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JPPNW bids for the next World Congress of the IPPNW

by Yumi Kanazaki, Staff Writer

Japanese Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (JPPNW), headquartered in Hiroshima, will send a delegation to the three-day World Congress 2010 of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) to be held in Basel, Switzerland starting on August 27.

Shizuteru Usui, president of the JPPNW and president of the Hiroshima Prefectural Medical Association, and other JPPNW members held a press conference at Hiroshima City Hall on August 18 and announced that they will bid to hold the next World Congress in 2012 in Hiroshima. If they win the bid, it will mark the second such gathering in Hiroshima. The JPPNW first hosted the congress in 1989.

Fourteen doctors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki including Makoto Matsumura, director of the JPPNW, and Katsuko Kataoka, vice president of the JPPNW, and 16 medical students from both cities will be traveling to this year's World Congress. The venue for the next World Congress will be officially announced on August 29, the last day of the gathering. The JPPNW sent documents in support of its bid to host the next congress to the IPPNW headquarters in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Russian Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War has also reportedly expressed its intention of making a bid.

Dr. Usui stressed at the press conference: "The situation in the world has changed dramatically with regard to nuclear abolition and this is partly reflected in the attendance of government representatives from the nuclear weapon states at the Peace Memorial Ceremony held on August 6. Under the circumstances, holding the IPPNW World Congress in Hiroshima would be significant." The JPPNW hopes to hold the three-day congress during the window of November 12 to 18 in Hiroshima.

The IPPNW was established in 1980 and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. Nearly 200,000 doctors and nurses in 60 countries are members of the IPPNW. The IPPNW World Congress has been held every two years since the year 2000. In 2012, IPPNW will hold its 20th World Congress, for which the JPPNW is bidding. The World Congress held in Hiroshima in 1989 had about 3,000 participants.

(Originally published on August 19, 2010)

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