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WRI REPORT 2004 said we had a year of challenges, changes and looking ahead. This year we have made progress.
As we considered WRI's future at last year's Council meeting, we decided to create a Nonviolence Programme. WRI hired Javier Garate, from Santiago, Chile, who had been active with the WRI Section Ni Casco Ni Uniforme to staff this new programme. He came on staff in March. This programme has the potential to bring in the necessary funding within the next two years.
Our other major programme area, The Right To Refuse to Kill, completed its fourth year and secured funding for the next three years, thanks to staffperson Andreas Speck. Kat Barton, a Quaker Peace and Social Witness peaceworker, joined us for a year last September, and has worked on a number of projects in this programme.
Dealing with the Past Programme, which had been staffed by Roberta Bacic who had decided to leave after 6 years, will no longer be a staffed programme. However, members of the network continue to work on this issue and resources are posted on the WRI website.
Lyn Bliss continues in her role as Finance and Admin Worker.
Peace News, co-published by WRI for about 10 years, has returned to being a British based publication. To improve our communication with the network and beyond, we have developed The Broken Rifle, which publishes in four languages three times a year.
We have strengthened our Executive Committee and will be bringing on a new Treasurer, as Bart Horeman, who has served us for the past four years, recently resigned.
While WRI is not out of our financial difficulties, we are working on our plan to strengthen our fundraising. A legacy of £50,000 we received in June 2005 will help to achieve this aim.
This coming year is a crucial one for WRI as staff and network. We need to continue on our path to developing a stronger WRI, more capable of promoting the principles of nonviolence and antimilitarism in a world of violence and militarism. The title of our 2006 International conference is a goal we work towards: "Globalising Nonviolence".
The Nonviolence Programme is a new program, but nonviolence is certainly not new to WRI. Along with anti-militarism, the promotion of nonviolence is one of WRI's goals.
At the War Resisters' International Council meeting in Ohrid, Macedonia, in June 2004, it was decide to merge the WRI programmes "Nonviolence and Social Empowerment" and "Globalisation and Militarism" to a new programme call "Nonviolence Programme". The overarching aim of the Nonviolence Programme is to strengthen and deepen our understanding of nonviolence, nonviolent strategies, and nonviolent campaigning, and to develop and provide tools and support to groups using nonviolence.
The Program will have three main areas:
Nonviolence Resources Develop and distribution of resources on nonviolence and nonviolent strategies for use by the WRI network and the wider movement. Such resources include a handbook for nonviolent action, a collection of case studies of nonviolent campaign, nonviolence training and campaign development materials.
Nonviolence for Change Networking with groups interested in using nonviolence for social change, coordinating workshops at gatherings such as Social Forums, making WRI's resources available to grassroots activists doing antimilitarist and globalisation from below campaigns.
A Nonviolent Campaign Against War Profiteers Development of resources for WRI's war profiteering campaign. Networking with WRI affiliates working on such campaigns, supporting and coordinating nonviolent campaigns against war profiteers.
The first step is reviving the Nonviolence Training Working Group in order to work on the Nonviolence Handbook. Another activity will be to participate at the Mediterranean Social Forum in June to start looking at how WRI can get involved at the different Socials Forums. This builds on WRI's experience at the European Social Forum in London in October 2004, where WRI and several of its affiliates offered workshops on nonviolence and specific campaigns, co-organised a seminar on the militarisation of Europe, and produced a special bilingual issue of The Broken Rifle especially for the ESF. Two volunteers, Ima Katharina Segunda Drolshagen from Germany, and Pedro Ballesteros from Spain, made this work possible.
For the Campaign Against War Profiteers we are creating a Working Group that will be the place for the network to get involved in the campaign, bringing people together to identify strategies and the resources needed.
