ICN NNA Update: United Nations General Assembly, Summit of the Future, Turkey, Middle East and South Korea

ICN President Dr Pamela Cipriano led an ICN delegation at the 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meeting and the Summit of the Future in New York, 21-27 September 2024.

Dr Cipriano represented ICN at the Summit of the Future, which UN Secretary-General António Guterres said was a ‘once-in-a-generation’ event aimed at revitalizing multilateral collaboration to meet the enormous challenges the world is currently facing.

ICN’s President attended high-level Summit sessions on topics including multilateralism for international peace and security, digital inclusivity, transforming digital governance, and turbocharging the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Pact for the Future, the Summit’s main outcome document, was adopted by the UNGA, alongside the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations.

During the Summit, the World Health Professions Alliance (WHPA) released a statement noting that while the Pact recognizes the fundamental role of health in addressing poverty, inequality and environmental changes, it should be more prominent. WHPA’s statement called on world leaders to urgently increase investment in the health workforce to fulfil the commitments outlined in the Pact for the Future. WHPA was represented at the Summit by Dr Cipriano and Dr Lujain Alqodmani, President of the World Medical Association.

In addition, Dr Cipriano participated in the UNGA High-Level Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), which she has previously said cannot be addressed in isolation from universal health coverage. Speakers at the UNGA meeting, including WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed the enormous global impact of AMR, which causes 1.3 million deaths annually, with the heaviest burden borne by low- and middle-income countries.

ICN’s President, who is co-chair of UHC2030, facilitated the Friends of UHC Ministerial Annual Meeting which focused on targeted policies and restructuring of global international financing.

ICN’s delegation also attended meetings focused on peacebuilding and conflict resolution, demonstrating ICN’s belief that peace and health are intimately connected, and that nursing contributes to peaceful, healthful societies. Earlier this year, Dr Cipriano wrote to the Secretary-General of the United Nations calling for firm and decisive action to stop the growing illegal attacks on nurses and health care facilities we are seeing in war zones around the world.

The President was present at the High-Level Plenary Meeting to Commemorate the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on 26 September, where Secretary-General Guterres warned that the threat of countries to deploy nuclear weapons has never been greater and called for urgent disarmament to safeguard global security and peace.

Dr Cipriano advocated for nursing at several NYC Climate Week events, highlighting policy for health system readiness and resilience and connections between climate action and roadmaps for workforce wellbeing. Dr Gill Adynski delivered the opening remarks at the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE) event, “Climate Action for Health: Solutions from the Health Sector,” emphasizing the crucial role of nurses in climate change response and prevention.

ICN’s President also spoke at various events at the 4th Digital Health Symposium, including a leadership panel on the global health landscape where she emphasized the many ways nurses accelerate primary care interventions that promote accessible health services.

In addition, the ICN delegation attended a Pandemic Action Network session on the role of the health workforce in addressing pandemics, conflicts, and climate change as interconnected global health crises. ICN was also represented at sessions on global health equity and health workers hosted by the Partnership for Maternal Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) and Seed Global Health, as well as at the Foreign Policy (FP) Global Health Forum and an event on taking the Lusaka Agenda forward.

A more detailed account of ICN’s work and the events that were attended at the meeting will shortly be published on ICN’s website.

ICN Chief Executive Officer at the 8th International/19th National Nursing Congress in Ankara, Turkey

ICN Chief Executive Officer Howard Catton gave a keynote speech at the 8th International/19th National Nursing Congress in Ankara, Turkey, 25-28 September 2024, and subsequent interviews with high level Turkish media organizations, including Anka Haber Ajansı and Anadolu Ajansı.

In his presentation to the congress Mr Catton spoke about ICN’s duty to speak out about the terrible dangers and devastating situations nurses are facing in the many war-torn and conflict-affected areas around the world.

“ICN is not party political, but our role absolutely requires us to advocate publicly and in the political arena for the safety, protection and support of nurses, their rights, and the right of all people to access health care, based on need.

‘When nurses in conflict zones try to convey what’s happening I hear them talk about the sheer brutality of injuries, bodies ripped apart, the smell of burnt flesh: that frequently it is children, young people, woman, the elderly who are the victims. That the destruction is massive, and they are continually experiencing death. The mental health impacts are on such a scale as to be a mass traumatization.”

Mr Catton has repeated ICN’s call for an immediate ceasefire and an end to hostilities in the Middle East, and the return of the remaining October 7 hostages to Israel.

He said that nurses continue to deliver the care that is needed to whoever needs it, all while dealing with having lost members of their own families, or their friends and colleagues, and under the constant fear for their own safety and that of their loved ones.

“They say that, in their darkest moments, it can feel that all humanity has been lost, that life has no value, and that harm to people and their suffering are somehow acceptable collateral damage.

‘We know the numbers of attacks on healthcare workers and facilities has increased by 75% in the last 3 years, with more than 700 attacks in 13 countries. We believe HCW deaths are now more than 1,000 with nearly half of those in Palestine and more than 200 in Ukraine.

‘ICN believes that many of those victims are nurses: in recent days we have received reports of 260 nurse deaths in Palestine, and we continue to hear reports of deaths from Lebanon, Ukraine, Myanmar, and Sudan.”

Mr Catton said such attacks, which despite being contrary to International Humanitarian Laws and fundamental human rights are somehow becoming normalized, are deliberate acts that are intended to create fear, panic and intimidation through threats and actual violence.

“For sake of our profession, the people we serve and global health and humanity, we cannot and will not remain silent.”

Speaking to journalists and broadcasters after the event, Mr Catton highlighted the suffering of people in the Middle East, Myanmar, Sudan and elsewhere, as well as the nurses who are trying to care for them, despite their hospital and other facilities often having been reduced to rubble.

“The nurses I have spoken to all report working in incredibly difficult situations. The hospitals do not exist so it may just be a basement, there are no beds, there’s no equipment. They may not have access to drugs and supplies, and the injuries they are seeing as a result of the bombs are very traumatising. They are seeing people who have lost limbs, people who have lost eyes, people with very significant wounds, and the mental impact for people who have lost their entire families and their friends are terribly traumatised.

‘And for the nurses, the scale of the deaths is ongoing. But the nurses are staying, they are doing their best to deliver health care in these very difficult circumstances, but they are subject to the attacks on health care facilities. They are fearful for their own safety and protection.

‘Because when the politics fails to retain or restore peace, it is nurses and other health care workers who are paying the price, and that’s why we are again restating the call we made for an immediate ceasefire and to make sure there are adequate supplies getting to where people are most in need.”

ICN’s #NursesforPeace campaign is supporting nurses in the Middle East and in other violent hot spots around the world. Visit the #NursesforPeace website to find out more and to contribute.

On a positive note, ICN is delighted that South Korea has finally passed the Nursing Act. ICN has been a strong advocate of the Nursing Act for a number of years and has given its full support to the Korean Nurses Association (KNA) on this important issue. We congratulate KNA and look forward to the Act taking effect next year. We will be releasing our statement on this shortly.