be a declaration from the UK’s leading medical and health professionals outlining their concerns about the health impacts of the issues, and the general direction of the UK’s foreign and security policies.’
Chris explained that the topic was chosen because of ‘the growing militarisation of UK society, the upcoming main-gate decision around Trident, and the Strategic Defence and Security Review that will take place now the general election is over’.
