Reed Elsevier and the Arms Trade

Letter to The Lancet, 10 September 2005

Sir,

Thomas Wakely founded The Lancet in 1823 both as a beacon of medical knowledge, and as a powerful ethical voice. “A lancet”, he announced, “can be an arched window to let in the light, or it can be a sharp surgical instrument to cut out the dross, and I intend to use it in both senses.”[1] Wakely's successors have continued to challenge the political, social and commercial forces that undermine medical values. In recent years The Lancet has published groundbreaking work on the impact of conflict on public health, including a major 2004 study of civilian deaths in Iraq.[2] Its work with the Peace through Health program at McMaster University is further evidence of the journal's leadership in this field.[3]

Today The Lancet finds itself connected to the profits of the global arms trade: a trade that inflicts physical and social harm in the poorest and least stable regions. Since 2003 The Lancet's owner and publisher, Reed Elsevier, has organised some of the world's largest arms fairs through its exhibition wing Reed Exhibitions. Next week Spearhead, a Reed Exhibition company, stages the world's largest tri-service arms fair, Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEi), in London. DSEi promotes arms sales ranging from warships to small arms (the cause of an estimated 500,000 fatalities annually) and cluster bombs.[4] Military buyers from some of the world's most serious human-rights-abusing regimes, including Syria, Columbia and Saudi Arabia, were invited to the last DSEi fair.[5] There is a demonstrable lack of effective regulation at these events. For example, although organisers asked exhibitors in 2003 not to promote cluster munitions, journalists found cluster bombs openly on display.[6]

Professionals and practitioners who use Reed Elsevier's numerous medical and biomedical publications hold to principles which include, at their most basic, the maxim to 'Do No Harm'. Reed Elsevier's involvement with the arms trade seems incompatible with this principle. It also contradicts Reed Elsevier's own subscription to the UN Global Compact, which aims to prevent conflicts and human rights abuse.[7]

As researchers, scientists, medical professionals and campaigners concerned about the damaging effects of the arms trade on the health and wellbeing of many populations, we call upon Reed Elsevier to end its international promotion of the arms trade. It is incompatible with The Lancet's guiding principles, Reed's subscription to the UN Global Compact, and the ethics of many of its contributors, readers, editors and reviewers.

Signatories:

Individuals

• Professor Gene Feder, Professor of primary care research and development, Barts and the London Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry
• Professor Jon E Rohde, Professor of Public Health, James P. Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, Dhaka
• Dr Miguel San Sebastian, Umea International School of Public Health, Umea University, Sweden
• Professor Urban Janlert, Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health Sciences, Umea University, Sweden
• Dr Masamine Jimba, Assistant Professor, Department of International Community Health, University of Tokyo
• Dr Enrico Materia, Agenzi di Sanita Pubblica, Rome
• Dr Anna-Karin Hurtig, Senior lecturer in Public Health, Umea International School of Public Health, Sweden
• Dr Stephen Goldin, Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umea University, Sweden
• Dr Tom Stafford, Department of Psychology, Sheffield University, UK
• Dr Berit Edvardsson, Umea University, Sweden
 

Organisations

• Professor Bjorn Hilt (regional vice president for Europe), on behalf of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
• Dr Stuart Parkinson (Director), on behalf of Scientists for Global Responsibility
• Marion Birch, Director, on behalf of MedAct
• Anna Jones, Campaigns Coordinator, on behalf of the Campaign Against Arms Trade
• Kathy Archibald, Director, on behalf of Europeans for Medical Progress
 

Notes

1. http://www.thelancet.com/about
2. L. Roberts, G. Burnham, R. Lafta, J. Khudhairi, R. Garfield, ‘Mortality before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: cluster sample survey’, http://image.thelancet.com/extras/04art10342web.pdf
3. http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/peace-health/
4. Estimate from Graduate Centre for International Studies Geneva, Small Arms Survey 2002 (Oxford University Press 2002), cited at http://www.iansa.org/documents/action/toolkit/wmd.pdf
5. http://www.caat.org.uk/armsfairs/dsei.shtml
6. Richard Norton-Taylor, 'Welcome: this way for cluster bombs', The Guardian, 10 September 2003
 
7. 'Corporate Social Responsibility', Reed Elsevier Annual Review and Summary Financial Statements 2003, http://www.reedelsevier.com/staging/ReviewReport/g1.html