WRI network

The Movement for a Non-Violent Alternative (MAN) in Lyon, together with the Raja Tikva Association, is hosting two young Israeli conscientious objectors, Itamar and Soul, on a tour of France from 13 to 28 November 2025.

As arms dealers queued to enter one of the world's largest weapons fairs in London last week (the euphemistically titled Defence and Security Equipment International, or DSEI), they were greeted with a remembrance ceremony for all the victims of their deadly trade.

New Profile, an Israeli antimilitarist and feminist organisation, and a member of the War Resisters’ International network, has just published its Annual Report. The report outlines the group’s work over the past year, including their efforts to end the genocide in Gaza, support conscientious objectors, and promote a demilitarised society in Israel.

On 3rd July 2025, peace campaigners from around the UK held an online discussion with Russian conscientious objectors (COs) who are refusing to fight in the war in Ukraine. This online event brought together four Russian COs, coordinated by a contact in Georgia who works with several NGOs to support COs, along with British peace campaigners working to raise awareness about their struggles.

A record number of demonstrations and other actions to challenge Armed Forces Day took place in towns and cities across the UK last weekend. Protest organisers report a three-fold increase compared with 2024, with demonstrations, vigils, stalls and flyering in over fifty locations this year.

Conscientious Objection Watch shares its mid-year update for 2025. Since the beginning of the year, conscientious objectors have been tried and sentenced to prison for refusing to do compulsory military service. The effects of the deepening economic and political crises in Turkey have begun to have increasingly deeper and more destructive effects on the individual/daily lives of conscientious objectors due to the civil deaths they have been suffering.

Since conflict broke out in Sudan in April 2023, between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, WRI members in the country have faced enormous challenges. In this interview, a Sudanese activist and organiser share his firsthand experiences and reflections. To understand his reflections, we also look at Sudan’s recent history and wider conflict.

Oops, what are Berlin ad posters doing in Helsinki? And why are they campaigning for asylum for conscientious objectors? The "adbusted" posters are calling for asylum for conscientious objectors from Belarus and Russia.

We are excited to announce that the War Resisters' International network is preparing to gather in London, in June 2023. We will hold a public conference called Antimilitarist Roots: nonviolent resistance for a world in crisis.

In late 2022, WRI launched an initiative to develop a regional network of peace workers, pacifists and antimilitarists in Asia.

The Pan African Nonviolence and Peacebuilding Network (PANPEN) was born on 30th July 2012 and reorganized in June 2014. The PANPEN  connects and empowers African civil society and grassroots peace movements and activists to take nonviolent actions to transform conflicts and promote peace and democracy reforms. steering committee was developed at the side event of War Resisters' International (WRI) conference held in Cape Town, South Africa in 2014. Over the last couple of years, PANPEN has through its individual members and member organizations contributed to peace and political reforms in the region.

Today is our 100th anniversary! Our international network of pacifist and antimilitarists was formed on 23-25 March 1921 at a meeting in Bilthoven, the Netherlands. Since then we have grown into a global network of war resisters with over 90 affiliated groups across 40 countries committed to our founding declaration:

"War is a crime against humanity. I am therefore determined not to support any kind of war, and to strive for the removal of all causes of war."