#NoWar2025 Speakers
Reem Abbas
Reem Abbas is a Sudanese writer, journalist and feminist activist. Reem is part of the women’s movement in Sudan as a former member of the coordination committee at Sudanese Women in Civic and Political Groups (MANSAM). She hosted the Mobilising Men for Feminist Peace Podcast at the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and is the co-author of “Undoing resistance: authoritarianism and attacks on the Arts in Sudan’s 30 years of Islamist rule.”
Ray Acheson
Ray Acheson (they/them) is an organizer, activist, and writer. They are Director of Reaching Critical Will, the disarmament program of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), the world's oldest feminist peace organization. They served from 2008–2024 on the steering group of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its work to ban nuclear weapons. Ray provides analysis and advocacy at the United Nations on matters of nuclear disarmament, autonomous weapons, the arms trade, military spending, and more. They promote feminist, queer, and anti-imperialist approaches to end weapons and war, and work to connect transnational and local efforts to abolish militarism, the carceral system, borders, and other forms of state violence.
Ray is author of Banning the Bomb, Smashing the Patriarchy (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021), which offers a first-hand account about the work of activists and diplomats to outlaw nuclear weapons. They are also author of Abolishing State Violence: A World Beyond Bombs, Borders, and Cages (Haymarket Books, 2022), which explores connections between police, prisons, surveillance, borders, war, nuclear weapons, and capitalism and highlights ongoing organizing efforts for their abolition. They write a column at CounterPunch called Abolition Everywhere.
Ray has an Honours BA in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Toronto and an MA in Politics from The New School for Social Research. They are currently a Visiting Researcher at Princeton University's Program on Science and Global Security. As part of their work with the Program, Ray has published a working paper Notes on Nuclear Weapons and Intersectionality in Theory and Practice, helped develop a curriculum resources project to counter racism and other structural discrimination in teaching and research on nuclear issues, and participated in a social impact campaign for the VR experience On the Morning You Wake (To the End of the World).
B. Arneson
B. Arneson is an organizer and doctoral researcher in Human Geography at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on how formerly incarcerated men care for one another in Boston, Massachusetts. Previously, she served as Program Director at the World Peace Foundation (WPF) at Tufts University, where she led research on mass incarceration and the global arms trade. She continues to collaborate with WPF and Colby College on a project examining the criminalization of care. Her forthcoming book chapter, developed through this collaboration, grapples with the complexities of caring for a brother who has caused serious harm.
Jorge Barrientos
Jorge Barrientos is a Professor and Associate Researcher of Contemporary History at the University of Costa Rica. He is a member of the Ibn Khaldum Chair of Middle Eastern and North African Studies. Jorge has a PhD in Global History, MA in Central American History, and BA in Social Studies.
Hajera Begum
Hajera Begum is an activist who has campaigned around issues of anti-racism, state repression and Palestine. She organised with Abolitionist Futures, a collaboration of community organisers and activists in the UK and Ireland who are working together to build a future without prisons, police and punishment. She has written articles on policing and co-developed educational programmes on the history of anti-racism organising, South Asian Internationalism and Prevent.
Dr Alison Broinowski, AM, FAIIA
Alison Broinowski is a Member of the Board of Directors of World BEYOND War. She is based in Australia. Broinowski was an Australian diplomat until 1996. Her last overseas assignment was at the Australian Mission to the UN in New York. Her PhD is in Asian Studies at ANU. She has written or edited 14 books and many articles on Australia’s interface with Asia, with the United Nations, and the world. Four of her latest books are About Face: Asian Accounts of Australia (2003), Howard’s War (2003), Allied and Addicted (2007), and with David Stephens, The Honest History Book (2017). She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs and of the Australian Academy of Humanities, and is Vice President of Australians for War Powers Reform.
Desmond Cole
Desmond Cole is a journalist, activist and author based in Toronto. His work focuses on struggles against state violence, particularly local policing. Desmond was a columnist at the Toronto Star from late 2015 to early 2017, where he wrote about politics, class, policing, and anti-Black racism. He has produced works for live news radio, podcasts, magazines, newspapers, and a documentary film. Desmond’s 2020 best-selling book, The Skin We're In, A Year of Black Resistance and Power, received national acclaim and won the 2020 Toronto Book Award, which honours books of literary merit that are inspired by the city.
