UK Section - WILPF · 2019-02-28 · the Olympics. Our letters to politicians in the main were...

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

Annual Report 2012–2013

UK Section

97th Year

WILPF Annual Report 2012-13 1

UK WILPF Annual Report 2012–2013

Section Report ............................................................ 2-3

International Report .................................................. 4-5

UK’s Universal Periodic Review ....................................6

Membership Report .......................................................7

History Questionnaire ...................................................7

VoAW Report ............................................................... 8-9

SOAS Report ....................................................................9

Finance Reports ..................................................... 10-11

Branch Reports....................................................... 12-19

PRESIDENT Maie El Hag

SECRETARY Anne Scott

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY Sheila Triggs

TREASURER Debbie Payne

WILPF INTERNATIONAL BOARD (IB) Lorraine MirhamMEMBER

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Marie-Claire Faray Jennifer Korty Marie Lyse NumuhozaVICE PRESIDENT-INTERNATIONAL WILPF Martha Jean Baker (ex officio) BRANCH & GROUP REPRESENTATIVES: Ros Brunt (Sheffield), Jenny Engledow (Brighton). Pam Hobson (Orpington), Alexandra Murrell (London) Lizzie Robertson (SOAS)

Officers and Executive Committee nominated for 2013-2014– to be endorsed at the Annual General Meeting 16th March 2013

2 WILPF Annual Report 2012-13

FOR tHOSE of you who may not yet know, Janet Fenton who was nominated as President in March 2012, became ill at the end of June and resigned as President due to ill health at the end of November.

As I write this in January 2013, we approach the cente-nary of the founding of WILPF, yet wars continue all over the world. It feels as though another area of conflict in the world appears almost daily. Women and children contin-ue to suffer as victims of events that they wished to have no part in. WILPF, however, continues to campaign on anti-militarism, human rights, the environment and eco-nomic justice and in linking them all together.

the year started after the election of a new executive to be led by Janet Fenton as President with Rebecca Johnson giving an inspiring AGM seminar on the hu-manitarian consequences of having nuclear weapons.

the next day a small group from the Executive met and discussed the focus of WILPF’s campaigns over the coming year. As you will read in the branch reports each branch took on a slightly different focus to their campaigns and have all been very active, reflecting in the cases of London, trafficking, and Scotland, UNSCR1325, issues of importance to their local commu-nities. In April our President went to Vienna to partici-

Annual Report for 2012-13: Moving forward to WILPF’s centenary

pate in the Preparatory Committee of the Nuclear Non- Proliferation treaty.

We sent three representatives in May to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Human Rights. (See their report on page 6).

In June a group visited RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire to protest at the location of Drones there from autumn 2012. the branch reports show that WILPF’s campaign to challenge militarism has focussed on the use of Drones.

Over the summer we tried unsuccessfully to cam-paign against the siting of missiles in London during the Olympics. Our letters to politicians in the main were unanswered.

the branch reports reflect how throughout the year WILPF members have worked in co-operation with other groups with similar aims to take part in demonstrations, vigils and leafleting on a wide range of issues.

the early autumn saw members working with the SOAS students to maintain the link between SOAS and WILPF with another new intake of students becoming involved.

Later on in the autumn we held our annual Autumn Seminar. We spent the morning learning about how to collect and research our own history, one of the out-

Madeleine Rees, Ros Brunt and Angie Zelter debate their visions for the future at WILPF ‘s Autumn Seminar in London


comes being the production of the WILPF Questionnaire (see page 7). In the afternoon we had workshops on CE-DAW (UN Commission on the Elimination of All Discrimi-nation Against Women), and UN Security Council Reso-lution1325: ‘Women Peace and Security’. A presentation on trafficking by the London branch was followed by a lively and interesting panel discussion led by Madeleine Rees and Angie Zelter who gave different thought pro-voking views about how to achieve a better world in 2015.

throughout the year branches showed the film ‘Whis-tleblower’ which was never on general release in the UK. this film is based on the experiences of Kathryn Bolkovac, a Nebraska cop who served as a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia and outed the UN for covering up a sex trafficking scandal. She was supported by Madeleine Rees, now WILPF General Secretary, who was at that time UN officer for gender issues. Her part is played in the film by Vanessa Redgrave. the film shows were fol-lowed by discussions on trafficking and the role of UN peace keepers.

I regret to say the Executive has not had a successful year. In June our treasurer Soraya Shalek resigned to spend more time on her professional studies. We thank her for her over two years of com-mitted service. As has been said earlier Janet Fenton had to resign because of ill health. then during the year other women became unable to attend the executive meetings due to increased family or work commitments. this made decision making difficult. the final meeting of the year was inquorate due to bad weather preventing women from attending.

We would like to thank mem-bers and branches who give extra

throughout the year, including those not on the Execu-tive who gave generously of their time and expertise.

Looking forward to 2015As our centenary approaches our historians have discov-ered that we lack information about WILPF work in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. If you or your branch have any photographs, minute books etc. can you please contact Helen Kay by emailing: [email protected] subject line WILPF History.

Please use the Questionnaire (see page 7) designed by Valerie Mainstone (Brighton Branch) modified after the discussion at the Autumn Seminar as a prompt for you to write down and record your own reminisces and send them into the UK WILPF office marked History Project or email: [email protected] subject line WILPF History.

An invitation to membersthere is plenty of work to be done. Come and join us. You can get in touch with the office by email. We partic-ularly need women with It skills to update and maintain the website email: [email protected]

Anne Scott Vice President

Thought provoking seminar: Left Marth Jean Baker and Margeret Turner; Right Swedish WILPF member, Agata Szymanska, in discussion after the workshop on CEDAW held at the Autumn Seminar

Anne Scott leads the discussion at a December Connect Day for SOAS students


2012 WAS an eventful year for WILPF, and to that end, my role as IB member mirrored that both in terms of respon-sibilities on the Board and supporting the Section to con-tribute to international campaigns and meetings whilst ensuring our sisters in WILPF across the world are aware of our work here in the UK.

the work started straight away in January to firm up efforts to support a delegation of UK Section members to the UN in Geneva to be present at the UK’s Universal Periodic Review, a UN peer review process which scru-tinises member states’ human rights measures and fail-ings. three women attended and undertook to carry out follow up work for the Section on their return. they were able to learn from our excellent staff and interns at the WILPF office in Geneva whilst contributing to the ad-vocacy during the Review. A day ahead of the Review, which was heard on 24th May 2012, WILPF ran a side event at the Human Rights Council to which Permanent Missions were invited to hear an expert panel including; including Ceri Goddard of the Fawcett Society, Rebecca Johnson of the Acronym Institute and Rebecca Gerome from the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA). the event ‘UPHOLDING HUMAN RIGHtS: the link between security and social economic rights’, moderated by our Secretary General, Madeleine Rees, explored poli-cies being pursued in the UK on defence and security, the arms trade and the economic deficit from a human rights perspective and its gen-dered impact.

