WRI affiliate

Each month, we are featuring a different WRI affiliate. This month it's WRI's new affiliate Peace Educators Allied for Children Everywhere (P.E.A.C.E.) from the USA. Established in 1979, P.E.A.C.E is an activist group of early childhood educators- preschool and kindergarten teachers, family child care providers, early childhood students and college professors, and family members.

Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) have been granted permission to continue to pursue it's legal case against the British government regarding arms sales to Saudi Arabia. On 4th May two Court of Appeal judges granted CAAT permission to appeal, and the case will be heard by the Court of Appeal in the months ahead.

The promotion of peace and human rights is a priority of Swiss foreign policy. But consistency doesn’t seem to be a highly held value in the small Alpine country; not only do Swiss financial institutions - like private and public banks, insurance companies and pension funds - invest billions in arms producing companies all over the world, Swiss-made weapons and military technology are used in many conflicts.

Each month, we will feature a different WRI affiliate. This month it's New Profile, our affiliate in Israel.

Each month, we will feature a different WRI affiliate. This month it's the Peace Pledge Union from the UK.

The Peace Pledge Union (PPU) is the British section of War Resisters’ International. As a pacifist network, we challenge militarism, campaign for dis- armament, promote active nonviolence and produce resources to provide education for peace.

Each month, we will feature a different WRI affiliate. This month it's World Without War in the Republic of Korea (South Korea). 

Here's an introduction they wrote to their work:

Each month, we feature a different WRI affiliate. This month it is the Chilean antimilitarist group Ni Casco Ni Uniforme (Neither Helmet nor Uniform - NCNU), who are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year.

Each month, we feature a different WRI affiliate. This month it is the Independent Social Ecological Movement - NESEHNUTÍ in the the Czech Republic. They say:

We were accepted as a War Resisters International affiliate in 2016, so we are pretty new in the network. We are a social and environmental non-governmental organization from the Czech Republic, settled in the city of Brno. This month we are celebrating our 20th anniversary!

Each month, we will feature a different WRI affiliate. This month it is Bund für Soziale Verteidigung (Federation for Social Defence).

Each month, we will feature a different WRI affiliate. This month it's ONAD, the Organisation for Nonviolence and Development, from South Sudan!

ONAD works for a nonviolent, peaceful and democratic society through training and advocacy in; nonviolence and peacebuilding, governance & civic education, community empowerment & gender and internal organizational development.

War Resisters' International sections Vredesactie and Agir pour la Paix were joined by activists from across Europe earlier this month in a blockade of the annual European Defence Agency conference being held in Brussels. Arms dealers were meeting with policy makers to lobby for subsidies and to push the European Union further down the road towards militarisation. Using lock-ons, human chains, ribbons and banners to stop the arms dealers from getting inside, protesters succeeded in causing major disruption to the conference and bringing greater public attention to an issue of growing concern.

See more photos here.

At our eCouncil meeting this month, we were really glad to welcome four new organisations as Associate Organisations of War Resisters' International. They are:

Campaign Against Arms Trade (Britain), working to end the international arms trade and to promote progressive demilitarisation in arms-producing countries.

NESEHNUTÍ (Czech Republic): a social and ecological non-governmental organization, that works principally on the basis that ecological and social problems have shared causes and consequences which must be resolved. All our activities aim to show that social change based on respect for people, animals and nature is possible, and, most importantly must be led from below. Therefore, we support people who are interested and engaged in what is happening around them and who consider responsibility for life on our planet as an integral part of their own freedom. We work independently of party and economic interests, using strictly non-violent means.

Şiddetsizlik egitim ve arastirma dernegi (Nonviolence Education and Research Centre, Turkey): 'To achieve our dream of a nonviolent world we organize trainings, produce knowledge and share our resources. In doing so, our methods are non-hierarchical, participatory and based on solidarity and consensus. In this context, we aim to develop creative nonviolent campaigning tools and policy-making instruments, to share these instruments and to empower everyone struggling for a nonviolent world. Because we believe that a world without discrimination and oppression, where social justice exists and conflicts are solved in nonviolent ways, is possible.

VD AMOK (the Netherlands) -  a Dutch anti-militarist and conscientious objectors organization, non-governmental and non-profit, that works closely together with peace movements and peace organizations to create a peaceful, fair and stable world.

Three organisations already affiliated to WRI as Associate Organisations were also admitted as Sections of WRI. They are Alternatives to Violence Project, Nigeria; the Organization for Nonviolence and Development (South Sudan) and Žene u crnom (Women in Black Serbia).

We look forward to working more with all of these organisations towards a world without war!