WRI Women's Working Group co-organised Asking the Right Questions: Nonviolence Training and Gender, an International Women's Consultation of Trainers with Women's Peacemaker Programme of International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), hosted by International Women's Partnership for Peace and Justice, a Thai-based feminist nonviolence training centre. The consultation took place in Chiang Mai, Thailand, October 3-8, 2004[1]
The consultation succeeded in bringing some 35 trainers from a wide variety of movements from 22 countries. The women shared their experiences as trainers in areas such as community economics, women's empowerment, fundraising, preparing for nonviolence direct action, strategy development, children's rights, anti-trafficking, including strategies for working with specific communities, such as lesbians and gays, media workers, youth rural communities.
Questions such as how to develop strategies for working with young people, with illiterate communities, and strategies for building women's leadership in movements that are currently dominated by men, as well as how to work with men on gender issues were discussed. The last day was spent on how we exchange and create resources. Requests included exercises showing the importance of considering gender in nonviolent trainings for men and women, videos or DVDs that show exercises on gender and nonviolence, and handbooks on training techniques for peace education. The follow-up will be an integrated part of the Nonviolence Programme.
The Right to Refuse to Kill project completed its fourth year at the end of April 2005. War Resisters' International secured funding for three more years (up to end-of-April 2008), with additional funding for work with antimilitarist and conscientious objection groups in Russia.
Andreas Speck visited South Korea in August 2004, to take part in a peace camp organised by one of WRI's Korean partner organisations, Solidarity for Peace and Human Rights (SPR). During the peace camp, he facilitated some session on nonviolence and nonviolent action. The visit was also crucial for the planning of the 2005 seminar and Council meeting in Korea, on the theme "Peace in North-East Asia".
Prisoners for Peace Day 2004 focused on Finland[2]. WRI published a report on Imprisonment of Conscientious Objectors in Finland: Report for the Human Rights Committee in relation to Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights[3], which was positively received by the Human Rights Committee, which took up some of the issues raised by WRI. Andreas Speck visited Finland over 1 December, and met with several parliamentary groups. However, the situation in Finland remains stuck.
International Conscientious Objectors' Day 2005 focused on Greece. In February, WRI published a report on Conscientious objection to military service in Greece: Human Rights shortfalls[4], authored by Kat Barton, WRI's Quaker Peace & Social Witness peaceworker. Kat presented the report to the UN Human Rights Committee in New York in March[5], and the Committee took on board some of WRI's concerns. Presently, preparations are well under way for the international nonviolence training and international action on 15 May in Thessaloniki in Greece.
In September 2004, War Resisters' International launched its new monthly CO-Update e-newsletter[6], with news and updates on conscientious objection. This newsletter fills the gap between co-alerts (alerts on individual cases), and detailed country reports, as it provides information on developments regarding conscientious objection in various countries.
In September 2004, Bart Horeman and Andreas Speck represented War Resisters' International at a regional conference "To Europe Through Conscientious Objection and Civilian Service" in Sarajevo, organised by WRI affiliates Peace Action (Macedonia) and Antiratna Kampanja (Croatia) and by the Campaign for Conscientious Objection (Bosnia & Hercegovina), EBCO Balkans (Serbia), and Nansen Dialogue Center (Montenegro). In the same month, Joanne Sheehan and Andreas Speck travelled to Germany to accept the Friedrich-Siegmund Schultze award, awarded by EAK.
In February, Andreas Speck visited Moscow to take part in a Deserters' Festival, organised by Autonomous Action. He also met with the NGO Coalition for a Democratic Alternative Civilian Service, the Centre for Peacemaking and Community Development, and the House for Peace and Nonviolence in St Petersburg, to discuss future cooperation on work with groups in Russia.
In cooperation with Connection e.V. WRI published a documentation on Conscientious objection and desertion in Eritrea[7], and Abraham Gebreyseus Mehreteab represented WRI at the Commission for Human Rights in Geneva in April 2005[8]. In the same month, War Resisters' International also published a documentation on conscientious objection in Turkey[9], and organised an international delegation to observe the first trial against conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan, who had been arrested on 8 April. Tina Kemler from Germany and Eldad Zion from Israel represented WRI[10].