Critical issues were addressed such as the development and deployment of nuclear weapons, including costs and humanitarian consequences; the arms trade and protection of civilians; and the importance of en-hancing human rights to fully achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

the UK government, we claimed, has failed to comply with its human rights obligations. For example, we spoke of our deep concern that continuing high expenditure on nuclear and military equipment, including trident, leads to higher cuts in budget alloca-tions to health, education and social services, which dis-proportionately affect women and children here in the UK. WILPF argued that prioritising such military spending over health, education and social needs is to disregard basic principles of state obligation under the Interna-tional Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) see Article 2, “to maximise the use of available resources,” and “without discrimination of any kind.”

Madeleine Rees, explained: “the UK needs to improve its policies that are detrimental to women’s human rights,

peace, security and achievement of the Millennium De-velopment Goals (MDGs) in conflict affected countries as well as UK territory. We want to know what steps the UK Government will take to cut its military expenditure, in particular its expenditure on nuclear weaponry.”

the panel pointed to discussions towards the creation of the Arms trade treaty (Att) which present an impor-tant opportunity to regulate the international trade in conventional arms and ammunition. Of these, it is most often small arms and light weapons (SALW) that are used to facilitate and commit various forms of violence and crimes against women, both during and outside of armed conflict.

Madeleine Rees said: “We want the UK government to comply with its own human rights index on arms exports and cease exporting arms to countries where there are extensive human rights violations. On the one hand the UK has fully committed to the MDGs and has prioritized maternal health as part of its aid package whilst on the other, its arms trade serves to compromise its obligations to fundamental human rights.”

Read the full Summary Notes for Permanent Missions here: http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/images/doc-uments/Resources/HCR/UK-UPRsummarynote.pd

Europe - WILPF coming together in geographic Europe is an important part of WILPF communications and I sup-

ported this in May by attending the WILPF Europe Sections meeting which took place in Brussels.

Several important areas of work, that we can liaise and cooperate on, emerged.

Much of our time in Brussels was spent at the European Parliament where I par-ticipated in a delegation to discuss WILPF concerns with the cabinet of Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Euro-

pean Union for Foreign Affairs and Secu-rity Policy and Vice-President of the European

Commission. We had a wide ranging discussion with her deputy on issues including business and hu-

man rights, drones, cconflict prevention, UNSCR 1325, UNSCR1820, strengthening the UN, EU foreign policy po-sition, the position of women following the Arab Spring, women’s high level participation in peace and security matters and much more.

We also met with Mikael Gustafsson (MG), Chair of the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Commit-tee (FEMME) to discuss a number of matters including women in leadership roles, WILPF’s important role in lobbying MEPs

We heard from Sonia Mitralias feminist activist and member of CADtM Greece (Women and Austerity Greece) and heard her call for a coordinated feminist effort across

IB report: From global to local


Europe against austerity measures. Some WILPF Sections present met specifically to discuss how to work together, particularly WILPF Spain, Italy and Netherlands. the UK Section was requested to become involved given our current political and economic situation.

Jean Lambert, Green MEP London, also attended the Ashton cabinet meeting and we talked about the plight of migrants and the need for EU consideration of the gen-der aspects. We also discussed the root causes of conflict in relation to migration including land grabbing, reduc-tion, property rights and climate change and we were reminded of Jean’s excellent chapter on Women and Mi-gration in the joint WILPF, Greens (Europe) publication, ‘Listen to Women for Change’.

Campaigns are always strengthened if coordinated across the world, joining together our WILPF Sections’ concerns in a global outcry. this years’ 16 Days of Activ-ism Against Violence Against Women was no exception, seeing Sections coming together again to denounce vio-lence in war and at home. For the 16 days of the cam-paign, I posted articles from our international blog, via the branch in Leicester, and Cynthia Cockburn contrib-uted her thoughts as we saw the campaign close in early December. She said,

“When I think about violence against women, peace and war appear to me not as distinctly different mo-ments, but as times that flow into each other. the eve-ryday- everynightness of sexual violence by men against women and children in our peacetime societies makes it inevitable that in times of armed conflict the abuse will multiply and take new forms. training for soldiering in state armed forces and, even more, induction into unof-ficial militias such as the M23 in DR Congo, purposely re-moves any inhibition that male fighters may have against

using violence to impose their will. And after the fighting ends and men return to civilian life, often they have been so brutalized and traumatized in the military that they are even more likely than before to enact violence in their families and elsewhere. It leads me to think in terms of a ‘continuum’ of violence, so that maybe working for the demilitarization and ‘civil-ization’ of society on the one hand, and, on the other, to achieve respect for women, have to be seen as inseparable tasks. If that’s so, then I be-lieve a much more gender-aware engagement of men in peace movements and men’s active support of feminist movements is really important.”

Cross Section work is also an integral part of the IB member role and I have liaised very much during 2012 to gain greater understanding of issues to share our UK perspective on all manner of matters. I co-convene the Environment Working Group to do some of that sharing of information in relation to militarism and its effects on the world’s resources and people, specifically, supporting the effort to get a WILPF delegation to the UN Confer-ence on Sustainable Development, Rio + 20 in June.

Of course we are working toward our centenary in 2015 and I hope many of you will attend. this takes a lot of organising and although I have not been at the heart of this, I have joined the increasingly audible voice asking individuals and indeed branches and the Section to look at ways to support the financial effort to bring at least representation for every WILPF Section, not to mention the cost of staging what will be an amazing event in the Hague. there are so many that simply cannot afford to send members to international meetings and we must do what we can to change this if we are to hear contribu-tions from those Sections and their members.

And the rest, well so much of what WILPF can achieve relies on the balance of, on the one hand, our research, advocacy and lobbying through our Peacewomen and Reaching Critical Will projects and our participation in UN conferences and meetings and on the other, our aware-ness raising, questioning and lobbying in WILPF Sections’ towns and cities and with our own governments. So, thank you to everyone who translated our global WILPF effort to the local and to all those who have contributed to a shared understanding of WILPF’s concerns on the interna-tional stage. Neither could function without the other.

