Peace through Health: How Health Professionals Can Work for a Less Violent World
Neil Arya and Joanna Santa Barbara
Kumarian Press; 2008. 341 pp $39.95
Peace through Health is a significant book that expresses and establishes the role of medical practitioners in the promotion of peace through their services in health, what WHO calls health as a bridge to peace.
Far from sounding like an idealistic slogan or impractical wishful thinking, the book’s 27 chapters, written by 30 experienced researchers, practitioners or teachers with field exposure to the multifaceted aspects of health, disease and trauma in conflict and war (read peace-lacking) situations, describe the fundamentals of understanding, diagnosing and preventing, as well as possible therapies in the promotion of health as a contributor to peace.
We traditionally define and talk about war using the language of politics, a borrowed language in which we are not particularly adept. But what happens when a conflict is seen through the doctor’s perspective? As distinct from politicians, can health professionals participate in mediation, mitigation and prevention of conflicts, and therefore promote peace? The book’s answer is Yes.
As early as 1948 the Constitution of WHO stated that “the health of all peoples is fundamental to the attainment of peace and security.” And as the authors amply demonstrate, the converse is true: health is strengthened through peace. Indeed the 1986 Ottawa Charter of WHO stresses that the fundamental conditions and resources for health are (in this order) peace, shelter, education, food, income, stable ecosystem, sustainable resources, social justice and equity. To the uninformed these may sound quite far from health or peace, but detailed case records make these assertions convincing and, indeed, invite for action. Readers will be proud that they belong to the profession that is committed to these humanist issues and can do something about them.
Footnotes
-
Dr. Gunn was a lecturer in History of Medicine and Science at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver before joining the World Health Organization. He is the founding president of the International Association for Humanitarian Medicine.