Scilla Elworthy

Scilla Elworthy founded the Oxford Research Group in 1982 to develop dialogue with nuclear weapons decision makers, and set up Peace Direct in 2002 to support local peace-builders in conflict areas. Three times nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize; awarded the Niwano Peace Prize in 2003.

Chilcot: all peaceful options were not exhausted

Tony Blair told Chilcot Saddam Hussein was, “a man to whom a last chance to do right is just a further opportunity to do wrong. He is blind to reason.”

By Scilla Elworthy and Gabrielle Rifkind

/ 15 Jul 2016

Love in a time of hatred

To prevent terror requires radical acts and working with women. To build peace requires courage, determination, compassion and a budget.

By Scilla Elworthy

/ 7 Apr 2016

Love in a time of hatred

To prevent terror requires radical acts and working with women. To build peace requires courage, determination, compassion and a budget.

By Scilla Elworthy

/ 7 Apr 2016

Beyond war: women transforming militarism, building a nonviolent world

If we want to ensure that humanity is not doomed to repeat its bloodiest century, the logical move would be to mount an international campaign to see that competent women are swiftly accepted into policy-making positions in all conflict countries, says Scilla Elworthy

By Scilla Elworthy

/ 20 May 2013

Egypt: small oases of transformation

The new Heliopolis university in Cairo has developed from SEKEM principles and is devoted entirely to sustainable development. Scilla Elworthy reports on the challenges of setting the pace of social innovation in education

By Scilla Elworthy

/ 15 Apr 2013

Peace can be planned. Just like health

"Violence can be prevented. This is not an article of faith, but a statement based on evidence" (WHO 2002). Scilla Elworthy calls for a strategy based on the clear evidence of what is working in scattered pockets around the world, with the creation of 'Infrastructures for Peace' at its core.

By Scilla Elworthy

/ 28 Nov 2011

"Feast with your enemies" - Dekha Ibrahim Abdi

What do I do differently as a result of knowing this great woman? I utterly believe in the power of one local person to transform a violent situation. I know that humiliation is the driver of most incidents of violence, and that respect is the best antidote to humiliation, and I try to apply that.

By Scilla Elworthy

/ 11 Nov 2011

Scilla Elworthy

“In 2012, due to a massive public awareness campaign, the global public became aware that it was not only necessary, but possible, to evolve individual and collective consciousness, as Einstein

By Scilla Elworthy

/ 4 May 2011

Is it time for a worldwide strategy for the building of peace?

On average, one dollar spent on programmes to prevent violent conflict achieves as much as sixty dollars spent reacting to crises once violence erupts. So why is there no worldwide strategy for the building of peace? November 1918 marked the end of the 'war to end wars'. One hundred years later, w

By Scilla Elworthy

/ 24 May 2010

If diplomacy fails

Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian lawyer and Nobel peace laureate, writes in her new autobiography Iran Awakening: "Bellicosity and brinkmanship are what have brought us to where we stand now,

By Scilla Elworthy

/ 10 May 2006

Learning from Fallujahs agony

Here are two appraisals of what happened in the besieged Iraqi city of Fallujah one year ago, in the assault by United States military forces that began on 8 November

By Scilla Elworthy

/ 7 Nov 2005

Tackling terror by winning hearts and minds

The five days between 6 July and 10 July 2005 were for Londoners a mini-epic of emotional intensity. Between exultant celebrations of the successful 2012 Olympic Games bid and proud

By Scilla Elworthy

/ 19 Jul 2005