Do contact me direct if you want further information about how to get involved in WILPF, support financially or make contact with WILPF elsewhere in the world and if you want to read minutes from international meet-ings, I will do my best to furnish you with them. In the meantime, I can’t recommend out international web re-sources enough and just to let you know that we will be doing more webinars (online conference that you can join in with), in the future, after a successful first back in the autumn. www.wilpfinternational.org www.peacewomen.org www.reachingcriticalwill.org

Lorraine Mirham, UK IB Member, January 2012

Cynthia Cockburn contributed to Wilpf’s 16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women


INTRODUCTIONthe United Kingdom’s second review was held at the 7th meeting of the 13th session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on May 24th, 2012 at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. the UPR Working Group adopted the report on the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on May 30th, 2012, during its 13th meeting.

the United Kingdom’s delegation was headed by H.E. Lord McNally, Minister of State, Ministry of Justice. He is a Liberal Democrat, and part of the Coalition Government.

the troika for the facilitation of the UK’s UPR was made up of Angola, Indonesia and Norway.

Sixty delegations (countries) participated in the UPR in-teractive dialogue with the UK by making statements.

three members of UK WILPF were facilitated by the WILPF Geneva Office to attend/observe the session: Maie El Hag, Holly Ahom and Jennifer Korty. this report is a result of their experience and subsequent analysis.

SECTION A: UPR RecommendationsLord McNally introduced the UK’s report and began the interactive dialogue by setting the tone with which he ap-proached the process. He summarized his attitude towards current human rights in the UK by pointing out that the world is in the midst of a serious economic crisis, and stat-ing that in order to reduce the deficit and restore economic stability some very difficult decisions have had to be made to reduce public spending. In doing so, the UK had tried to protect the most vulnerable in society.

the UK stated that it was proud of its human rights record but acknowledged that there was always room for improve-ment. the UK reaffirmed its long-standing commitment to advancing human rights both at home and internationally. Lord McNally identified that the UK’s aim for the second UPR cycle is to further strengthen this unique mechanism, thus preserving its universality and constructive spirit. He stated that the UK believes it is for states to lead the way in establishing best practice and that government hoped to work with others to achieve this. the Government stated that they had consulted broadly with civil society in all four nations of the UK. From a WILPF perspective, the UK’s tone and attitude towards the UPR, while potentially initially frustrating, does offer op-portunities for further dialogue. This is especially true of Lord McNally’s comment about trying to protect the most vulner-able in society while making cuts. If this is the line that Her

Extract from a detailed report compiled by Maie El Hag, Holly Ahom, Jennifer Korty and submitted to UK WILPF’s Executive

Majesty’s Government is taking, and is an identified end goal, then it can be adopted by Civil Society and WILPF campaigns.

OVERALL ANALYSISOverall impact: Despite the fact that none of the delega-tions directly brought up the questions that WILPF as a Civil Society Organisation had proposed, the fact that recom-mendations were made by WILPF is positive as it spreads awareness of the connections between human rights and militarisation. WILPF presented a holistic message, rather than one that is piecemeal by individual concern. Over all, this UPR offers WILPF a multitude of opportunities and in-lets with which to proceed. Furthermore, the sentiment ex-pressed by Lord McNally in the after event is optimistic, in that he seems to not only be taking the process seriously, but revealed forthcoming the construction of a systematic and structured UPR process in the UK that will include Civil Society. Tone of Recommendations: Generally, the way in which women are addressed in the recommendations is satisfac-tory, if not profound. Women are addressed as individuals, and gender is addressed as an issue of concern in its own right. this being said, recommendations given to other States Under Review, such as Finland, tended to address gender more holistically.

the one problem with the tone of the recommendations is that many still frame women as victims, although it is heartening to see many delegations not do this, as wellWhat’s Missing: With the exception of Uzbekistan, no countries brought up the issue of weapons. Concepts of militarization were addressed, but only in the context of children and torture. Nothing was said about nuclear arms or nuclear power. What’s Exciting to See: there is a lot more about gender in this UPR than the last one. Also, there are direct tie-ins to the concepts of economics and budgeting.

SOMETHING PARTICULARLY REMARKABLEthere was little recognition of the political issues that were presented at the WILPF side event e.g. link between secu-rity and social economic rights. the following things were missing from the UPR recommentations: the linkage be-tween the financial crisis, women, and public spending; exposure of the explicit ways in which aid is married to the arms trade; exposure of the real ways military expenditure compromises women.

Report on the UK’s Universal Periodic Review


New groups help increase membership

our long-standing members have died, others have moved outside the country, and a few are cutting back on their subscriptions. We are, how-ever, disappointed to end the year to have 30 fewer members than we had in December 2011.

Developing new WILPF groups is a way of increasing the impact of our campaigns and growing our mem-bership. Dedicated members have started to work to build a cluster of members in the Greater Manches-ter area into an active group. We are also pursuing the potential to build some WILPF activities among mem-bers in the South London area

this year we have re-established a

tHE UK WILPF membership at the end of December 2012 totalled 243. this includes 31 new members re-cruited during the year by branches and across the country, as a result of outreach events and stalls.

Several branches developed their own WILPF campaigns in 2012 as can be seen in their branch reports.

An informed estimate of work in branches and across the country shows that nearly 40 per cent of our members are actively participating in campaigning on one way or an-other. this includes writing letters to MPs and ministers and joining local and national campaigns.

In the course of 2012 several of

strong Student Group at the School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS), London University. In December we put on a “Connect Day” at the request of the SOAS students to give them an induction into the work of WILPF at all levels. they have good plans for campaigning throughout the rest of the academic year.

the proportion of the membership paying their subscription by stand-ing order is increasing all the time and now it is not far from being half the membership. this is a great help with the process or getting women to renew membership each year.

