Geneva


“Peace isn’t ‘Kumbaya’ or a dove and a rainbow,” as Jody Williams illustrates so clearly in her new book on life as “a grassroots activist to the core.”

It’s hard to believe that Jody has not published her auto-biography until now, 15 years after receiving the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. Yet it’s not surprising given the intense pace at which she continues to advocate for peace and justice, both in the US and around the world. It can be hard for activists to find time to reflect and write about their own lives when there is so much to do, but recording how we work is just as necessary as doing it. (more…)

Last week I was stranded in Geneva, Switzerland for seven days following Iceland’s volcanic eruption. It was not a distressing experience: I had a comfortable hotel room, an office to go to, a conference to attend… Being restricted to watching CNN (the only English-language TV channel available) was about the worst inconvenience.  Yet as CNN bleated on about the costly impact of Eyjafjallajökull on European airlines, it completely overlooked an important story. (more…)

I am rarely in Geneva these days, but it seems like every time I set foot in the UN Palais des Nations, something really odd and unprecedented happens. Last time it was the Conference on Disarmament agreeing on an agenda for the first time in more than a decade. This time it was the ‘disco dancing’ contest by diplomats attending the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW). (more…)

cdThis morning I had a “Forrest Gump” making history moment at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, where we were launching our new Banning Cluster Munitions report. Before our press conference got underway, Thomas Nash and I decided to pop upstairs to see if the notice that the Conference on Disarmament (CD) was open to ther public was true. We walked into the viewing gallery of the grand room just as the CD chair was concluding a statement outlining a possible programme of work for the CD diplomats to negotiate a new treaty on fissile materials, which would ban production of plutonium and highly-enriched uranium used to make nuclear bombs. (more…)

of Lebanon contemplating cluster bombs…

The Godfather

Mr. Implementation Support Unit, Mine Ban Treaty

Cluster Munition Coalition

of Belgium

of Belarus with Kasia Derlicka

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