Medact’s mission is to support health professionals from all disciplines to work together towards a world in which everyone can truly achieve and exercise their human right to health.
We do this through research and evidence-based campaigning for solutions to the social, political and economic conditions which damage health, deepen health inequalities and threaten peace and security.
Medact recognises that health and well-being throughout our lives aren’t just about individual bodies, diseases, and conditions; rather, they are shaped by the social, economic and physical conditions in which we are born, grow, live, work and age. These factors interact to create differential exposure to health risks which shape widespread health inequality both in our local communities, and globally. We know these social determinants of health are driven by political and economic systems that dictate how power and resources are distributed; and which have the capacity to create and exacerbate not only deepening social inequality but wider threats to health such as climate change, violent conflict, and human rights abuses.
We work mainly in the UK, but also work across national boundaries through international affiliations such as the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and in partnership with sister organisations in other countries such as Physicians for Social Responsibility in the USA and Medico International in Germany.
We also work with organisations that have specialised knowledge in fields such as climate science, economics, energy, agriculture, water and international law. This is why Medact has worked with the likes of Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Water Aid, Third World Network, Reprieve and War on Want.
We are the UK-affiliate of 1985 Nobel Prize-winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW).