Declaration of the German Medical Women´s Association on Freedom and Democracy – Potsdam 26 October 2024
In 1950, in reaction to the atrocities of National Socialism and the Second World War, the German Medical Women’s Association signed the Geneva Pledge, which is still valid today. German women doctors were welcomed back into the international community of women doctors.
We are proud and happy to be among the signatories of the Geneva Pledge, the values of which we represent, and hereby declare:
We, the German Medical Women’s Association, see with great concern and deep dismay a progression of right-wing extremism, antisemitism, xenophobia, hatred and agitation, racism, marginalization of migrants, violence against those who think and live differently. Germany is currently living against a backdrop of increasingly threatening hostility towards democracy. Universal human rights and the humanity we have fought for are under threat, and their values and obligations must be defended now and again.
We, the German Medical Women’s Association therefore declare in the spirit of the Geneva Pledge:
The freedom, equality, dignity, health and well-being of all people are our primary concern.
Age, illness or disability, faith, origin, gender, nationality, political affiliation, sexual orientation, social status or any other factor do not come between us and our patients. We will never use our medical knowledge to violate human rights and civil liberties, even under threat.
We honour and respect all medical colleagues and students here and worldwide in their medical work and their dignity as human beings.
‘Never again is now!

Fig 1. Cover of Medical Women’s Association Journal showing the introductory line of the Declaration on Freedom and Democracy in Germany