The Quaker Council on European Affairs (QCEA) launched its report "The Right to Conscientious Objection in Europe: A review of the current situation" at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on 27 April, with Andreas Speck representing WRI. The report is a comprehensive update of WRI's Concodoc World Survey of 1998, albeit only for countries within the Council of Europe. The report can be downloaded in full as PDF file from the website of QCEA. It has also been integrated into War Resisters' International's online version of Refusing to bear arms.
Last year Council meeting was held in Ohrid, Macedonia. WRI, working with local group Peace Action, co-organized the Seminar "Conscientious Objection and Peace", which gathered activists from Macedonia, Serbia & Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia to discuss their experiences as antimilitarists in a region that still deals with the consequences of war. There were workshops and presentations on subjects such as Nonviolence and Globalisation, the Militarisation of Europe and Dealing with a Past of War and Violence.
The conference was followed by a two-day WRI Council Meeting.
The seminar and Council 2005 are co-hosted by several Korean groups. The theme of the seminar is "Peace in North-East Asia", and the joint efforts of our Korean hosts and WRI lead to a hopefully interesting programme for the seminar. Thanks to the excellent work of WRI's QPSW peaceworker Kat Barton and our Korean intern Haran the seminar is well funded - probably the best funded seminar ever in the recent history of WRI. Without their crucial support the seminar would not have been possible.
Three Executive Committee meetings took place during this period: 26th June just after the Council meeting in Macedonia, 13th-14th October in London, prior to the European Social Forum, and 9th-10th April in London. There will be one meeting on the 25th June prior to the Council meeting in Seoul. There have also been two internet chats, the 28th July 2004 and 23rd February 2005.
Majken Jul Sørensen and Oscar Huenchunao were adopted by the Council and have served on the Executive in the period, together with the chair Joanne Sheehan, treasurer Bart Horeman and executive-member Ellen Elster. Bart Horeman, who has served as Treasurer for the past four years, resigned in April and the Executive is now looking for a new treasurer.
"Globalising Nonviolence" is the title of War Resisters' International's next International Conference, which will take place in Germany 23rd-27th of July 2006. Formerly a "Triennial" conference held every 3 years, our International conferences are now every four years. The planning for the conference started in 2004, and many plenaries, theme groups and workshops that will explore the connection between nonviolence and globalisation are being prepared. Some of the questions the conference addresses are: What are the links between economic globalisation and militarism? What are the possibilities for action against corporations making profit of war? How is the military in different parts of the world making use of "outsourcing" and for what reasons? What can we in the peace movement learn from the globalisation from below movement, and how can we contribute with a nonviolent antimilitarist strategy?
The participants will be from the WRI network of pacifist and antimilitarist activists, and from a wider cicle of people involved in social justice and globalisation from below work.
The venue, with both rooms and camping possibilities, is near Paderborn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The Conference will be hosted by our German affiliate - DFG-VK (Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft - Vereinigte KriegsdienstgegnerInnen) - in cooperation with other German affiliates.
The year 2004 ended with a deficit of £32.104,62 which was only partly covered by taking £27.528 from our reserves, leaving a result of 4.576,62 deficit.
On 1-1-2005 WRI's reserves, were estimated to be £67.000. If WRI continues its present policy, at the end of 2006 the reserves will be used up.
The level of income of 2003 could not be maintained. Donations were slightly less than budgeted and the affiliations and sales stayed behind. Among the other income was the EAK Peace price (£3.421,14).
The Right to Refuse to Kill programme received £31.520,40. Besides the main grant from Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (£25.000), smaller sums totalling £6.520,40 were received.
For the Dealing with the Past programme £1.589,52 was received as grants and donations. The aim to receive major funding was not achieved.
Under the new Nonviolence programme income was received for the activities during the European Social Forum (£1262,07).
The income for the seminar in Macedonia were grants (£548,64) and registration fees (£2.011,08).
The WRI office costs mainly consisted mainly of staff and volunteers costs (£12.036,92) and the costs of rent and premises (£12.461,95). The latter were considerably higher than budgeted.
The costs of WRI Network were close to the budget and comprised: staff costs for networking and the costs of meetings of council and executive committee.