Sheila Triggs

Name _______________________________________________________________________________________

Address _____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________

tel. No. _______________________ Email address __________________________________________________

Questionnaire for WILPF Centenary Reminiscences

Please regard these questions as prompts to inspire your writing. They are not intended to be prescriptive! We hope you will enjoy sharing your memories with each other. What you write will be a unique record, of great value to WILPF and to the women who come after you.

n Did you grow up in an environment of campaigning or activism of any kind, or not? Where did you live? Who did you live with? Were there any people in your life who inspired your ideas as a youngster?

n What is your earliest memory of campaigning or activism of any kind? Did you witness any events? Did you participate in any events? How did you feel at that time? Can you describe your experiences?

n Do you have memories of campaigning or activism of any kind in the 1930s? 1940s? 1950s? 1960s? 1970s? 1980s? 1990s? 2000s? Who are the people you remember from those days?

n When did you first hear of WILPF? When did you become a member? What does being a member of WILPF mean to you? Which WILPF activities have meant most to you, and why?

n thinking about being a member of WILPF today, what is it you most value? Which activities do you most enjoy? Which do you consider to be most effective?

n Is there anything you think WILPF could be doing, or should be doing now? How do you think WILPF should develop in the future? Do you think it will still exist in a hundred years’ time?

Send your reminisences to UK WILPF office marked History Project or email them to: [email protected] subject line WILPF History.


Women from 13 African states now active in VoAW campaignsAFtER FOUR years of work, UK WILPF’s Voices of African Women (VoAW) campaign now enjoys the participation of women from Nigeria, Guinea, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Angola, Chad, Ivory Coast, Somalia, Eritrea and Kenya. Most of these women are already leaders of women’s groups in their own com-munities.

the VoAW Campaign enables them to come together with other activist African women, share information and problems in their home coun-tries and within their communities in the UK, and plan joint activities, train-ing and actions.

throughout 2012 VoAW has con-tinued to hold periodic meetings with Maie El-Hag coordinating the campaign for most of the year and Holly Ahom providing support.

the group has received training to act as legal observers for members of the public involved in public demon-

strations and pickets. Members, par-ticularly Marie-Claire Faray, have fa-cilitated and given training on inter-national legal frameworks, and issues around Violence Against Women, for African women in their own commu-nity groups; such as the one organ-ised for Sudanese women under the leadership of Dr Mariam Suleman.

the highlight of this year was the work that VoAW has been able to do with the Somali women from differ-ent parts of the country, to raise the voices of Somali women.

WILPF member, Dahabo Ahmed of the VoAW brought together several Somali women on the 23rd February to discuss the London Conference on Somalia that took place in London, organised by the Foreign Office with international heads of states about the situation of Somalia.

As the Somali women had ex-pressed their dissatisfaction at being excluded from probably the most important meeting in recent years

pertaining to Somalia, it was decid-ed that representatives of the ‘Voice of Somali Women’ will draft a letter of complaint, disappointment and expectations to be sent to the FCO, PM, and other key departments and ministers.

UK WILPF’s VoAW campaign pro-vided assistance in editing the letter that was sent to the officials organiz-ing the event.

this packed VoAW meeting also planned the launch of the Voices of Somali Women Network which brought together six different es-tablished Somalian women’s groups working in the UK and in Somalia. VoAW was able to facilitate this event which took place at SOAS in the University of London on March 30th.

VoAW has worked closely with Make Every Woman Count (MEWC) this year, and facilitated two work-shops designed for African women. MEWC is the initiative of WILPF mem-ber and one-time intern at WILPF’s

Above: Marie-Claire Faray speaks to women from Sudan at a training meeting.


Women from 13 African states now active in VoAW campaigns

Reclaim the Night: a chance to engage students & membersthe society enthusiastically ad-vertised the march with flyers and emails. A group of around 10-15 of us gathered near Embankment tube station on Saturday November 24th to set off on the march. It was a won-derful evening despite the rain! the ladies in the society and those who had chosen to join us not only felt empowered but for many of them it was their first time taking part in a march of any kind.

Whistleblower Screening with Madeleine Rees: focussing on traffickingAt the beginning of the year before the society had really kicked off we had discussed with Holly Ember Ahom about the possibility of or-ganising a screening at SOAS pos-sibly with Madeleine Rees. After a lot of hard work and many ups and downs the event is taking place on

Peace Women project in New York, Rainatou Sow.

MEWC is a vibrant and in-formative website which showcases the positive achievements of African wom-en; and provides an Annual report of African countries’ achievements towards the goals of the African Women’s Decade.

On October 31st VoAW joined with MEWC to mark the second year of the African Women’s Decade, and the twelfth year of UN Security Council Resolution 1325.

this was another impressive even-ing at SOAS where among other pres-entations, Marie Lyse Numuhoza out-lined the work of WILPF and the VoAW campaign.

At the end of the year the coor-dinating group of VoAW met with our active member and founder of Sudanese Mothers for Peace, Mama Khadiga Hussein, to discuss a peace project she planned to undertake

in Sudan. Mama Khadiga’s initiative in-

volves collecting the signatures of women across Sudan to a simple peace plea to govern-ment and opposition.

Due to the political and con-flict situation in Sudan this work could not be made public until Mama Khadiga had received a letter from the President allow-ing her and other women to start to travel across Sudan. We are currently looking for fund-ing for this vital peace work.

In February 2012, during a VoAW meeting, Holly Ahom made a special presentation about rights of women in Nigeria and gender perspective on the political and socio-economic situation of Nigeria.

Marie-Claire Faray,

Dahabo Ahmed (left) of UKWILPF VoAW with other Somalian Women

Wednesday 6th February 4-7pm at SOAS.

We hope that this event will intro-duce students and members of the public to issues surrounding human trafficking and in particular the situ-ation in Bosnia at the time. We also hope that students at SOAS or those more attuned to the criminal activ-ity of human trafficking will gain a different perspective and insight into this issue from the event.

It is also great to have such a high profile event at SOAS in order to in-crease student awareness of who we are as a society and boost member-ship for next year.

Vagina Monologues: getting in-volved with V-DayFebruary 14th marks V Day, a global

movement to end violence against women and girls.

We decided as a society that we would like to put on a performance of the Vagina Monologues in sup-

port of this. Unfortunately, 14th Feb falls during the Reading Week at SOAS so the event will be held on March 1st.

Seven monologues will be read, some women choosing to write their own. We hope it will be a fun and frivolous way to raise awareness of worthy causes and show solidari-ty with the other ‘one billion women rising’.

Million Women Rise: the final flingDue to Easter holidays, exams and then long summer holidays, this will be our last event of the year.

We are hoping to mobilise as many members and external participants as possible to increase the WILPF presence. It will hopefully be a suc-cessful day to finish off a year of hard work and leave everyone motivated to continue doing more to end vio-lence against women near and far.

