Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences The Nossal Institute for Global Health

Background | Health and Security Objectives | Strategic focus | Activities | Media

Background

Associate Professor Tilman Ruff has been involved in addressing the profound threat to global health, survival and sustainability posed by nuclear weapons since becoming active in the Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia) in 1983. He is a current vice-president and immediate past president of that organisation. A/Prof Ruff has also been involved in the Nobel Peace Prize winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) since 1985, including terms as Asia-Pacific Vice-President, Boston-based consultant on Policy and Programs, and as a current member of it's Board of Directors.

His work has particularly addressed the health and environmental consequences of nuclear weapons testing, and the urgent public health imperative for nuclear weapons abolition. He comprehensively documented the links between military activities, particularly nuclear weapons tests, and outbreaks of ciguatera fish poisoning in the Pacific, and was a member of an international physician delegation to France in 1995 to urge the non-resumption of French nuclear test explosions.

Since 2006, Professor Ruff has chaired the Australian Management Committee of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which he helped to establish. Inspired by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, ICAN seeks to mobilise a groundswell of popular pressure and focussed advocacy for nuclear weapons abolition as necessary, feasible and urgent; and promotes a comprehensive treaty-based approach – a Nuclear Weapons Convention – as the most practical way to achieve this. ICAN coordinated the development of an updated model Nuclear Weapons Convention which has been adopted as a formal document by the 2007 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee and in 2008 by the UN General Assembly, and was commended by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon on 24 Oct 2008. A/Prof Ruff contributed substantively to the book “Securing Our Survival’ containing the updated model Nuclear Weapons Convention. A/Prof Ruff also chairs the ICAN Working Group of IPPNW.

In April 2008, A/Prof Ruff was invited as one of the first ever two civil society representatives on the official Australian delegation to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee in Geneva, and again joined the official Australian delegation at the 2009 PrepCom in New York.

In June 2008, he was invited to serve as an expert witness on radiation and health to the NSW Legislative Council Inquiry into the former uranium smelter site at Hunter’s Hill, Sydney; and in October 2008 was invited by Gareth Evans, former Australian foreign Minister, and Yoriko Kawaguchi, former Japanese foreign and environment minister, to serve as one of two NGO advisors to them in their roles as Co-Chairs of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament established by the governments of Australia and Japan.

Photo: Yoriko Kawaguchi and Gareth Evans,

Co-chairs of the International Commission

on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament

In March 2009 A/Prof Ruff was invited by former Prime Minster Malcolm Fraser, along with distinguished Australians former ALP President Barry Jones, medical scientist Sir Gustav Nossal, in whose honour the Institute is named, former Australian Defence Force head General Peter Gration, and former WA Governor and Australian Army Chief General John Sanderson, to establish a group calling for Australian leadership towards the abolition of nuclear weapons in op-ed pieces published on 8 April 2009 in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.

As of June 2009 , hundreds of international organisations have become ICAN partners, as have 54 diverse Australian civil society organisations including the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Uniting Church in Australia, Baptist Union of Australia, Oxfam, Mayors for Peace and the Victorian Trades Hall Council.

Health and Security Objectives

• To develop a program of work contributing to understanding and addressing critical threats to global health and human security
• The initial focus will be on nuclear weapons: understanding the nature of the continuing threat they pose, the need for their eradication, and the means by which this might be accomplished
• Policy analysis and recommendations, public education and debate, research and documentation, education and advocacy will be included

Source: The Nuclear Age - New Scientist www.newscientist.com

Strategic focus

• The Nossal Institute to develop and provide a focal point for:
• 1. globally-oriented public health engagement on critical health and security issues, initially focussed on nuclear weapons; and
• 2. interdisciplinary work at the University of Melbourne on dealing with the threat posed by nuclear weapons
• Growing contributions are made to public education and debate, policy analysis and recommendations to government and international organisations, and providing a supportive environment for students and interns seeking to engage with this field.
• A program sufficiently flexible to support and assist Nossal staff and students passionate about other health and security topics.
• Advocacy for government and other support for disarmament education.

Activities for 2009

Government /intergovernmental engagement

Reducing proliferation dangers associated with use of highly-enriched uranium (HEU) in production of radiopharmaceuticals