ABSTRACT
The Netherlands, as the only NATO-country, joined the UN Ban negotiations ‘. after grassroots pressure on its Parliament’. This chapter describes the origins and workings of this pressure, focusing on the initiating role of the Nederlandse Vereniging voor Medische Polemologie (NVMP), the Dutch affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. That role is based on medical-humanitarian arguments originating from the Hippocratic Oath, the universal foundation for medical ethics and practice. The Netherlands, the only negotiating NATO-country, did not, referring to criteria given earlier, but promised to keep on working for a nuclear weapons (NW)-free world, building bridges between countries pro and contra the TPNW. At the end of 2016, the NVMP drafted an Open Letter and invited the ‘Balie-speakers’ to comment on and sign, asking FA Minister Koenders to vote in favour of the UN-resolution to start negotiations on a NW Ban.