Lizzie Robertson

Report from enthusiastic SOAS-WILPF student society


Treasurer’s report and explanations: Audited Accounts for 2012

UK SECTION WOMENS INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED

31ST DECEMBER 2012

MAIN ACCOUNt

2011(£) INCOME 2012 (£) 4,323.46 Membership Subscriptions 4,215.00 1,466.91 Donations 2,996.91 300.00 Grants** 1,910.50 1,391.10 Collections – Congress 2011 inc. our reps 519.36 Reimbursement registration fees Congress 813.04 Meetings and Seminars 408.38 344.00 Sales t-shirts 669.50 251.26 Sales other items (books, leaflets, badges etc.) 578.00 55.00 Refunded by London WILPF for hire of rooms 3.61 Current Account interest: Main Account 5.61 11.84 Deposit Account Interest: triodos 10.84

9,479.58 Totals 10,794.74

EXPENDITURE 327.00 Donations & Affiliations 351.99 861.36 UK travel 880.65 2,269.73 UK Meetings and Seminars (Note 4) 1,597.84 1,485.18 Postage, Stationery & Printing 1,248.60 Campaigns (not previously separately analysed) 1,105.87 208.68 Website & Internet & phone 198.08 2,931.23* International travel Congress 480.34 International travel Conference 309.75 5,153.37 Geneva Payments - Section fees 4,190.94 649.21* Congress Reistration fees 989.00* Donations for Congress (travel fund) 230.40 Purchases of t-shirts 403.80 42.00 Purchases of other items (books, badges etc.) 490.94 Stalls at events 75.00 Return of grant** 500.00 36.00 Subs returned/unpaid cheques & Bank charges 20.00

15,663.50 Totals 11,373.46

* 2011 was a Congress year. ** 2012: A grant from Lipman Miliband for £500.00 had to be returned because the illness of Janet Fenton meant that the project could not proceed.

6,183.92 EXCESS OF EXPENDITURE OVER INCOME 578.72

Our finances are in a slightly healthier condi-tion than last year, with the overall shortfall of expenditure over income reduced by half com-pared to 2011. However, we are in part reliant upon the cushion provided by our reserve ac-count, down to £6,324.64 as at 31.12.12. Ways of keeping down our expenditure and increasing our income are constantly under review.

One notable difference was that 2011 was a “Congress” year, and so in 2012 we did not have the extra expenditure on travel and accommo-dation. the next Congress is not until 2015, our centenary year, but we will need to plan ahead for this.

there were welcome improvements this year in certain areas. Some success was achieved with fundraising, and we are pursuing various avenues in 2013. Our sales of t-shirts and other items also increased, as a result of our taking the opportunity to hold more outreach stalls at local and national events.

Special thanks are due to all those who have made donations to WILPF, so that the donations in 2012 for both the Main Account and the Office Account amounted to £4,397.91. this is more than the total subscriptions of £4,215.00. Some donations were made in memoriam for those who have passed away, and also some of our branches made donations to central funds. to all, a big thank you.

there is also a WILPF charitable trust for human rights work. Donations to WILPF trust by those who pay income tax can be gift aided. However, donations to the trust do not cover running expenses or the Section Fees payable to WILPF International, so we need donations to go into our Main Account and the Office Account.

Members who have not already done so can help our finances by setting up Standing Orders. We now have nearly half our membership paying their subscriptions in this way. A small amount monthly from a number of members of say £2/3 really helps both our total finances, and our cash flow. Forms were sent out with the mailing in November/December, but further copies are available from the office.

In conclusion, we made some financial progress in 2012 and we aim to carry this forward in 2013. Our campaigning work depends on financial re-sources being available.

Finance Group January 2013


2011 (£) ASSETS 2012 (£) CURRENT ACCOUNTS 3,409.78 Co-operative Bank Main Account 4,084.12 (290.80) Add uncleared credit 445.30 3,118.98 4,529.42 4,529.42 3,052.73 Co-operative Bank Office Account 870.69 Less uncleared debit (445.30) 425.39 425.39

RESERVE ACCOUNT 8,313.80 triodos Bank 6,324.64

14,485.51 TOTAL 11,279.45

REPRESENTED BY: Surplus at 1 January 2012 14,485.51 Less: Main Account excess expenditure (578.72) Less Office Account excess expenditure (2,627.34)

11,279.45

UK SECTION WOMENS INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM

BALANCE SHEEt AS At 31 DECEMBER 2012

UK SECTION WOMENS INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOMINCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR THE

YEAR ENDED 31ST DECEMBER 2012

OFFICE ACCOUNt

2011 (£) INCOME 2012 ( £) 0.00 Grants 0.00 2,470.00 Individual donations 525.00 628.00 Standing Order/Regular donations 876.00 720.00 Payment from WILPF trust 360.00 2.78 Interest 1.90

3,820.78 Totals 1,762.90

EXPENDITURE 3,157.50 Licence fee, i.e. “Rent” 3,309.00 Computer repairs & supplies 120.00 315.76 Phone 216.91 445.30 Insurance 445.30 910.00 Volunteer expenses 269.00 34.32 Electrical check 30.03 12.00 Bank charge for stopped cheque 4,874.88 Totals 4,390.24 1,054.10 EXCESS OF EXPENDITURE OVER INCOME: 2,627.34


News from the branches…

ing, home stay hosting and enter-taining guest speakers. We thank the Finnish WILPF section for contacting a speaker, Anne Palm, who spoke on Human Security, International Mediation Plan and NGO/Government co-operation.

In April Janet Fenton Convenor of WILPF Scottish Branch attended the Nonuclear Non-Proliferation treaty talks in Vienna. Prior to her going the branch raised funds to assist with the costs.

On 28 May several WILPF women attended a UNA seminar on the Helsinki conference for a Middle East Free of Nuclear Weapons and weapons of Mass Destruction.

Janet Fenton facilitated one of the sessions and Rebecca Johnson another WILPF member summed up the conclusions of the facilitated sessions and has since drafted the message to be sent to Finland from the event. this includes specific mention of UNSCR 1325, support for a nuclear weapons convention and the catastrophic humanitar-ian consequences of nuclear weap-ons and the particular and dispro-portionate effect on women and children.

Over the summer branch mem-bers continued to work with EPI, Scotland’s for Peace, participated in vigils and events organised by two likeminded organisations, Edinburgh CND for Hiroshima Day and trident Ploughshares for Nagaski Day.

through working with the UN Association via the EPI we were able to start renting a desk in UN House – so the Scottish branch now has a new base.

trident Ploughshares took the lead to form a No to NAtO coali-

2012 SAW many changes and new areas of work for the branch.

In January 2012 along with many other civil society organisations working in the area of peace and human rights we were invited to join the newly formed Edinburgh Peace Initiative (EPI). Members joined the planning group and at-tended the first EPI conference in Saturday 20th of October attend-ing ‘Peace Building and Conflict Resolution’.