Dana Dajani
Dana Dajani is an award-winning Palestinian-American actress, poet, and presenter whose work bridges performance, activism, and the cinematic arts. Her voice has resonated with global audiences from the Sydney Opera House to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, and beyond. As a performance poet, Dana blends gesture, character, and verse to deliver one-woman pieces that tackle themes of justice, identity, and belonging. Her unique fusion of poetry and theatre has earned her numerous accolades, including “Artist of the Year” by Emirates Woman and the “Young Arab Award for Entertainment”. Beyond performance, Dana is a dedicated educator and humanitarian who designs programs for creative development and social change, reflecting a deep commitment to justice and imagination.
Connie Fontaine
Connie Fontaine, Community Holistic Circle Healing (CHCH) at Hollow Water First Nation (HWFN).
The Community Holistic Circle Healing (CHCH) approach in HWFN is a restorative justice model that was developed as a means of reclaiming and restoring inherent responsibility to one another as Anishinaabe people.
The restorative justice model embraced by CHCH is one that views crime as a disruption in well-being. An individual is seen as being out of balance with themselves, others and life; whether it be physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually. This imbalance is viewed as the causative factor in crime.
In addressing imbalance CHCH emphasizes individual and community responsibility during the entire intervention process.
A key objective of CHCH is to ensure offenders and victims avenues of concern are addressed in a manner that is applicable and culturally appropriate to the needs of the offender, victims and community.
Rachelle Friesen
Rachelle Friesen is a settler currently living in Tkaronto/Toronto. Rachelle is the coordinator for the Turtle Island Solidarity Network that focuses on Indigenous solidarity. Prior to working with CPT, Rachelle spent 5 years in Palestine doing peace work. She is also a member of the Toronto Legal Support Committee which supports people arrested for taking part in the moment. Rachelle has a passion and background in nonviolent direct action, decolonization, and local peacemaking.
Shirley Gunn
Shirley Gunn graduated with a B Soc Sci SW at UCT in 1981 at the University of Cape Town (UCT). In the following year Shirley was recruited into the political underground of the African National Congress (ANC) to resist apartheid while actively involved in the mass democratic struggle for decent housing and as a trade unionist organizing women workers in the clothing industry.
In 1985, she was recruited into the military underground structures of the ANC, Umkhonto Wesizwe (MK), and received military training inside the country and in Cuba and Angola 1986/1987. Shirley returned to co-command the Ashley Kriel Detachment.
She testified to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission in August 1997 to a special women’s hearing, both Shirley and her infant son were found to be victims of gross human rights violations having been tortured by apartheid security forces in custody.
Since 1998, Shirley has been an active campaigner of the rights of victims and has worked closely with survivors through the Human Rights Media Centre (HRMC) she founded in 2000, an NGO that promotes awareness and activism about human rights through narrative history projects, media, education and social interventions.
HRMC and Khulumani Support Group in the Western Cape co-created an award-winning multimedia art and memory travelling exhibition that campaigns for redress and reparations for victims of apartheid-era atrocities. Both HRMC and KSG are founding organisations of the South African Coalition for Transitional Justice (SACTJ). Shirley serves as the Executive Director of the HRMC and the SACTJ.
In March 2024, Shirley was awarded an honorary doctorate in Social Science by UCT for her life’s work.
Sami Huraini
Sami Huraini is a Palestinian human rights defender from the village of At‑Tuwani in Masafer Yatta, South Hebron Hills, West Bank. Sami is a co‑founder of Youth of Sumud and a board member of the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee (PSCC). Along with his sister Sameeha Huraini, he is a recipient of the 2021 Front Line Defenders Award (MENA region).
Syed Hussan
Syed Hussan is the Executive Director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change and a member of the Migrant Rights Network Secretariat. The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change is Canada’s largest membership-based organization comprising over 30,000 migrants, ranging from farmworkers and domestic workers to migrant students and undocumented people.