The publication costs were £2.696,16 for the Broken Rifle and £4.014,70 for Peace News.
The costs of the RtRtK programme were £27.414,82, and were fully covered by income from fund raising.
The costs of the new Nonviolence programme were £1.324,11.
The costs of the DwtP programme were £11.849,80, and comprised mainly salary costs.
Due to little success in fund raising, the costs of the seminar in Macedonia had to be minimised, which succeeded very well.
In 2004 there were still considerable costs of the 2002 Triennial.
| SUMMARY ACCOUNT | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 |
| budget | budget | account | budget | account | account | account | |
| Income | |||||||
| WRI Network (affiliations & sales) | 8,000 | 8,000 | 6,201.93 | 8,500 | 9,629.83 | 9,224.87 | 3,865.88 |
| Donations | 14,000 | 14,000 | 14,739.13 | 17,500 | 24,324.80 | 18,463.14 | 41,460.32 |
| WRI Project fundraising | 38,760 | 35,270 | 34,371.99 | 40,000 | 36,531.89 | 28,005.54 | 46,477.45 |
| Seminar & Triennial fundraising | 0 | 16,100 | 2,559.72 | 0 | 6,811.38 | 39,872.25 | 8,236.52 |
| Other income | 2,000 | 2,000 | 5,364.29 | 4,000 | 3,157.63 | 3,030.08 | 4,325.42 |
| taken from WRI Reserves | 26,500 | 26,500 | 27,528.00 | 18,000 | 32,000.00 | 49,500.00 | 25,000.00 |
| Total | 89,260 | 101,870 | 90,765.06 | 88,000 | 112,455.53 | 148,095.88 | 129,365.59 |
| Expense | |||||||
| Central Office | 25,740 | 26,045 | 31,044.00 | 28,300 | 40,617.11 | 32,094.24 | 28,880.71 |
| WRI Network | 6,000 | 6,000 | 13,307.42 | 13,100 | 8,845.50 | 9,233.28 | 19,020.25 |
| WRI Projects | 54,760 | 51,270 | 40,818.17 | 37,000 | 44,754.29 | 32,368.78 | 52,810.54 |
| Seminar & Triennial | 0 | 17,900 | 3,461.23 | 0 | 12,371.27 | 87,402.42 | 15,196.67 |
| WRI Publications | 2,000 | 2,000 | 6,710.86 | 6,400 | 4,684.08 | 5,893.18 | 4,649.78 |
| Total | 88,500 | 103,215 | 95,341.68 | 84,800 | 111,272.25 | 166,991.90 | 120,557.95 |
| Year Result | 760 | -1,345 | -4,576.62 | 3,200 | 1,183.28 | -18,896.02 | 8,807.64 |
| BALANCE SHEET | 31 Dec 04 | 31 Dec 03 | 31 Dec 02 | 31 Dec 01 |
| Assets | ||||
| Financial agents balances | 1,955.62 | 2,555.08 | 4,911.83 | 11,013.28 |
| Current accounts & cash | 5,473.86 | 3,393.51 | 3,807.17 | 5,590.37 |
| Accounts receivable | 435.80 | 98.85 | 0.00 | 1,352.43 |
| Other current assets | 1,440.00 | 1,891.40 | 1,781.30 | 1,781.30 |
| Fixed assets | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Deposit accounts | 794.60 | 658.89 | 110.79 | 10,604.23 |
| Total | 10,216.39 | 10,678.08 | 10,197.43 | 28,558.41 |
| Liabilities | ||||
| Accounts payable | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | -293.78 |
| Designated funds | 8,618.56 | 2,392.89 | 7,014.54 | 7,014.54 |
| Debts | 5,140.80 | 7,251.54 | 10,347.06 | 14,107.67 |
| Total | 13,759.36 | 9,644.43 | 17,361.60 | 20,828.43 |
| Total Equity | -3,542.97 | 1,033.65 | -7,164.17 | 7,729.98 |
| WRI reserves (held by LHTF) | 67,000.00 | ?? | 82,801.00 | 147,777.00 |