Our on-going activity is educating members of the Scottish Parliament on UNSCR 1325.

to assist in that work, via WILPF International, we received a grant from the Norwegian Government. this paid for amongst other things a professionally produced leaf-let which has been distributed to all Scottish Parliament MSPs and Westminster MPs which has been praised for both layout and content.

the grant in addition paid for a branch ‘pop-up’ banner which is helping to raise our profile at events.

A three-year development plan for our 1325 campaign has been drawn up and we held a single item agenda meeting in September 2012 on the plan and future work. those working on the 1325 campaign meet regularly together out with branch meetings. All branch meet-ings from September 2012 were held at Engender, 1A, Haddington Place, Edinburgh our new venue for meetings which continue to be the second Monday of each month un-less this is a public holiday.

WILPF members attended ‘Alternative Security, the small na-tion contribution‘ March 23rd: Seminar at the Scottish parliament – called by Scotland’s for Peace with contributions from Scottish Branch of WILPF in the organis-

Scottish WILPF members demolish Trident – in the form of a cake

Scotland continues the campaign on 1325 through another full and active year


tion in response to an attempt by Angus Robertson MP via a Scottish National Party (SNP) Conference motion to reverse current SNP pol-icy that if Scotland achieves inde-pendence we leave NAtO and get rid of trident.

the branch joined the coalition and have continued to participate in the No to NAtO coalition due to the reversal of this longstanding SNP policy.

the 6th to 17th of October saw the Edinburgh World Justice Festival EWJF taking place. WILPF literature was on a stall at the main venue throughout the festival

Our October branch meeting was a business meeting. Afterwards members attended the EWJF event ‘Drones and new nukes: Video games morph into state terror’. the anti-drones petition was circulated and participants were asked to contact their MPs to ask them to sign Early Day Motion 436.

Other EWJF events attended by

Scottish branch banner – with thanks to the Norwegian government and International WILPF

members were Shakti Women’s Aid (a black and ethnic minority wom-en refuge), an Engender presenta-tion on Immigration and Asylum processes, a discussion on whether the UN Refugee Convention is fit for purpose and the Forces watch presentation on ‘Questioning the Military Presence in Schools’. Many people forget that Edinburgh is a ‘garrison’ town with troops based both at the castle and Redford bar-racks and has three areas of social deprivation where the military tar-get their recruitment.

On the day of action on depleted uranium WILPF members joined women from Edinburgh CND and Women in Black to leaflet about the devastating effect the use of depleted uranium weapons has on the health of women and children.

From early autumn Helen and Anne worked on preparing the UKWILPF Autumn Seminar. In ad-dition Helen spoke at a UNA wom-en’s lunch on WILPF and 1325 and

also provided a page on Chrystal McMillan for the WEA Women’s Forum calendar ‘Let there be Light’ inspiring women who advanced the course of education in Scotland.

the year ended with the Scottish Branch calling a vigil attended by others on 10th December, Human Rights Day. this was in support of the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers two Million Friends for Peace in Afghanistan.

this has been a very busy year for us. We changed the venue for our branch meeting and where we operate from and, since the end of June, we have been without Janet Fenton, Scottish branch Convenor and before her resignation UK WILPF national president, due to ill health. We have missed her energy and enthusiasm.

the political scene is changing rapidly in Scotland and we suspect that we will have a very busy year ahead of us.

Anne Scott



WE HAVE continued our pattern of periodic meetings, social events and stalls, with regular Updates circulat-ed to all members and supporters.

Women Power and Politicsthis Day Conference in March at Wortley Hall, the trade union hotel and conference centre was run by the S. Yorks. National Assembly of Women and ourselves.

A presentation by Ann Munsey and Pat Peters on “Witches” described how women who were healers, herbalists, the “wise women” pass-ing on their knowledge and working together were seen as a threat and were demonised.

If things went wrong it was always their fault - they were blamed for the Plague and the Fire of London. they stood trial for crop failures droughts or floods by being bound to a duck-ing chair and thrown in the pond. If they floated they were guilty and

were burned. If they sank they were innocent - but drowned anyway.

Angela Smith MP for Penistone & Stocksbridge spoke about how dif-ficult it is for women in Parliament, especially those with small children. there is a very macho culture and women are still much underrepre-sented. She had just attended the unveiling of a plaque in memory of Adele Pankhurst by the first woman Master Cutler in Sheffield.

Megan Drobny, Regional Secretary, S.E. Region tUC, said that the first women’s tU was in 1875. Currently women’s representation on the tUC is 48%. 70% of working women are not organised, although some un-ions are recruiting more women. the proportion of women in USDAW has increased by 17%.

Martha Jean Baker, speaking as a WILPF International Vice President, outlined the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and how it

has been strengthened by further resolutions. All member states now have to draw up and implement a National Action Plan.

Martha spoke about the European Women’s Lobby, where she repre-sents WILPF on the board. Each EU member state has a representative on the EWL which is funded by the European Commission and other sources. Most members work hard to raise women’s concerns with MEPs and the Commission. the EWL is pushing the 50:50 campaign to get equal representation for women as public representatives.

Linda McAvan MEP talked about the positive EU laws which ben-efit women in particular - on equal pay in principle, the Working time Directive and securing equal rights for agency workers. She was asked why the EU was not stronger in its condemnation of the Israeli oppres-sion of the Palestinians, and replied that the EU, as an organisation of different member states, finds it dif-ficult to take a collective view on for-eign policy issues. Asked about how Europe would cope with an influx of climate refugees she admitted that there was no willingness to cooper-ate on burden sharing.

‘The Spirit Level’Sheila triggs came to our April meet-ing and gave a presentation on ‘the Spirit Level – why more equal socie-ties always do better’. the ideas be-hind this ground-breaking book are inspiring a growing awareness of the effects of the inequalities in so-ciety. It has led many local authori-ties to set up a ‘Fairness Commission’. Sheffield has completed a wide rang-ing consultation in which WILPF has

Sheffield organise regular meetings, stalls and enjoyable social events

Enjoying the sun at our summer tea paty


Promoting WILP at the Gren Fair

participated. the Commission is due to complete its report and plans for action shortly.