Hussan has spent over 15 years building power and winning change for migrants including pioneering Canada’s first Sanctuary City policy, coordinating hunger strike actions in immigration detention, and influencing changes in medical inadmissibility laws. He is a regular news commentator and adjunct professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. Hussan has also been involved in the FreeGrassy campaign, supporting Grassy Narrows First Nations in their fight for mercury justice, and he co-founded RememberJan29 to combat anti-Muslim hatred after the Quebec City mass shooting in 2017.
Ilyari
Ilyari is a Peruvian-Dutch singer-songwriter based in Ecuador. Her "world music" project blends traditional Peruvian and Ecuadorian genres with hip hop and electronic elements. Through rhythms like Andean Huayno, Afro-peruvian festejo and Amazonian cumbia, she bridges the past and present, transmitting the essence of these cultures to modern audiences. Coming from a family of artists and activists, her music reflects a strong social and cultural commitment, celebrating identity, memory, social struggles, gender equity, and environmental awareness. A multiple award-winning composer, Ilyari has performed at Ecuador’s major festivals and theaters. She was recently invited to represent Ecuador at EXIB MUSIC 2023 in Europe, and has just released her new album "¿Por Qué No?".
El Jones
El Jones is a spoken word poet, an educator, journalist, and a community activist living in African Nova Scotia. She was the fifth Poet Laureate of Halifax. In 2016, El was a recipient of the Burnley “Rocky” Jones human rights award for her community work and work in prison justice. She is a co-founder of the Black Power Hour, a live radio show with incarcerated people. El served as the 15th Nancy’s Chair of Women’s Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University for the 2017-2019 term. Her book of spoken word poetry, Live from the Afrikan Resistance! was published in 2014. El was an Atlantic Journalism Award winner in 2018. El would like to pay tribute to the many nameless and unrecognized women whose work makes it possible for her to be here today.
Kathy Kelly
Kathy Kelly has been President of the Board of World BEYOND War since March 2022, prior to which time she served as a member of the Advisory Board. She is based in the United States, but is often elsewhere. Kathy’s efforts to end wars have led her to living in war zones and prisons over the past 35 years. In 2009 and 2010, Kathy was part of two Voices for Creative Nonviolence delegations which visited Pakistan to learn more about the consequences of U.S. drone attacks. From 2010 – 2019, the group organized dozens of delegations to visit Afghanistan, where they continued learning about casualties of U.S. drone attacks. Voices also helped organize protests at U.S. military bases operating weaponized drone attacks. She is now a co-coordinator of the Ban Killer Drones campaign and the Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal.
Sharmeen Khan
Sharmeen Khan is a South Asian feminist and socialist with three decades of experience in movements and activist media. She organizes with the Toronto World BEYOND War chapter, No One Is Illegal-Toronto, and is an editor for Upping the Anti: A Journal of Theory and Action. She is also involved with movement training through the European activist org ULEX.
Amelia Kirby
Amelia Kirby is the director of the Sycamore Project, an initiative of the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky focused on reducing reliance on the prison industrial complex. She has a twenty five-year career in Appalachian social justice, working as an activist, cultural worker, and entrepreneur. As a media producer at community media center Appalshop, she co-founded and co-directed the nationally recognized Thousand Kites and Calls from Home media projects addressing the prison industrial complex, and the documentary film Up the Ridge. In addition to her work as a media producer, Amelia served as the development director at the Appalachian Citizens' Law Center, a non-profit law firm providing free legal work for people impacted by the extraction industries of the Appalachian coalfields and was the co-owner of Summit City Lounge, an experimental community space and live music venue in the coalfields community of Whitesburg, KY. She has served on a variety of regional and national boards, including the Highlander Research and Education Center and the Appalachian Community Fund.
