Kate Dewes Ph.D. O.N.Z.M (Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit) directed the South Island Regional Office of the Aotearoa/New Zealand Peace Foundation from her home in Christchurch for nearly 20 years. She has co-directed the Disarmament and Security Centre for another 20 years. She taught Peace Studies from 1986-1997 and from 1999-2006 part time at the University of Canterbury. Between 1988-90, and again from 2000-2007, she served on the Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control. From 1992-96, she was an International Peace Bureau (IPB) Executive member, and a Vice President from 1997-2003. In 2007 she was appointed to the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters for 5 years. A pioneer of the World Court Project (WCP) - an international campaign by a network of citizen organisations which led to a legal challenge to nuclear deterrence in the International Court of Justice - she was on its International Steering Committee from 1992-96. Her doctoral thesis documents the evolution and impact of the WCP. She co-authored Aotearoa/New Zealand at the World Court with her husband Robert Green and they have published several articles and chapters on the WCP. She has been a member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (Aotearoa) for over 40 years. Kate was the New Zealand government expert on the United Nations Study on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Education from 2000-2002. She was the main instigator in the successful adoption of the proposal to have Christchurch declared New Zealand's first Peace City in July 2002. She received the Paul Harris Award from Rotary International in 2010 and the inaugural Annie Cook Centennial Award from Hamilton Girls' High School in 2011.
Robert Green, Commander, Royal Navy (Retired), served in the British Royal Navy from 1962-82. As a Fleet Air Arm Observer (Navigator), he flew in Buccaneer carrier-borne nuclear strike aircraft (1968-72), then in anti-submarine helicopters equipped with nuclear depth-bombs (1972-77). On promotion to Commander, he spent 1978-80 in the Ministry of Defence in London as Personal Staff Officer to the Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Policy), an Admiral who was closely involved in recommending the replacement for the Polaris nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine force. In his final job, he was Staff Officer (Intelligence) to Commander-in-Chief Fleet at Northwood HQ near London, in charge of round-the-clock intelligence support for Polaris as well as the rest of the Fleet. Having taken voluntary redundancy in 1981, he was released after the Falklands War.
Mrs Thatcher's decision to replace Polaris with Trident was one reason he left the Royal Navy. The murder of his aunt Hilda Murrell, an anti-nuclear energy campaigner in 1984, led him to challenge the hazards of nuclear electricity generation. The break-up of the Soviet Union followed by the Gulf War caused him to speak out against nuclear weapons. In 1991 he became Chair of the UK branch of the World Court Project (WCP), an international campaign by a network of citizen organisations which led to a legal challenge to nuclear deterrence in the International Court of Justice in 1996. As a member of the WCP International Steering Committee, he met Kate Dewes. After they were married in 1997, he emigrated to New Zealand in 1999, and in 2001 became a New Zealand citizen. As Co-Director of the Peace Foundation’s Disarmament & Security Centre, he is using his military experience to promote alternative thinking about security and disarmament. The author of several books, his latest is A Thorn in Their Side: The Hilda Murrell Murder (2013). In 2014 he updated Security Without Nuclear Deterrence, and he has written many related articles. He received the Paul Harris Fellowship Award from Rotary International in 2010. In 2017, Robert gave a TEDx Talk on "the insanity of nuclear deterrence".
Pauline Tangiora J.P., Q.S.O., Q.S.M., is a Maori elder from the Rongomaiwahine Tribe on the East Coast of the North Island of Aotearoa/New Zealand. She also has affiliations to many other tribes. She is a Justice of the Peace, a former President and currently Vice President of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Aotearoa, the former Regional Women's Representative for the World Council for Indigenous Peoples and a former Earth Charter Commissioner. She is currently an Ambassador to the Earth Council International, an Ambassador to the 13 International Indigenous Grandmothers' Council and a member of the World Futures Council. She is a life member of the Maori Women's Welfare League and a Patroness of the Peace Foundation. She has represented Aotearoa at many international fora and was a Consultant to the International Steering Committee of the World Court Project. In 2017 she was awarded the International Bremen Peace Award in Germany, and in 2018 she was the recipient of the Wisdom Fellowship Award in the U.S.
A recent interview with Pauline Tangiora is available here.
An oral history interview with Pauline Tangiora is available here
A recent podcast with Pauline Tangiora is available here.