On a global stage, nurses stood together in a moment of solidarity for their colleagues around the world living in terrible conditions of war, conflict and disaster, at the recent International Council of Nurses (ICN) Congress.

Following video messages played from nurses in areas of conflict, the 7,000+ nurses from 130 countries attending the ICN 2025 Congress in Helsinki, stood together united for peace.

In the last plenary session, ICN Chief Executive Officer Howard Catton re-emphasised the importance of partnerships and collaboration to help support nurses in conflict zones and in natural and human-made disasters.

“As nurses, we are health makers, but we're also peace makers, because when we bring health, we bring healing, we bring compassion, we bring hope, we bring cohesion, we bring people together. We have to eliminate divisions and differences as well.

‘We're not able to do the fantastic work that ICRC and MSF, for example, do, but we can connect nurses, and we can connect nursing associations. And we can provide a way in which the word solidarity comes to life.”

While the ICN had supported humanitarian work and assistance in response to disasters and conflicts around the world for many years, this role had increased of recent times, Mr Catton said.

“In more recent years, following the invasion of the Ukrainian and the start of that war, we saw an enormous outpouring from nursing associations around the world who wanted to demonstrate their support, their solidarity - nurse to nurse, nursing association to nursing association. And that's why ICN established the #NursesforPeace initiative. This has enabled us to really support nurses in the way that we wanted to.”

The ICN’s #NursesforPeace initiative is aligned with the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Health and Peace Initiative.