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
Frustration at the failure of nuclear weapon states to honour the agreements made at previous NPT Conferences is growing. In heated exchanges in New York the 184 countries without nuclear weapons want to ensure that this time the NPT outcome has direction, accountability and muscle. Half way throu
In recognising a right of conscientious objection specifically to military service, the international community of nation states has effectively conceded the morality of such a standpoint. An eventual extension of the interpretation of this right to embrace conscientious objections to payment towa
Conscientious objection is not "opting out". It is an effort to stimulate a new social imagination and a revolutionary mentality that does not normalise violence.
A new anthology of women conscientious objectors reveals the extent to which rejection to military service is part of a greater movement for social change. Vanessa Alexander went along to the book launch
Unless the role and value assigned to nuclear weapons in deterrence is challenged among the nuclear-armed states, the notion of nuclear deterrence will remain seductive – and a proliferation drive. Those wanting to bring about real security in a non-nuclear-armed world need to do far more at this
The attempt to implement Security Council Resolution 1325 after the failure of the Oslo Peace Process revealed a paralysed women's movement in Israel. Is it time for feminist resistance rather than arguing for women's participation in peace processes?
How and when will the Rome Statute and Security Council Resolution 1325 actually contribute to the delivery of justice to a critical mass of the world’s women?
Statement by Jody Williams, Chair, Nobel Women’s Initiative at the Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty United Nations, New York, New York, 7 May 2010
The stakes are high and the outcome too close to call as the Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty opens for four weeks of intense debate in New York.
If violence is out, what power can nonviolence offer? Courage, numbers and solidarity are vital to confront oppressive power, but macho dynamics perpetuate aggression. Human connections are the key to transformation
"It is not what the mind knows, it is what the heart knows that changes the world". Listen to Joan Chittister give the keynote address at the International Gender Justice Dialogue conference
