This weekend was one of the first times in the last few years that multiple branches of Nonviolence International across its decentralized network were present at the same event. Representatives from NI New York, DC, and Canada were all in attendance, as well as the NI sponsored groups Control Arms and the International Action Network on Small Arms, at the 2018 Humanitarian Disarmament Conference held in New York City.
The conference, held in the United Nations Church Center, was attended by many international leaders of civil society and discussed the current global agenda of various NGO’s, campaigns, and international groups. Some of the groups that were present besides for NI were PAX, Cluster Munitions Campaign, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Human Rights Watch. A few of the topics discussed were the Convention on Cluster Munitions, the Arms Trade Treaty, the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, how to raise affected community voices to the nation states and UN, how to help those impacted by these weapons, and how to move these campaigns in the United Nations,
Pictured here is some of the NI team that was at the conference. From left to right: Joshua Kirshbaum, director of NI NY, Yeshua Moser Puangsuwan, director of NI Canada, Fatema Basouny, DC liaison to our NY office, Michael Beer, director of NI DC, Ryan Flynn, academic intern with NI DC, and David Kirshbaum, advocacy adviser and UN representative for NI. This year’s conference was Ryan’s first taste of the global interconnectedness of international NGOs and he said his biggest take away from the weekend event was learning how much work truly goes into every protest, movement, and campaign and how civil society accumulates everything together outside of normal government action in order to create advantageous change for society.