Peace and health: bridging the north-south divide

摘要

This issue of Medicine, Conflict & Survival examines ways in which the health sector can promote peace. Peace ought to be considered a sister to health, if not an identical twin (Arya 2003,2004a). Rights of peace and health are enshrined in various treaties and conventions (United Nations General Assembly 1948,1959; UNICEF 1996). Peace theoretician Johan Galtung often uses health analogies and distinguishes between'negative' and 'positive' peace (Galtung 1969, 1996). Negative peace (by which Galtung means the absence of violence) of course brings health benefits. But positive peace is more than this: it is characterized by what might be seen as'healthy' relationships between entities, linking with a broad understanding of health, as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948, as 'a state of complete physical, mental and social well being'(WH01978). Nobel Peace Prize Laureates such as Henri Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, through to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Medecins sans Frontieres, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), have often come from health backgrounds or have spread a health message.