The Nuclear Power debateIn May we held a joint meeting with S. Yorks. NAW, when Lydia Meryll (NAW and WILPF), who is a long standing campaigner against nuclear power, talked about her visit to Japan to see the legacy of Fukushima, which has had a disproportionate impact on women, and also caused a renewed opposition to nuclear power.

WILPF’s 97th. BirthdayIn June we celebrated this (rather be-latedly) by holding an Afternoon tea Party at Nicki Farmery’s flat, when we commemorated our founding in 1915 and wore 1915-style hats. We also had a sale of seccondhnad books and clothing for WILPF funds.

Sheffield Green FairOur stall at this annual event, held in June featured action against Drones. We got 50 letters signed which were

sent to the Secretary of State for Defence and gave out leaflets and a briefing. We also sold t shirts and more books.

Summer Tea Party this was held in early September at Rosalie Huzzard’ Home. this was well supported by members and friends who enjoyed a quiz - “Are you a Feminist?” afternoon tea and the usual bring and buy stall.

The WhistleblowerOur big autumn event was in October, when we showed “the Whistleblower” film. It was run with the support of Amnesty and was very well attended.

We made several new contacts and decided to follow it up with a further meeting in November.

Peace & Craft FairOur stall this year again featured the Drones issue, where we ran a petition and sold books and bric-a-brac. this event always gives us a good oppor-

tunity for useful networking.

Human TraffickingAt this follow up meeting to ‘the Whistleblower’ we heard from two speakers with contrasting ways of working against trafficking. Rachel Mullen Feroze talked about her work on the ground in Sheffield with street prostitutes and abused women refu-gees and asylum seekers. Diane Brace gave us an account of the year-long campaign by London WILPF, their research, advocacy and public ac-tion. As a result, we are now in con-tact with Sheffield Soroptimists, who have much in common with WILPF on the issue of violence against women. We are planning a joint action later this year, hosting a ‘Gift Box’ – a walk-in box in a public space, with a prettily decorated outside and a very unattractive inside, it symbol-ises the rosy picture painted by the traffickers and the ugly reality then faced by their victims.

Quaker AppealAfter a presentation by Margaret Lawson, Sheffield Quakers raised over £100 for the WILPF trust. We are very grateful for this support.

Christmas celebrationOur final get-together of the year was a party hosted by sisters Faith Rodger and Margaret Lawson, where they produced some delicious food and drink.

Sheffield Women’s NetworkWe are now in this informal organi-sation, set up and run by the City Council, which networks between various women’s groups and facili-tates their different events. Being on the mailing list has put us in touch with a wide range of other women’s groups and we hope this will prove a help to us in the future

Looking aheadWe continue to find it difficult to re-cruit enough active members to run the branch, but are still making plans for a busy year in 2013, ready to face its challenges and opportunities.

Rosalie Huzzard, Sheffield


News from the branches…Brighton & Hove members take part in local and national campaignsOUR YEAR began with the Annual General Meeting at which we had a speaker from Amnesty International. Although many of our members are also in AI it was interesting to hear about their current involvements and how the local group works, with a bit about their history thrown in. the speaker was very good and enthusi-astic and we will continue to make a great effort to work together when-ever we have the chance.

We had a showing of the ‘Whistleblower’ at our Co-operative store in Hove at which our members joined in a discussion afterwards led by Gail Judd, our chairwoman. We had invited other groups such as Amnesty and United Nations Association but sadly none of them attended. It may be that we will try another showing this year in a more central location with greater public-ity beforehand.

In the spring there was a march

through Brighton called ‘the March for England’ which was in fact a mix of groups wearing the English flag and trying to tough out the overwhelm-ing number of us the anti-fascists, including some WILPF women. We lined the streets of their proposed walk, which forced them to choose a shorter and less prominent route and they ended up kettled by the police with all of us forming a ring around the outside. they would have had a good clear message of ‘racists not wanted here’.

We held our Hiroshima Ceremony in a local park and had our WILPF member Dr. Rebecca Johnson from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and the Vice President of CND to speak. Ros Cook also a local member and Co-ordinator of the Criminality of Nuclear Weapons Campaign and Leon Moore chair of the Brighton and Hove United Nations Association, and the

local mayor spoke as well. We heard a thought provoking poem written and read by the author, a WILPF member Connie Fraser. Around 50 people at-tended this event.

We were invited by some university lecturers to join several people from various groups who have become dismayed and angered by the rise of fascism in Europe.

they had come up with the idea of recreating in cloth Picasso’s paint-ing entitled ‘Guernica’ but using some current images. this work is in progress and it is hoped there will be a big launch when it is completed later this year. It will be a large banner that can be carried by several people, measuring about 15 feet across.

At our fundraising garden party we had Sheila triggs to talk about drones and the effect they have on people whom they fly over continuously and about the many people who have been killed by them, who often do not get mentioned or acknowledged. It seems that these pilot-less planes are very much the way for the future, as they pose no immediate risk to the military people flying them. It was a very inspiring talk with lots of infor-mation and pointed the way for fur-ther action and from which a letter was written which eventually went to all members for them to sign and send as it was written or as a basis for their own letter.

On the International Day of Peace several of us WILPF women joined with people from other groups at the Peace Statue on the chilly seafront in Hove to mark the day. two of our members spoke about WILPF and what peace means to them and work that is being done to achieve it.

On the last day of the 16 days of ac-tion to end violence against women WILPF Brighton Branch enjoy a Christmas fundraising lunch last December


Brighton Branch members raising their banners for the One Billion Rising Campaign

we had a stall in our favourite Co-operative store and had a good re-ception. We handed out relevant leaf-lets and chatted with people about the subject and about WILPF. Some women left their names in order to be contacted and we received some generous donations.

In December we had our fundrais-ing Christmas lunch and the speaker was another WILPF member who has been at the forefront in the campaign

to get Shaker Aamer released from Guantanimo prison. We heard how he has been held for nearly 11 years without charge and how his health is poor and his family, who live in the UK, are being destroyed without him. Our government have asked for him to be released to Saudi Arabia but his family would not be allowed to join him there, a deplorable situation.

the 10th December, Human Rights Day, we had a vigil and candlelit walk

from the pier in Brighton to the Peace Statue in Hove with quite a wide ranging group of people number-ing about 50. this was in support of the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers two Million Friends for Peace in Afghanistan.

We are pleased to say that during the year we have recruited four new members. .

A busy year!Jenny Engledow, Brighton.

