Structure
Staff
WRI has a small office in London, UK, with a team of staff who work on different programmes of work alongside our affiliated organisations, and deal with the network's administration and finances. You can use the contact page to get in touch with them.
Andrew works on the Nonviolence Programme, which develops resources and organises training in nonviolent social change, with a specific focus on resisting "war profiteers". Andrew is involved in the anti-nuclear and anti-arms trade movements in the UK, and studied Politics and Peace Studies at the University of Bradford.
Email: andrew@wri-irg.org
Executive Committee
WRI's Executive Committee is made up of 5 or 6 people, elected from the Council, and manages day-to-day affairs more. The Executive Committee works in close collaboration with the WRI staff team. They meet several times a year in person, and via Skype.
Subhash Chandra Kattel, from Nepal, is the Country Coordinator of Friends Peace Teams Asia West Pacific, Chairperson of Child Welfare Nepal, and part of a number of other peace/nonviolence/social justice groups. He is one of the initiators of Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) in Nepal in 2008. He is a training facilitator in cultures of peace and nonviolence. He continues to be part of the largest nonviolent social movement in Nepal for land and agrarian reform. Subhash has been a member of WRI Council since 2014, and a member of WRI Executive Committee since August 2019.
Dr. Sergeiy Sandler is the Treasurer of War Resisters' International, and of New Profile in Israel. He has been active in the peace movement - both in Israel and within the WRI network - for many years. He is a conscientious objector and a long-time activist in the Israeli feminist antimilitarist movement New Profile.
Igor Seke is a conscientious objector from Serbia and Mexico, based in Mexico City. He has been a member of WRI Council since 2014, and a member of WRI's Right to Refuse to Kill committee for more than a decade. Igor is also a member of the Antimilitarist Network of Latin America and the Caribbean (RAMALC). More recently, he is particularly active in non-violence campaigning and supporting the indigenous communities in peaceful resistance. In the past, he was also involved in campaigning against the militarisation of youth. During his years as a WRI member, Igor Seke has contributed to various WRI publications and campaigns. Igor Seke is part of WRI Executive Committee since August 2019.
Hülya Üçpinar is a human rights lawyer from Turkey, and has a long track record of campaigning for the right to conscientious objection in Turkey. She is a member of the Conscientious Objection Association in Turkey, and one of the co-founders of the Nonviolent Education and Research Centre, based in Istanbul. Hulya Ucpinar has been a member of WRI Council and WRI Executive Committee since 2014.
Koldobi Velasco, from Canary Islands, Spain, has been a member of Alternativa Antimilitarista.Moc (AA.Moc) since 1991. As part of her activism, Koldobi has been involved in multiple campaigns, including tax objection to military spending, campaigning against war profiteering, and promoting peace education and culture of nonviolence. Koldobi Velasco has been part of WRI Executive Committee since August 2019.
Individual Council Members
Albert Beale is a physics teacher who became a peace movement journalist (including many years as a Peace News editor). His militant pacifism is intimately linked to his atheism and his unconditional opposition to nationalism; he has been active in the WRI and in its British affiliate, the Peace Pledge Union (PPU), since the 1970s. He currently edits an international database of peace organisations, and is active (locally and nationally) on issues including housing, transport, sexual politics, free speech, cycling, and privatisation. His campaigning experience ranges from legal actions to direct action. He is a trustee of the building housing WRI's offices.
Jungmin Choi is the coordinator of nonviolence trainings at 'World Without War', a South Korean organisation based in Seoul that supports conscientious objectors and takes action against the arms trade.
Moses Monday John is member of the council of the War Resisters' International (WRI). He serves as co-chair of the Pan African Nonviolence and Peace-building Network (PANPEN). Mr. John is a founding member and current Executive Director of the Organization for Nonviolence and Development (ONAD) in South Sudan. He has more than 15 years’ experience in planning, designing and facilitating nonviolence and peacebuilding trainings in African and Europe. He is an associate lecturer in conflict management at the School of Public Service, University of Juba. He holds Master of Arts in peace and development studies from the Centre for Peace.
Subhash Chandra Kattel, from Nepal, is the Country Coordinator of Friends Peace Teams Asia West Pacific, Chairperson of Child Welfare Nepal, and part of a number of other peace/nonviolence/social justice groups. He is one of the initiators of Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) in Nepal in 2008. He is a training facilitator in cultures of peace and nonviolence. He continues to be part of the largest nonviolent social movement in Nepal for land and agrarian reform. Subhash has been a member of WRI Council since 2014, and a member of WRI Executive Committee since August 2019.
