A louder and deeper taboo needs to be created around nuclear weapons, and a stronger case needs to be made for solutions to today's multiple nuclear problems, including the strong medical and scientific perspective. ICAN is the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War's (IPPNW's) contribution.

Starting in April 2007, IPPNW launched ICAN in various locations around the world. The international launch at the 2007 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) meeting included the launch of Securing Our Survival (SOS): The Case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention.

ICAN aims:

The campaign will renew IPPNW's resolve, profile and membership to address nuclear militarism in today's context by aiming to:

• Launch an exciting and credible new initiative to inspire enthusiasm and inspiration for agitating for nuclear disarmament, with new slogans, visuals, demands, alliances, audiences and strategies

• Raise the number and diversity of voices among the general public about nuclear weapons within the medical profession and more broadly

• Strengthen the call and the legitimacy of the call for a Nuclear Weapons Convention by generating an updated version of 'Security and Survival' and the Model Nuclear Weapons Convention

• Generate a suite of nuclear disarmament education materials on the urgent imperative for nuclear weapons abolition for professional and public audiences.

We will promote credible, digestible and compelling arguments and facts. Using easily replicable information materials, activities and humour, all ICAN materials will emphasise solutions, prevention and prescriptions for steps towards the goal of abolition, carrying the legitimacy and authority of the medical profession to its maximum to advocate for a Nuclear Weapons Convention, a means to politically organize the technical process of nuclear disarmament

• Increase NGOs' collaboration and coordination of strategies and messaging to stimulate engagement, encouraging NGOs and experts to work together to lobby their government, generate media and create strategic alliances with NGOs between doctors, health professionals and other constituencies that do not compromise the independence or unique contribution of IPPNW, but which joins strengths to create a truly international coordinated campaign coalition that results in a Nuclear Weapons Convention

• Stigmatize nuclear weapons using humour, hope and horror. While nuclear weapons are a gravely serious issue, we have learned that getting serious about nuclear weapons must involve laughter, horror and hope to overcome psychic numbing and motivate action.

• Build on and unify what is already being done in IPPNW on nuclear disarmament, such as the Nuclear Weapons Inheritance Project , Target X and initiatives of various affiliates in generating publications and events about this urgently relevant issue (such as on NATO nukes and the replacement of Trident in the UK).