PN staff
On 19 September, the Bahamas officially signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), sending a signal of support, and Sri Lanka officially acceded to the treaty, meaning that it agreed to be bound by the TPNW, a much more serious step. (Usually countries ‘sign’ first and then ‘ratify’, but some countries skip the signing and go straight to the commitment level in one step: ‘accession’.)
This means that 97 states have now signed, ratified or acceded to the 2017…
Sadly, our dear friend Roy St Pierre, a cornerstone of Peace News Summer Camp, died on 5 April while cycling through Spain on his way to the UK. There will be a tribute to Roy in our next issue. Roy’s family are calling for mass bike rides in his memory on Sunday 18 June. Please carry peace flags! In Hastings, the ride starts at 2pm at the pier. Please send us your photos: editorial@peacenews.info
In Ukraine, Mykhailo Yavorsky, a 40-year-old Christian from the southwestern city of Ivano- Frankivsk, is out on bail, preparing to appeal against a one-year jail term handed down on 6 April for refusing military service on grounds of conscience, reports Forum 18.
Ukraine has suspended the right to conscientious objection (including the right to alternative service) – something that has been denounced by the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO).
‘I adhere to the…
Some recent news from the Russian human rights monitoring group OVD-Info.
19 May
The Miass city court in the Chelyabinsk region sentenced local resident Sergei Korneev to two years in a penal colony after he allegedly posted an anti- mobilisation message on a social media network. After allegedly suggesting that Russian soldiers break military equipment and weapons, Sergei was arrested back in February. He was found guilty of making a public call
to carry out…
Raised Voices sing songs by Sue Gilmurray and Holly Near in front of the Conscientious Objectors commemorative stone at the National Conscientious Objectors Day event in Tavistock Square, Central London, on 15 May 2023. A message from Belarusian peace activist Olga Karach was played at the ceremony.
The day before the coronation, Julian Assange invited Charles III to visit him: ‘I implore you, King Charles, to visit His Majesty’s Prison Belmarsh, for it is an honour befitting a king.'
Why not write Julian a postcard? Maybe something you’ve done to support his campaign? His address: Mr Julian Assange,
Prisoner #A9379AY, HMP Belmarsh, Western Way, London SE28 0EB. https://www.dontextraditeassange.com
On 22 May, the three-country AUKUS military alliance strengthened its anti-China presence in the Pacific when the US signed a new security pact with Papua New Guinea (PNG) which may open the door to AUKUS submarines using PNG facilities.
Under the terms of the AUKUS deal, royal navy submarines are due to make their first deployment to Australia in 2027.
In a recent briefing, USA, Australia Militarizing PNG, former Papua New Guinea foreign affairs officer Dominic Navue…
Hundreds of peace activists protested outside USAF Lakenheath in Suffolk on 20 May, demanding that the US keep its nuclear weapons out of Britain. Speakers included Reiner Braun from Germany, CND general secretary Kate Hudson, Guido van Leemput from the Netherlands, actor Michael Mears and CND chair Tom Unterrainer.
Over 10,000 people took to the streets of Central London on 13 May to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their struggle for freedom and justice.
At the Palestine Solidarity Campaign rally, Jeremy Corbyn MP said: ‘For those that think we are going to go away, dream on and think on. We will never give up on the rights of the Palestinian people.’
This came on the last day of an Israeli bombing campaign against Gaza (9 – 13 May) which killed 33 people, including…
A major Japanese bank, the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), has been forced to withdraw from financing the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). This has been claimed as a win by the #StopEACOP coalition of over 260 civil society organisations.
The 900-mile-long heated pipeline, a project of French oil company Total and Chinese oil company CNOOC, threatens to displace thousands of families and farmers from their land and rip through numerous sensitive biodiversity…
On 6 March, Black Lives Matter UK (BLMUK) announced more of what it’s done with the £1.2mn that it raised in 2020, in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in the US.
BLMUK made an initial distribution of £170,000 in February 2021 to 13 grassroots groups such as the United Families and Friends Campaign. UFFC is a coalition of those affected by deaths in police, prison and psychiatric custody.
A basic commitment was to distribute at least half of the…
As PN went to press, the Public Order bill was on its way to becoming law.
While the House of Lords did make some changes to this repressive legislation, the bill as a whole remains a ‘staggering escalation of the government’s clampdown on protest’.
That was the description given at the end of January in a joint parliamentary briefing from Amnesty International UK, Liberty, Big Brother Watch, Greenpeace, the Black Equity Organisation, Netpol (the Network for Police…
Does ‘national security’ have to be discussed in such a boring way, with long words that hardly anyone understands? What if everyone could take part in defining ‘security’ just by taking a photo to represent what safety means to them, and talking about it? Can creativity contribute to analysis?
Rethinking Security is running a ‘Visualising Security’ project as part of its Alternative Security Review (due out later this year). The aim is ‘to build a collection of images and stories…
On 4 March, CND chair Kate Hudson (centre) and Islington MP Jeremy Corbyn (right) planted a tree in memory of the late, great Bruce Kent, just north of the running track in his beloved Finsbury Park, North London, near his home.
This summer, peace activists from the War Resisters International global network will travel from across the world to London to take part in WRI’s ‘Antimilitarist Roots’ conference in mid-June.
If you live in London and are able to offer an activist from abroad some sleeping space and access to bathroom facilities for a few nights, that would be very welcome!
The ‘Antimilitarist Roots’ public conference is 16 – 18 June and WRI will also have a internal gathering as well on 15,…