Rosa Moiwend is a human rights activist, campaigner, community organiser, and educator from West Papua. Since 2008, she has been actively involved in the Pacific Nonviolence Network. As a Malind Anim woman, she is also part of the campaign against MIFEE, the planned food and palm oil plantation in Merauke (the south) Papua. She has been involved in helping support the development of Indonesian solidarity with West Papua, firstly through NAPAS then later FRI-WP, the Indonesian People's Front for West Papua. Since 2013 she has been actively building solidarity in the Pacific region and supported the development as well as an active member of the Wansolwara movement and Youngsolwara movement. Since 2018 until now she is part of the core group developing an anti-militarist campaign to nonviolently disrupt and ultimately stop foreign government support for the Indonesian police and military who are occupying West Papua. Inside the country, she is helping to strengthen the capacity of the nonviolent resistance movement through training, education, action research, and supporting local initiatives, including developing an Indigenous women's movement. Rosa Moiwend has been an individual member of WRI Council since August 2019.
Julián Ovalle, born in Colombia, is a conscientious objector to mandatory military service and to the Army reserve, since 2005. He is a founding member of the Collective Action of Conscientious Objectors - ACOOC (2006-2015), and current active participant of the Latin American and Caribbean Antimilitarist Network (RAMALC). His antimilitarist commitment has been focused on contributing to the recognition of the right to conscientious objection to military service and to denounce and transform militarism in the cultural sphere. He has contributed to the construction of political advocacy strategies (legislative lobby in Colombia, human rights organizations of the United Nations system, among others) as well as communication strategies.
Marcela Paz is an antimilitarist, anarchist, and feminist conscientious objector from Chile. Her current activism focuses on the resistance against extractivism, the militarization of territories and everyday life. Marcela is part of the Latin American and Caribbean Antimilitarist Network (RAMALC). She has lived and involved in peace and antimilitarist campaigns in multiple Latin American countries. She likes to travel a lot, to know other places, to inhabit new geographies, to know different cultures, to ride a bicycle, to recycle, to knit and to practice Taichi.
Sarah works for the Belgian anti-militarist organisation Agir Pour la Paix (Action for Peace) as an activist trainer and campaigner. She supports activists to take action against Belgium's complicity in conflict through its arms sales to countries like Saudi Arabia and the US nuclear weapons stocked at a Belgian military base. Agir Pour la Paix also campaigns against the militarisation of the EU and its borders, and the role the arms industry lobby plays in this.
Before moving to Belgium, Sarah was very involved in anti-arms trade campaigning in the UK as an activist and then working for Campaign Against Arms Trade as Training and Events Coordinator. She helped to set up the Stop the Arms Fair coalition to shut down the DSEI arms fair. She is passionate about how militarism intersects with other issues such as climate change, policing and detention, and borders; and tries to support and strengthen links between different groups and movements.
Igor Seke is a conscientious objector from Serbia and Mexico, based in Mexico City. He has been a member of WRI Council since 2014, and a member of WRI's Right to Refuse to Kill committee for more than a decade. Igor is also a member of the Antimilitarist Network of Latin America and the Caribbean (RAMALC). More recently, he is particularly active in non-violence campaigning and supporting the indigenous communities in peaceful resistance. In the past, he was also involved in campaigning against the militarisation of youth. During his years as a WRI member, Igor Seke has contributed to various WRI publications and campaigns. Igor Seke is part of WRI Executive Committee since August 2019.
Hülya Üçpinar is a human rights lawyer from Turkey, and has a long track record of campaigning for the right to conscientious objection in Turkey. She is a member of the Conscientious Objection Association in Turkey, and one of the co-founders of the Nonviolent Education and Research Centre, based in Istanbul. Hulya Ucpinar has been a member of WRI Council and WRI Executive Committee since 2014.
Koldobi Velasco, from Canary Islands, Spain, has been a member of Alternativa Antimilitarista.Moc (AA.Moc) since 1991. As part of her activism, Koldobi has been involved in multiple campaigns, including tax objection to military spending, campaigning against war profiteering, and promoting peace education and culture of nonviolence. Koldobi Velasco has been part of WRI Executive Committee since August 2019.
Tuuli Vuori, 31, is peace activist and communications professional living in Helsinki, Finland. She got involved in Finnish peace movement about 17 years ago in Jyväskylä, Finland. She took part in Finnish Union of Conscientious Objectors (AKL), both as a board member and chairperson. With AKL, she has campaigned against conscription on different levels, including organising various grassroot level events and international activities, as well as representing AKL in governmental committees. Currently, she works as a Communications and Advocacy Specialist for Peace Union of Finland, which is an umbrella organisation for Finnish peace organisations. She is campaigning on different disarmament issues, including nuclear disarmament, ban on killer robots and against arms trade. She has been participating in WRI activities since 2009 and elected to be an individual member of WRI Council in August 2019.