Tabitha Lean
Tabitha Lean is a First Nations prisoner activist, Mad survivor, abolitionist and storyteller whose work is grounded in her lived experience of criminal and psychiatric incarceration. A disruptor and trouble maker, Tabitha uses poetry, art, and narrative to expose and resist the violence of the colonial carceral state. Her activism is rooted in collective care, community accountability, and the belief that no one is disposable. Living and creating at the margins, she channels her experiences into a powerful refusal of systems of punishment and control — always with love, always in resistance.
Elias Lyman
Elias Lyman joined World BEYOND War last year as an organizing intern, and he has worked at Madison College to launch a student chapter of World BEYOND War there. The chapter has shown films, had planning meetings, and in spring of 2025 hosted a major event at the college with their US Congressperson Mark Pocan and other antiwar community organizations. The goal of the group is to organize students and work towards war abolition.
Tarek Maassarani
Tarek Maassarani has been a member of the DC Peace Team for nearly two decades, combining a passion for training and facilitation of group processes with a love for the DC community. His experience in the field of peacebuilding more broadly includes developing and implementing restorative justice diversion and school-based initiatives, cross-border encounter programs, gang intervention efforts, interfaith projects, as well as mediation and dialogue in the U.S. and internationally. Tarek has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in conflict resolution. He holds a Master's in International Affairs from Columbia University's School for International and Public Affairs and a J.D. from Georgetown University, as well as a B.S. in Environmental Studies and B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Omar Mboob
Omar Mboob is a youth leader and activist, and Coordinator of the World BEYOND War chapter in Gambia. He is passionate for advocating SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) and is a specialist in youth development and social justice. Omar is a Youth Development African Award Nominee 2023, Founder of Gambia Youth Leadership Activist Advocacy (GYLAA), and National Coordinator for African Youth Leadership Hub Gambia Chapter. He is Head of Advocacy for Equal Trade Alliance Gambia, TAWER AFRICA Ambassador.
Estefania Gomez Mejia
Estefania Gomez Mejia, born in Bogotá, Colombia, is an activist for peace and against war. She is the Coordinator of the World BEYOND War Bogotá Chapter. She has participated in various solidarity initiatives to oppose the war against Palestine. She has also developed activities in feminist movements in Colombia. She is a defender of the environment and raises awareness about the impact of war and its consequences on climate change. Estefania is also an artist.
Natividad Llanquileo Pilquimán
Natividad Llanquileo Pilquimán is a Mapuche woman and lawyer by profession, from the Esteban Yevilao Mapuche community in Chile. She belongs to the Southern Research and Defense Center and the Nor Fen Educational Space.
Irvin Pineda
Irvin Pineda is the Chapter Coordinator for the World BEYOND War El Salvador Chapter. From a very young age, Irvin became interested in working with young people, so he joined Pioneros El Salvador, where he actively participated in projects for the benefit of young people and the local community. With his energy and leadership, he joins efforts with other groups and volunteers in different parts of the country, in the areas of education and local development. He has studies in areas such as Political Economy, Gender, Environment, Human Rights, Political Systems, Public Management, Transparency and Anti-Corruption. In every space where he has worked, he has had the firm certainty that a peaceful world is possible, so every step, every task undertaken is aimed at building a better world for everyone, those who are here and those to come, where there is social justice, equality and freedom from war.
Brianna Olson Pitawanakwat
Brianna Olson Pitawanakwat is an Anishinaabekwe, Indigiqueer and member of Wiikwemkoong Unceded First Nation. As an Indigenous Birthworker, jingle dress dancer, artisan and radical educator, she is committed to principles of Indigenous Liberation and self determination. Her journey as a Birthworker began on the prairies where she practiced Harm Reduction and perinatal outreach for over a decade. She holds an undergrad degree from University of Victoria social work program and has a masters in social work from university of Toronto with a trauma specialization. She currently co leads Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction and Native Arts Society, both 2spirit/Queer/Trans led initiatives.
