The World Court Project: How a citizen network can influence the United Nations

Author(s): Kate Dewes, and Robert Green

In: Pacifica Review: Peace Security and Global Change, Vol 7, No 2, 1995, pp. 17-37

The authors explain the purpose of this campaign (that brought together peace activists, doctors and lawyers from around the world): to prohibit under international law the use or threat to use nuclear weapons, as the Conventions on Biological and on Chemical Weapons had done for these weapons of mass destruction. The campaign persuaded the UN to ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for an advisory opinion on the issue. This article (written before the Court had delivered its decision) focuses on how the umbrella network of NGOs in the World Court Project successfully lobbied governments to gain support at the UN General Assembly, and how it persuaded the ICJ to accept citizens' evidence for the first time.

New Zealand and Disarmament: Where National and Global Interests Converge

Author(s): Lyndon Burford, and Kate Dewes

In: in Brady AM (ed) Small States and the Changing Global Order. The World of Small States, Volume 6, pp. 325-342

New Zealand has built a strong, bipartisan record over several decades for constructive disarmament and arms control policies, which promotes its reputation as a relatively independent, principled international actor. New Zealand’s role as a champion of a rules-based international order, and as a defender of the rights and interests of small states, is also underpinned by its record.

Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition: institutionalizing a political voice and ensuring representation

Author(s): Kate Fearon

In: Accord, No 13, 2002, pp. 78-81

(Accord is published by the London-based Conciliation Resources. Issue 13 was entitled ‘Owning the process: Public Participation in Peacemaking’, edited by Catherine Barnes.)

The Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition (NIWC) was initiated by women of various political affiliations, religious beliefs and occupations. It was institutionalized as a political party in 1996 so that its members would be eligible to take part in the all-party talks that culminated in the Good Friday Agreement. It also campaigned for the acceptance of the GFA in the referendums which followed its signing.

CND at 60: Britain's Most Enduring Mass Movement

Author(s): Kate Hudson

Public Reading Rooms, UK, 2018, pp. 240 (pb)

This book by the General Secretary of CND was published on the 60th anniversary of the launch of CND in February 1958. It covers both the major campaigns within the nuclear disarmament movement of the first three decades, including the Aldermaston marches and Greenham Common. It also charts the evolving role of CND after 1990: becoming prominent in the resistance to Britain's involvement in wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan; and more recently supporting the movement to achieve the UN Treaty to ban all nuclear weapons. CND has also continued to focus on opposing British production and deployment of nuclear weapons, and in particular the government's decision to renew the Trident missile force.

Now More than Ever

Author(s): Kate Hudson

Vision Paperbacks, Satin Publishers, Sheena Dewan, London, 2005, pp. 278

Up to date account of British nuclear disarmament movement since the 1950s by chair of CND, giving some weight to direct action.

Struggles in the current context. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in dangerous and disturbing times

Author(s): Kate Hudson

In: Struggles in the current context. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in dangerous and disturbing times, No 120, 2019

This article explores from a Marxist perspective the contributions the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) has made over time within a context where the threats the world is facing are increasing. The article concludes by considering the challenges ahead.

Towards an Equitable and Effective Climate Deal: An Interview with Mary Robinson

Author(s): Kate Yoon

In: Harvard International Review, Vol 36, No 3, 2015, pp. 35-37

In this interview Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and UN Special Envoy on Climate Change, talks about the Mary Robinson Foundation-Climate Justice.  She discusses how climate change disproportionately affects women, especially through undermining food security, and notes that many women are farmers in developing countries.

See also: Editorial spotlight: Climate action with women, UN Women, 13 September 2019.

https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2019/9/spotlight-climate-action-with-women

Link to women-led initiatives in Bolivia, the Caribbean and Cambogia to tackle climate change.

See also: Empowering women on the frontlines of climate change, UN Environment Programme, 8 March 2019.

https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/empowering-women-frontlines-climate-change

Brief introduction to “Promoting Gender-Responsive Approaches to Natural Resource Management for Peace”, a Sudanese project implemented by UN Environment, UN Women and the United Nations Development Programme.

After Repeal. Rethinking Abortion Politcs

Editor(s): Kath Browne, and Sydney Calkin

Zed, London, 2019, pp. 311

The 2018 referendum to overturn Ireland’s abortion ban had worldwide significance. The campaign to repeal the Eight Amendment succeeded against a background of religious and patriarchal dogmatism, representing a major transformation of Irish society itself. This work explores both the campaign and the implications of the referendum result for politics, identity and culture in the Republic of Ireland. It explores activism, artwork, social movements, law, media, democratic institutions, and reproductive technologies in the country and beyond.