| SUMMARY ACCOUNT | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 |
| budget | budget | account | budget | account | account | account | |
| Income | |||||||
| General income | 24,000 | 24,000 | 26,305.35 | 30,000 | 37,112.26 | 30,718.09 | 49,651.62 |
| Right to Refuse to Kill | 33,760 | 34,270 | 31,520.40 | 30,000 | 34,150.96 | 26,483.25 | 19,428.78 |
| Nonviolence Programme | 5,000 | 1,000 | 1,262.07 | ||||
| Dealing with the past | 0 | 0 | 1,589.52 | 10,000 | 2,380.93 | 512.29 | 0.00 |
| Other projects | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 1,010.00 | 27,048.67 |
| Seminars | 0 | 16,100 | 2,559.72 | 0 | 6,811.38 | 0.00 | 7,721.52 |
| Triennial | pm | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 39,872.25 | 515.00 |
| Total | 62,760 | 75,370 | 63,237.06 | 70,000 | 80,455.53 | 98,595.88 | 104,365.59 |
| Expense | |||||||
| WRI Office | 25,740 | 26,045 | 31,044.00 | 28,300 | 40,617.11 | 32,094.24 | 28,880.71 |
| WRI Network | 6,000 | 6,000 | 13,307.42 | 13,100 | 8,845.50 | 9,233.28 | 19,020.25 |
| Outreach (publications) | 2,000 | 2,000 | 6,710.86 | 6,400 | 4,684.08 | 5,893.18 | 4,649.78 |
| Crisis response | 0 | 0 | 229.44 | 0 | 3,178.77 | 2,805.98 | 1,961.47 |
| Right to Refuse to Kill | 33,760 | 34,270 | 27,414.82 | 27,000 | 29,404.76 | 25,071.54 | 15,022.56 |
| Nonviolence Programme | 21,000 | 17,000 | 1,324.11 | ||||
| Dealing with the past | 0 | 0 | 11,849.80 | 10,000 | 12,170.76 | 1,183.07 | 106.18 |
| Other projects | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 3,308.19 | 35,720.33 |
| Seminars | 0 | 16,200 | 1,627.94 | 0 | 6,811.38 | 222.70 | 496.90 |
| Triennial | pm | 1,700 | 1,833.29 | 0 | 5,559.89 | 87,179.72 | 15,633.79 |
| Total | 88,500 | 103,215 | 95,341.68 | 84,800 | 111,272.25 | 166,991.90 | 121,491.97 |
| Year Result | -25,740 | -27,845 | -32,104.62 | -14,800 | -30,816.72 | -68,396.02 | -17,126.38 |
| taken from WRI Reserves | 26,500 | 26,500 | 27,528.00 | 18,000 | 32,000.00 | 49,500.00 | 25,000.00 |
| Budgeted result | 760 | -1,345 | -4,576.62 | 3,200 | 1,183.28 | -18,896.02 | 7,873.62 |
| taken from WRI funds | 7,014.54 | ||||||
| Final result | 760 | -1,345 | -4,576.62 | 3,200 | 8,197.82 | -18,896.02 | 7,873.62 |
[1]An Issue of WRI Women Newsletter is devoted to the consultation, and is also available on WRI's website: http://wri-irg.org/pubs/ww-200501.htm. A longer report of the consultation is available on the WRI website http://wri-irg.org/books/arq-report.htm at and in print upon request from WRI or IFOR's Women's Peacemakers Programme.
[2] See The Broken Rifle No 64, http://wri-irg.org/pubs/pfp04-en.htm
[3] http://wri-irg.org/news/2004/un-finland04-en.htm
[4] http://wri-irg.org/news/2005/greece05a-en.htm
[5] http://wri-irg.org/pubs/br66-en.htm#Heading2
[6] http://wri-irg.org/pubs/co-update.htm
[7] http://wri-irg.org/news/2005/eritrea-en.htm
[8] http://wri-irg.org/pubs/upd-0505.htm
[9] http://wri-irg.org/news/2005/turkey05-en.htm
[10] http://wri-irg.org/pubs/upd-0505.htm