Andrea J. Ritchie
Andrea J. Ritchie (she/her) is a Black lesbian immigrant survivor who has been documenting, organizing, advocating, litigating and agitating around policing and criminalization of Black women, girls, trans, and gender nonconforming people for the past three decades. She has been actively engaged in anti-violence, labor, and LGBTQ organizing, and in movements against state violence and for racial, reproductive, economic, environmental, and gender justice in the U.S., Canada, and internationally since the 1980s. Andrea is the author of Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color and Practicing New Worlds: Abolition and Emergent Strategies, and co-author of No More Police: A Case for Abolition, Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women; and of Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States. She co-founded Interrupting Criminalization and the In Our Names Network, a network of over 20 organizations working to end police violence against Black women, girls, trans and gender nonconforming people, and led INCITE!'s work on law enforcement violence. In these capacities and through the Community Resource Hub and National Black Women's Justice Institute she has worked with dozens of groups across the country organizing to divest from policing and secure deep investments in community-based strategies that will produce greater public safety.
Lance Ryan
Tena koutou katoa - ko Lance Ryan toku ingoa, no Ngāti Maniapoto, me Tuhoe. Kia ora.
Lance Ryan is a lecturer at AUT Law School within the criminal law team, where he currently teaches Criminal Procedure LAWS720 and Law of Evidence LAWS714. After being released from a period of incarceration, Lance graduated from the University of Auckland with an LLB before undertaking a Master of Laws at AUT (with a specialisation in Criminal Law). He graduated with an LLM with first-class honours in 2023. His LLM dissertation and research interests focus upon the inequities across the criminal justice system - in particular, the impact on Māori. His PhD will examine how tikanga Māori can be meaningfully centred in post-sentence restorative justice processes, offering an alternative to traditional state-centric models of criminal justice.
Rachel Small
Rachel Small is the Canada Organizer for World BEYOND War. She is a founding member of the Jews Say No to Genocide Coalition, and coordinates the Arms Embargo Now campaign. She has done grassroots organizing within local and international social/environmental justice movements for nearly two decades, with a special focus on working in solidarity with communities harmed by Canadian extractive industry projects. She has also worked on campaigns and mobilizations around climate justice, decolonization, anti-racism, disability justice, and food sovereignty. She is a longtime member of the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network and has a Masters in Environmental Studies from York University. She has a background in art-based activism and has facilitated projects in community mural-making, independent publishing and media, spoken word, guerilla theatre, and communal cooking with people of all ages across Canada. She lives with her partner and kids in the woods about halfway between Toronto and Ottawa on Anishinaabe, Huron-Wendat, and Mississauga land, covered by Treaty 20. She can often be found at a protest or direct action, gardening, spray painting, and playing softball.
Roméo Sonkeng
Roméo Sonkeng is a Cameroonian based in Yaoundé, Co-coordinator of the WBW chapter and in charge of logistics at WILPF Cameroon. His activism covers the fields of environmental law and protection, environmental economics, gender equality and disaster management. He is passionate about travel and music, to enrich his professional life, discover new cultures and draw inspiration from diverse forms of artistic expression.
Dean Spade
Dean Spade has been working to build queer and trans liberation and end policing, border enforcement, and war for the past 25 years. He is the author of Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law, and Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the next) and the director of Pinkwashing Exposed: Seattle Fights Back!, which can be watched free online with English captions or subtitles in several languages. His newest book is Love in a F*cked Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up and Raise Hell Together. You can listen to his podcast here.
David Swanson
David Swanson is Co-Founder, Executive Director, and a Board Member of World BEYOND War. He is based in Virginia in the United States. David is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk World Radio. He is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and was awarded the 2018 Peace Prize by the U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation. Longer bio and photos and videos here. Follow him on Twitter: @davidcnswanson and FaceBook. Sample videos.
Barry Sweeney
Barry Sweeney is the Chapter Coordinator for the World BEYOND War Ireland Chapter. He is from Ireland but based in Italy. Barry’s background is in education and environmentalism. Barry has been an active member of WBW since 2016, including 5 years on the WBW Board of Directors. Barry was involved in long-term strategic planning with WBW and has taught on World BEYOND War’s War Abolition course. He organized peace symposia in Ireland, bringing together many of the peace/anti-war groups in Ireland. Barry has also been a facilitator for World BEYOND War’s online course “Leaving World War II Behind.”