John Lewis, towering figure of Civil Rights era dies at 80

Author(s): Katharine Seelye

In: New York Times, 2020

John Lewis represented the links between the Civil Rights struggle of the 1950s-60s and Black Rights Matter in 2020.  Elected to Congress in 1986, he continued to campaign in Washington for racial and social justice (including organizing nonviolent direct action) until his death.  His last political act was to view a Black Lives Matter mural.  His obituaries elaborate on the details of his lifelong political activism. (See also details of his memoir under Vol.1.A.3.)

See also: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53454169

Available online at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/us/john-lewis-dead.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article

Women’s Activism in Contemporary Russia

Author(s): Linda Racioppi, and Katherine O'Sullivan Lee

Temple University Press, Philadelphia PA, 1997, pp. 277

The opening chapters provide historical context, but the focus of the book is on interviews with leading activists, representing the great variety of ideological standpoints and concerns, to develop an analysis of feminism since the later 1980s.

Women and Violence: Global Lives in Focus

Editor(s): Kathleen Nadeau, and Sanjita Rayamajhi

ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, CA, 2020, pp. 268

The authors examine violence against women and gender-based discrimination around the world, today. They provide a global perspective on the history, causes, and complex underpinnings of gender and violence from a multidimensional and cross-disciplinary perspective. The regions covered are North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and East Asia, South and Southeast Asia, and Oceania. Each chapter begins with an overview of its world region, and then focuses on particular forms of violence against women in the more specific contexts of particular countries and in relation to the wider region.

The Bolivian Climate Justice Movement: Mobilizing Indigeneity in Climate Change Negotiations

Author(s): Kathryn Hicks, and Nicole Fabricant

In: Latin American Perspectives, Vol 43, No 4, 2016, pp. 87-104

The authors note that many of the groups in the Bolivian coalition mobilizing against global warming draw on indigenous philosophy and worldviews to oppose value commitments to economic development. Drawing on fieldwork in 2010, they assess the relationship between state and non-state actors and argue that the coalition has had a significant global impact, despite the failure of multilateral climate change negotiations.

See also article by the same authors: 'Bolivia vs. the Billionaires: Limitations of the "Climate Justice Movement" in International Negotiations', Nacla: reporting on the Americans since 1967, Vol. 46, issue 2, 2013, pp.  27-31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10714839.2013.11722008

Examine's Bolivia's role at UN Conferences in Copenhagen and Doha and notes the strength of the opposition, not only from powerful global companies blocking real reduction iof carbon emissions, but 'the capitalist economy itself'. They also discuss the World People's Conference in Bolivia in 2010 and report criticisms of Evo Morales reliance on extractive industries f or economic development, despite his 'anti-capitalist discourse'.

Democracy and Authoritarianism in the Postcommunist World

Editor(s): Valerie J. Bunce, Michael McFaul, and Kathryn Stoner-Weiss

Cambridge University Press, New York, 2009, pp. 360

Examines waves of change in 11 former communist nations, from 1989-1992, and the electoral defeat of authoritarian rulers from 1996 to 2005 in Bulgaria, Slovakia, Serbia, Georgia and Ukraine. This volume looks in particular at issues of transmission and the role of transnational and international actors, with a particular focus on the role of the EU. The final section discusses the conundrum posed by political developments in Russia, and also Belarus and Kyrgyzstan. Individual chapters are also cited under particular countries.

Gandhi: A Political and Spiritual Life

Author(s): Kathryn Tidrick

Verso, London, 2013, pp. 380

Originally published: 2006

Scholarly critical biography drawing on 90 volumes of Gandhi’s writings, arguing Gandhi aspired to be a world saviour. Author comments on inaccuracies in Gandhi’s own account of the South African campaigns, and provides incisive analysis of Gandhi’s political role and campaigns in India.

Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison

Author(s): Kathy Kelly

Counterpunch, Petrolia CA, 2006, pp. 173

Kelly participated in the Gulf Peace Team and later co-founded Voices in the Wilderness, breaking sanctions against Iraq. See also: ‘Kathy Kelly and Milan Rai, ‘Voices in the Wilderness: Campaigning against Sanctions on Iraq 1995-2005’, in Howard Clark, People Power: Unarmed Resistance and Global Solidarity (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements) , pp.143-49.

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