SADLY WILPF lost a loyal member when Joan died at the age of 97. Several of us attended her Memorial meeting on 23rd May and we learned about Joan’s early years from members of her family. Clearly she had lived her life to the full right to the end, with the devoted support of her family.

I write this short tribute to Joan as a fellow member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She was an active and loyal member for over 25 years and she will be sadly missed. I recall Joan supporting all our activities from acting as Branch Secretary when I first joined WILPF, and I particularly recall her attendance at the WILPF International Conference held in London a few years ago, and her participating in a social activity when she sang “On a Clear Day”.

Joan was a true internationalist and made many friends among the overseas students who stayed in

her home.Apart from WILPF she and her husband had been

active in the peace movement for many years. Her husband was a Conscientious Objector during the last war and with a colleague edited a paper “Peace News”. Joan was not an observer but an activist in all that she was interested in. She was a leading light in the Spiritualist Church and travelled to many overseas conferences until recent years. Joan was also a committed vegetarian and a believer in homeopathic medicine.

She was a popular member of the choir, Hullabaloo, and the choir sang at her memorial meeting.

While feeling sadness at her being no longer with us, except no doubt in spirit, it is good to know that she did not suffer a long and painful illness and enjoyed life to the end.

Molly Beirne

Remembering Joan Walton



ORPINGtON BRANCH has continued to organise a mixture of activities including meetings with speakers, discussions, social events, outreach, and not least, campaigning.

the speakers covered a wide range of national and international topics, including experiences in Palestine (Rosemary Addington), Somalia (Deqa Salit), the treaty of Waitangi regarding New Zealand (Enid Bates), Whistleblowing in the Care Sector in the UK (Eileen Chubb), and the pos-sibility of a Nuclear Free Middle East (Sheila triggs).

UK WILPF member Maie El-Hag reported on the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, where the UK government was subject to the Universal Periodic Review of its hu-man rights record these topics often generated very lively discussions!

the ‘Whistleblower’ film was shown at a central venue in Orpington as a public event, and attracted non-members. this was publicised quite

Demonstrating against drones at RAF Waddington

stalls in the High Street.Orpington members joined in

events both nationally and locally, including the Peace One Day event in Bromley, and the tUC national demonstration against the cuts.

Our members are involved in local issues, such as the train transport of nuclear material in our area.

At the end of the year, WILPF International called for action with-in national Sections concerning Israel’s decision to suspend co-op-eration with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and to send no delegation to the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council.

On behalf of the branch letters were sent to different government agencies. We received a letter from the Clerk to the Foreign Affairs Committee that our letter was be-ing circulated to all members of the Committee.

Pat Pleasance, Orpington

Orpington members campaign on a wide range of national and international issues

widely, including giving out leaflets at a stall in the High Street. We gen-erated interest in WILPF and recruit-ed a new member as a result.

Some of our campaigning activity this year focused on the subject of drones: unmanned aircraft operated at a considerable distance, which have resulted in civilian deaths on a number of occasions.

this subject was featured in a talk by Sheila triggs at our annual Garden Party in July, and publicised at a stall in Orpington High Street, where we also had a petition and a letter to MPs.

In June four of our members went with WILPF to RAF Waddington, where drones will soon be located, and gave out leaflets and engaged with the public in the City of Lincoln.

We produced a leaflet and a let-ter to Lord Coe about the exploita-tion connected with the Olympic Games, and this too was given out to the public from one of our


SOAS students joind London’s Reclaim the Night demo

News from the branches…London branch discusses details and complexities of human trafficking LONDON WILPF has spent almost a year discussing the different aspects of trafficking, this work has lead to a number of achievements by the active members.

these include Alex Murrell raising awareness with the Chinese Community Centre in Soho which deals with trafficked women in particular.

She has also summed up a number of recommenda-tions to Greater London Authority (GLA) from recent po-lice reports in particular the Acumen report.

Martha Jean Baker has worked with the European Womens Lobby and raised awareness among Romanian women, who are considering setting up Romanian WILPF.

Priscilla Nyathi works with police in Southend and has spoken to United Nations Association meeting and GLA about particular cases. She has raised concerns about lack of training for border agency staff at smaller airports such as Southend.

Diane Brace has attended meetings with the trafficking monitoring group and has assisted with the report writ-ing. She has liaised with police who are responsible for the protection of vulnerable people. Both Alex and Diane attended Stop the traffick events and handed out leaf-lets to people in the street to invite them to read gift box stories.

Jane Grant ensured we had the dialogue with Len Duvall GLA member for Greenwich. Jane has also helped with re-port reading and highlighting.

Catherine Plugyers set up a meeting in June at London Resource Centre which brought in members from London WILPF and UNA.

Our conclusions are that WILPF should produce post-cards to send to MPs, and MEPS, about having a commis-sioner in every EU country to be responsible for traffick-ing matters and ensure that all the relevant people are working collaborately.

In addition to our activities in discussing the atrocities and the ways to reduce human trafficking we have con-tributed to other activities. We have been working closely with United Nations Associations in London to highlight the concerns about trafficking.

London WILPF also attended Hiroshima Day.

Student activities In September we helped to set up student group at SOAS which is currently very active. We will be doing a joint event with SOAS students to show the film ‘Whistleblower‘ and discuss the themes from the film; the way the United Nations peacekeeping forces are run, the ease with which women are trafficked for sexual exploitation, and how to work internationally.

We have been invited to take part in a seminar on traf-ficking, on February 27 at Royal Holloway University at Egham in Surrey.

History Project We have arranged to meet at Diane’s house to interview some of our older members and record their memories of WILPF and other peace activities. We hope this contribu-tion is part of UK WILPF’s ongoing history project that was outlined at the autumn seminar.

Antimilitarism Some of our members regularly attend the Wednesday evening vigils against militarism and war run by Women in Black. We have been concerned about missiles that were part of the London landscape during the Olympics. We have also been in touch with our MPs about drones and the destruction they cause.

Ultimately the London group consists of about 5-10 ac-tive members and thus it has been hard to plan ahead as people are very busy with other activities. the other dif-ficulty we face are costs of travel, as members under 62 may find it expensive to travel by bus or tube to meetings. the economic situation has had an effect on WILPF mem-bers being focused on daily life.

Alexandra Murrell, London

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

52/54 Featherstone Street, London, EC1Y 8RT

email: [email protected]

website: www.ukwilpf.org.ukwww.facebook.com/ukwilpf@ukwilpf

UK Section - WILPF · 2019-02-28 · the Olympics. Our letters to politicians in the main were...

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