Author: Assistant Coordinator

Webinar Report: Roadmap to End Nuclear Sharing

The first webinar on the “Roadmap to end nuclear sharing” on March 29, 2021, was a real success, with 87 people from all over Europe, and some from other continents, taking part. Our aim was to develop interactive connections and a common strategy for European peace and disarmament activists to approach governments.

If you were unable to attend, you can now watch the video here on the IPB´s YouTube Channel.

To learn more about Nuke Free Europe´s network appeal and call for actions visit: www.nukefreeeurope.eu

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IPB Calls for the Immediate Release of Arrested Activist Daw Thin Thin Aung

On the 8th April 2021, the Myanmar military seized Daw Thin Thin Aung and took her for interrogation. Daw Thin Thin Aung, is a women’s human rights defender and a co-founder of Mizzima Media, a news organization closed on 8 March by the military dictatorship in Myanmar.

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Maj-Britt Theorin: In Memoriam

The IPB family is in mourning after the recent death of Maj-Britt Theorin, MEP, who was President of IPB from 1992 to 2000. Those post-Cold War years were a time of some optimism, though clouded by the wars in the Balkans and the genocide in Rwanda. However many activists shared the hope that in the new international context a breakthrough on disarmament might be possible.

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Marc Batac – Council Member

Marc Batac was re-elected as IPB council member in October 2022. He is an activist, peacebuilder and organizer based in the Philippines. He focuses on the practice and study of contentious politics, asymmetric conflict, violence and peace processes, authoritarianism and militarism, and non-violent direct action and social movements in Southeast Asia.

Marc is currently the Programme Manager  of the Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID), a regional peace building and advocacy institution promoting human security, democratization and self-determination in Southeast Asia. Before that, from 2017 to 2022, he was the Regional Programs Coordinator. IID was a key and active mover in the solidarity movement for Timor Leste from 1994 until its independence, and in the solidarity movement for Myanmar/Burma’s democratization from 1995 to this day. In the past years, IID has accompanied its partners in the minoritized and indigenous peoples communities in engaging with the Bangsamoro peace process in Southern Philippines, and the peace process between the Philippine government and the communist armed movement.

From 2014 until 2022 he was the Regional Liaison officer of Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC) – Southeast Asia, anchoring its members’ joint advocacy and campaigns on inclusive peace processes and conflict transformation within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and in focus areas like Myanmar/Burma, Southern Thailand and West Papua.

A believer in the transformative power of people-to-people solidarity and locally-led peacebuilding, he has involved himself in founding, steering or advising several networks and organisations between South-South and South-North peoples. He is part of the Generation Peace Youth Network, Network of Young Democratic Asians (NOYDA), the Security Policy Alternatives Network (SPAN), and Peace Direct’s Global Advisory Council, among others.

Amani Aruri – Council Member

Amani Aruri has been elected as IPB council member in October 2022.

Amani has developed skills and capacities in the fields of social transformation, community activism, human rights, peace and security, advocacy, national dialogue and peace mediation to advance gender equality, economic wellbeing, social justice and human rights agendas at the national, regional and global levels.

She holds a master’s degree in Economics and is currently working as Human Security/National Programs Officer|Gender Focal Point Representative at the Office of Switzerland in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Palestine. Furthermore, she is a member of the Global Task Force on the Generation Equality Compact on Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action.

Interview with Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary

Image: Reiner Braun (second from the left) and Sharan Burrow (third from the right) at the Seán MacBride Peace Prize Ceremony for Jeremy Corbyn.

Sharan Burrow is the General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). During her time at the head of ITUC, she has helped to foster relations between trade unions and the peace movement – bringing together themes of peace, justice, conversion, and the need for a peace dividend. IPB Executive Director Reiner Braun sat down for an interview with Sharan to discuss the interconnections between the trade union and peace movements.

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Nawal El Sadaawi – In Memory.

NAWAL EL SADAAWI – in memory.

The world has sadly lost a feminist pillar, a free spirit and a huge inspiration.  The Egyptian writer, activist, physician and psychiatrist, Nawal El Sadaawi has passed away at the age of 89. The loss will not only be felt in the Middle East, where she lived most of her life, but worldwide.  Her intellectual and creative capacities, her courage, stamina and energy seemed endless, and indeed have marked generations and will, for generations to come. Her books will be read, her feminist and socialist work against patriarchy and capitalism is historic and she will continue to be a revolutionary role model for the oppressed and for women fighting for their rights, for equality, justice and a more peaceful world.

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Statement: IPB Condemns UK Decision to Increase Warheads by 40%

IPB CONDEMNS UK DECISION TO INCREASE WARHEADS BY 40%

17 March 2021

 

IPB shares the widespread international denunciation of the announcement by Prime Minister Boris Johnson that Britain will increase the cap on the number of its nuclear warheads to 260. Previously. Britain had been committed to reducing its stockpile to no more than 180 Trident warheads by the mid-2020s. However, the integrated review of security, defence, development and foreign policy published yesterday included this 40% increase in the stockpile.

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Seán MacBride Peace Prize Ceremony 2020/21

On March, 17th 2021, the Séan MacBride Peace Prize has formally been awarded to Terumi Tanaka, Convenor of the Promotion Committee of the 2020 award-recipient ‘International Signature Campaign in Support of the Appeal of the Hibakusha’. During this first online award ceremony featuring a warm welcome from IPB Co-President Lisa Clark and Rieko Asato from the IPB Board/Gensuikyo, moderation by IPB Ex. Director Reiner Braun and an expressive and extremely timely Laudation by IPB CO-President Philip Jennings, Terumi Tanaka and the Signature Campaign’s Leader Mitsuhiro Hayashi vividly illustrated the central importance the struggle against nuclear weapons still occupies in our world today – for the Hibakusha, for the Japanese people and for every world citizen.

Find out more about the Ceremony here.