NonviolenceProgramme

From WRIWiki

War Resisters' International nonviolence programme

Introduction

At the War Resisters' International Council meeting in Ohrid, Macedonia, in June 2004, it was decided to merge the WRI programmes "Nonviolence and Social Empowerment" and "Globalisation and Militarism" to a new programme called "Nonviolence Programme".

The Nonviolence and Social Empowerment Programme goes back to the mid-1990s, and had focused on the Nonviolence and Social Empowerment Study Conference, which took place in Puri, India, in February 2001. At present, the main project in this programme is the Women's Trainers' Consultation, which was held in October 2004 in Thailand. This is a joint project of WRI's Women's Working Group and the International Fellowship of Reconciliation's Women Peacemakers Program.

The Globalisation and Militarism programme goes back to the WRI Triennial Conference in Dublin. One focus was the European Social Forum, which took place in London from 14-17 October 2004.

Both programmes were in the past "network programmes", run entirely by working groups and volunteers, with no or little involvement of central office staff. The Nonviolence and Social Empowerment programme relied on two part-time staff to organise the Nonviolence and Social Empowerment Study Conference. Merging these two programme areas into a staffed position makes a number of new projects possible.